I’m from the us so we don’t really have anything better than miles to describe large distances on earth, are Megameters commonly used? I was finding the great circle distance between two airports, and was wondering if it was too pedantic to describe it as 7 Mm instead of 7,000 km.

Let's say the French are too busy in the 1700's. The Metric system never really takes off and is basically forgotten. What happens next?

It seems that every country uses either metric-only or dual-labeled speedometers. Do any countries use speedometers that only show miles per hour?

Every advertisement I have seen for engine power uses the horsepower. I am aware that some countries use a metric horsepower, but do any just use the watt?

Is there a company that makes wood screws in metric that is sold in the US? There are plenty of companies that make and sell metric machine screws, but I've come up short for wood screws.

Hey, trying to figure out if there are some quick and easy foot-to-meter conversions or the other way around (whole numbers).

Already have known for a while that 1m3.33feet (3.28 apparently) and thus 10ft3m roughly.

But now I'm searching for other relatively correct and easy to remember conversions.

Until now I have: 1m ~ 3.33' (2m-6.7' ; 3m-10'...) 3m ~ 10' (6m-20' ; 9m-30'...) 4m ~ 13' (weirdly easy to remember)

2024-11-12

A chemist discusses the metric system and his appreciation of it:

I’ve always admired the metric system, but didn’t feel entirely comfortable with it until I became a chemist and used it routinely. It is an objectively superior scheme of weights and measures with, in my opinion, one exception.

The strength of metric isn’t just how everything’s divisible by ten, although that’s convenient. Its real beauty is how it links length, volume and mass at its foundation.

One cubic centimeter of water—that is, 1 x 1 x 1 cm or 1 cc, a bit smaller than a sugar cube—equals 1 milliliter of volume and 1 gram of mass.

From that seed, everything blooms.

The one exception is the Celsius temperature scale which he describes as "no more logical or useful than any other."

2024-11-21

An article on a school in Santa Barbara, California, and its immersive environment for teaching the metric system, plus some historical perspective on the origins of the metric system. From an online magazine wealthofgeeks.com, which, despite its name has no geek-oriented content other than bitcoin.

(Another article on this school was posted here on 2024-11-01.)

For context I am from the US and primarily use the standard system, I've started playing around with the metric system for fun and even started using a metric tape measure at work as a plumber/hvac tech to speed up subtracting wall measurements, etc. As I've researched the metric system the biggest argument against it is the precision of fractional measurements. Is there any practically to that? I've never had to build something where it was critical I divided something down to an 1/8 or a 1/16. I understand the argument that 12 can be easily divided by 1,2,3,4,6 but most of the time measurements don't fall on a nice even foot measurement. Even studwalls are 16" centers. For example 23 7/8 isn't any easier than 60.6cm to break down into eighths and id imagine most metric prints are spec'd to fall on an integer and not something like 3.3333 cms. If anyone from a country that uses both systems has any input to help me understand why the standard system still reigns true for construction trades please help me out. EDIT: I like the metric system and honestly think it would be a more convienent system to use the US Standard, just threw the post out to hear points against the common arguments for standard as oppose to taking them for face value from an echo chamber.

Hi, describe the development of the metric systems and imperial!

Sincerely, me

2024-11-07

A journalist working for AFP (Agence France-Presse) can't tell the difference between figures stating a temperature and a temperature rise.

In a story with the headline 2024 'virtually certain' to be hottest year on record published by phys.org and originally written by a journalist at AFP we are told:

Copernicus* said 2024 would likely be more than 1.55 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 average—the period before the industrial-scale burning of fossil fuels.

A 1.55 ºC rise in temperature is actually an increase of 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit. 35 ºF corresponds to a temperature of 34.8 ºF which rounds off to 35 ºF.

Obviously, the journalist made a conversion of 1.55ºC to Fahrenheit and uncritically accepted the figure presented by the calculator.

For climate change news it is really important to get figures right, as Americans have little experience with the Celsius temperature scale.

