• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should the USA adopt the International System of Units (SI)?

Should the USA adopt the International System of Units (SI)?


  • Total voters
    63
Oh yeah, I'm sure you do your physics work in imperial units. How many ounces of propane do you need to combust to put out 20000 british thermal units?

I use American Thermal Units.
 
No we shouldn't. That's actually the least useful way of organizing a date. Yes, the increments are in order from smallest to largest, but that's the only thing it's got going for it.

The m/d/y system we currently use is quicker and easier to say. 'July twenty-second twenty-thirteen' is quicker than 'the twenty-second of july twenty-thirteen'. The second version has a couple extra words stuck in there.

If we want to be more logical, it makes far more sense to write dates y/m/d, since that way, the numbers that make up the date will always increment.

m/d/y is the stupidest way to do it and makes absolutely no sense. And ive been to countries where the use d/m/y and no one ever says twenty second of july. The would say twenty two july. Another problem with m/d/y is that suppose you want to say july 13th. You would right do 07/13 right? Well is that july 13th or july 2013. If you did d/m/y it would be 13/7 and it would make sense to someone reading it. You are right about y/m/d but only a few countries use it. The whole world uses d/m/y and i dont know why some americans think we are special and not conform to the rest of the world.
 
Last edited:
Yes, we probably should, but I'm too old to change my habits now, so I'd appreciate them waiting until I'm dead to do so. :)
 
The rational part of me says that SI is so much more reasonable than the imperial system, and that we should switch over to it. The irrational part of me likes standing out and hates conforming to the rest of the world just because what they use is better. It just kind of feels unamerican to even suggest it.

I prefer the Imperial system like all good Sith.
 
Maybe we should start putting our steering wheels on the other side of our cars too.:roll:
Only if we start driving on the left side o f the road, which not many metric using counteries do.
 
I don't disagree with the idea that we need to switch, but at a down economic time like this, the logistics just don't make sense. The amount of spending to re-educating people, fixing all road signs etc. would cost the government billions it simply doesn't have. If we were turning surpluses year after year I would be all for this, but right now we have better things to do with our money.
 
Go ask a random person on the street how many feet are in a mile, 95% will....
....pull out their smart phone and google the answer for you, then look at you like you're stupid for not googling it yourself instead of asking them.
 
Eh, if the US wants to continue to stand proudly defiant against conversion then it's no skin off my nose. My Country converted to the metric system before i was born. I'm ok with whatever you guys want to do. I'm already used to writing the date backwards here, talking in Farenheit rather than Celcius, reading about miles rather than Km and cooking threads that have pounds and ounces rather than grams.

I'm also pretty good at putting a Z in words that i would usually spell with a S.

So you fine folks just carry on with whatever you want to do. I've got it covered both ways!

:2razz:
 
Eh, if the US wants to continue to stand proudly defiant against conversion then it's no skin off my nose. My Country converted to the metric system before i was born. I'm ok with whatever you guys want to do. I'm already used to writing the date backwards here, talking in Farenheit rather than Celcius, reading about miles rather than Km and cooking threads that have pounds and ounces rather than grams.

I'm also pretty good at putting a Z in words that i would usually spell with a S.

So you fine folks just carry on with whatever you want to do. I've got it covered both ways!

:2razz:

No, YOU write the date backwards, we were just kind enough to teach you the right way! ;)
 
Yes...

The metric system is the best. Dammit, even the British , the ones that invented the imperial system, switched to it.

Not entirely they didn't. You buy your gasoline in litres, but judge the economy of your car in MPG and count distance travelled in miles, not in Km. People weigh themselves in stones and pounds, but the doctor does it in Kg. People measure their height in feet and inches, but the doctor does it in cm. The UK has half adopted metric; the worst of all solutions.
 
Yes. Im a chemist and we have to use Liters and meters when measuring things.

Maybe you do, but before you adopt it wholesale, you need to know that a meter is a physical, tangible measuring instrument, and a metre is a measurement of length. Litres are just litres, and liters don't exist, except when discussing baby kittens with a dyslexic.
 
Only if we start driving on the left side o f the road, which not many metric using counteries do.

Do what they do here in Spain. Doesn't matter which side of the car the steering wheel's on, everyone drives in the middle of the road and dares the on-coming driver not to give way.

I believe the world is split about two-thirds in favour of driving on the right. Although Sweden managed to switch from left- to right-hand drive back in the Fifties, it would be impossible to do that now virtually anywhere, and there's really no need. As someone who drives on both sides regularly, it takes an average of about 15 minutes to reorient yourself to the change.
 