I have used the "Contact Us" facility on the AFP website to inform them of their error and I will post any reply, or any change in the article.

*Copernicus Climate Change Service

EDIT: I received a reply from AFP and they corrected the erroneous figure in the article. The letter is quoted in a comment.

"Santa Barbara Charter School has secured a $5,000 grant from the Santa Barbara Education Foundation for its innovative Meaningful Metric Measurement for the Whole School initiative."

https://www.noozhawk.com/learning-metric-system-measures-up-at-santa-barbara-charter-school/

2024-10-26

The Tico Times, an English-language website in Costa Rica, presents a guide to the metric system for Americans planning to live there.

It clearly states some of the difficulties with US measurements and outlines the basics of the metric system. Although it discusses metres, kilometres, litres and degrees Celsius it doesn't mention kilograms. In the opening paragraph it says:

If you are one of the estimated 125,000 US citizens who now call Costa Rica home, welcome to the world of metric.

The final paragraph says:

Disdain for the metric system is a peculiarly US American thing, alongside American football, chain restaurants, hot dog eating contests, more guns than people, and a car for every driver. My message to all USA natives coming to Costa Rica is this:

Life can be made just a bit simpler once here by familiarizing yourselves with the metric system.

(Italics in the original text.)

We never completed metrication. For example, we still use MPH. Most people can't remember why but I am of that age where I do.

When we joined the EU in the 70s it was considered a force to change and modernised the UK. Metrication started before we joined. The fact that the EU also wanted metrication was considered a positive. Things started to change in the 80s when we started to demonise the EU. The myth was created that the British people were against metrication but the EU was bullying Britain to convert. Those who wanted to complete conversion were unpatriotic cowards who did not want to stand up to the bullying. Hence, in the 80s metrication stopped.

Now we have Brixit. It is now possible to argue that completing metrication has nothing to do with the EU. We want to complete metrication not because we are unpatriotic cowards who want to surrender to the EU but we believe that it makes sense to have only one system.

What are your thoughts?

2024-09-10

farmprogress.com, an online farming magazine has a look at the work of weights and measures inspectors in California.

(From a link in the NIST Office of Weights and Measures newsletter.)

2024-10-22

From the Central Virginian, a guest column describing the closing stages of a Virginian couple's trip to Canada and their return home. I'm not sure how long they were in Canada, but they seemingly didn't think it worthwhile to learn what a litre or kiometre was in US measurements before they went there.

Dear Readers, after visiting Niagara Falls in Canada, we packed the Batmobile up and headed back to the United States. It was nice to return to American units of measure, for sure. The metric system caused some hilarious conversations between Rick and I. “The GPS says to turn left in 2.9 kilometers.” “How far is that?” “I don’t know, I forget if a kilometer is more or less than a mile. But I’m pretty sure we turn in either one mile or five miles.” “Dang metric system!” I saw gasoline prices posted as we passed by gas stations, but since the pricing was per liter, I really had no idea how much gas was. And then there was the conversion factor of Canadian money to U.S. money. The whole week was a big ole guessing game!

This is aimed at anyone from countries that haven't metricated road signs, temperature, or fuel economy, so primarily the US and the UK. I've noticed some cars make it easy to change, and others make it necessary to read the manual. On some it's not possible at all.

How do you change your car's settings to display metric units if possible? What is the make and model?

I'm wondering if USA makes military equipment to imperial specifications to ensure that any maintenance on those pieces of equipment can only be done using parts made in the USA?

Or does the USA sell military equipment that can be maintained with all-metric components?

There was a site called Metric Pioneer that used to have articles and such on it. You can still find it in search results, but if you go to it, you get 403 forbidden. What happened? Is it going to be restored at some point?

https://metricpioneer.com/

In some Italian packages:

https://preview.redd.it/gaiwma8514wd1.jpg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07e88edfc162de4bd1a572ccbde60772897db29f

I read this Wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_festival

There's an instance of "194 tubs of cider and perry". But how much is a British tub for cider? My Merriam-Webster states it's about 4 (US?) gallons.