Not entirely they didn't. You buy your gasoline in litres, but judge the economy of your car in MPG and count distance travelled in miles, not in Km. People weigh themselves in stones and pounds, but the doctor does it in Kg. People measure their height in feet and inches, but the doctor does it in cm. The UK has half adopted metric; the worst of all solutions.

Well they still have a way to go, but they'll get there. It's a long process, as I said. Not done overnight. And the British only really started turning towards the metric system 30-35 years ago. I think they did rather well so far. Still, long way to go.
Also, the british auto industry has been rather silly for a long time. Making cars that drive on the wrong side of the road. Once it gets reformed properly we'll have kmph and liters per 100km consumption as the rest of the normal blokes do.
 
Well they still have a way to go, but they'll get there. It's a long process, as I said. Not done overnight. And the British only really started turning towards the metric system 30-35 years ago.
They started, then they got cold feet and turned back.

At school in the late-60s and '70s we were taught exclusively in metric to the point that I couldn't use Imperial if I tried. My 20-year-old nephew was taught both systems! The political will to switch wholesale to metric was swamped by the xenophobia of the Thatcher era and hence left the UK dangling in limbo.

Making cars that drive on the wrong side of the road.
Yeah, that must be where the Japanese went wrong too. :roll:
 
Another problem with m/d/y is that suppose you want to say july 13th. You would right do 07/13 right? Well is that july 13th or july 2013. If you did d/m/y it would be 13/7 and it would make sense to someone reading it.

Context will tell you whether someone is giving you a m/y or a d/m date. And the problem isn't unique to the m/d/y system. Besides, it only matters 12 days a year, 31 years out of 100 when the day number matches the year number. That's not that great an argument.

You are right about y/m/d but only a few countries use it. The whole world uses d/m/y and i dont know why some americans think we are special and not conform to the rest of the world.

Who cares what the rest of the world does? If we're going to change the way we do something, it should be because the system we're changing to is better than the one we're using. y/m/d is the most logical way to write dates.
 
They started, then they got cold feet and turned back.

At school in the late-60s and '70s we were taught exclusively in metric to the point that I couldn't use Imperial if I tried. My 20-year-old nephew was taught both systems! The political will to switch wholesale to metric was swamped by the xenophobia of the Thatcher era and hence left the UK dangling in limbo.

Yeah, that must be where the Japanese went wrong too. :roll:

Well the Thatcher era, mainly, the thatcherist brand of conservatism which is to some extent felt even today in Camerons' administration, is not really xenophobic. It's just not as pro-EU as say, the liberals or the labor party is. And it's that sniff of anti-EU-ism which is what can be interpreted as "cold feet" and lead this semi-integration into the metric system.

Now while the anti-EU sentiment is not condemnable, the fact that the metric system had to be lured into this squabble as a political chesspiece is bad. Bad news all round. But it's not like one must worry. The metric system has, by design, captured all the areas which it should capture. It is the only existing system employed in any scientific, engineering, physics, research, arhitecture, astronomy or any other serious field where people need to work with exact and precise figures and values.

It's just not fully integrated into colloquial society.


And there are a lot of things wrong with Japanesse people. What's up with their wierd anime porn for instance... Jesus.
 
m/d/y is the stupidest way to do it and makes absolutely no sense. And ive been to countries where the use d/m/y and no one ever says twenty second of july. The would say twenty two july. Another problem with m/d/y is that suppose you want to say july 13th. You would right do 07/13 right? Well is that july 13th or july 2013. If you did d/m/y it would be 13/7 and it would make sense to someone reading it. You are right about y/m/d but only a few countries use it. The whole world uses d/m/y and i dont know why some americans think we are special and not conform to the rest of the world.
I'm for using yyyymmdd. :D
 
We did try this in the late 1970s. As a kid I remember having speed limits in miles/hr and km/hr. But between the machinist unions who did not want to buy new metric tools and the elderly that went against it and it was dropped.
 
We did try this in the late 1970s. As a kid I remember having speed limits in miles/hr and km/hr. But between the machinist unions who did not want to buy new metric tools and the elderly that went against it and it was dropped.

The Queen must have been pleased. :mrgreen:
 
Nah, I'm old skool. I like to see MILES roll along when I am driving. Kilometers sound so prissy. LOL ;)

the Brits still use miles don't they?

Its been a couple of years, but I seem to remember thinking it quaint that they were so old fashioned ....

They use metric measurements on other things eg - nobody buys a pound of butter (instead they buy a more generous 500g), and I seem to remember buying petrol in litres

If you are really attached to miles, there's no reason to give them up :)
 
Back
Top Bottom