The metric system of measurements

[TW]

Before the metric system all countries in Europe had their own units. Often the units were different in different part of the country as well. This was not only about details but even about the number of inches to a foot.
If we for a while try to imagine the same chaos within the united states of America  ;D:
(irony warning)
Each state having defined it's own lenght and weight and volume and all other units, except California and Nevada where each county has it's own measurements, and except northern Michigan which used Minnesota units. New England states has three feet to a yard while the rest have two feet, except Oregon which has no yard at all. Oklahoma and Texas and New mexico have 11 inches to a foot and Connecticut has 10. All others have 12 inches to a foot.
2 and15/16 Florida gallon would be one Georgia gallon. The weight of one Illinois pound varies depending on the material that is weighted. Every now and then some of the standards are changed so Montana inch before 1927 is not the same as montana inch 1927-98 and not the same as montana inch 1998 and onwards. And so on  ;D.(end of irony warning)

There was this kind of chaos in Europe once. The imperial measurements are in fact only one of several houndred measurement standards, all used at the same time in Europe. A good excample was that they sawed pine boards to size in Norwegian inches, and then the boards schrunk to size in Swedish inches, but they were under dimension in English inches and could not be exported to England.
This chaos continued until they dug up the metric system from the archives in France. There was no national loss of pride in using this system so one by one countries took it into use. In Finland the use of metric is stated in law from year 1898. Still a few old people sometimes use inches and feet (Swedish feet of cause). Many people use the old units only for some standard sizes, mostly lenght of nails and dimensions of sawn timber. Most use only metric. This is more than a century after metric was stated in law. We can conclude that it took a century to convert the Finnish people to metric but it solved a lot of problems.

Now I think some of you understand why I am a fan of the metric system. Metric is not perfect but it is good enough to do the job. And one metre is the same lenght everywhere!

[TexasTimbers]

Well that's fine for you fellas but they will get my inch and gallon when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of them. ;D

[Dave Shepard]

Ihave heard that France had over 1300 different measurements at one time, and this was the reason the developed the metric system. I am glad it is based on ten! I believe it was developed in the late 1700's. I like the metric system. ;D


Dave

[Tom]

Everybody in the USA understands what a foot is because our measurements are designated by The Dept. of Weights and Measures.  Since I don't do off-shore manufacturing, I don't see a need to change the way I think.  My mind's eye pictures the measurements with which I was trained.  Who's out of step? :D

[thurlow]

try to imagine the same chaos within the united states of America ;D:

TW............you're probably not aware of the way we measure land in the different states, but you know what?  We like it just fine.  ;D

[Sprucegum]

Canada decided to go metric about 30 years ago , I think it was supposed to make us more like the rest of the world and less like the USA. Trouble is 90% of our business is with the USA so most of us have to use both measurement systems - depending on where the product is going.

I like both systems but NOT both at once  >:( 
Thanks to our bilingual/french laws/rules everyone/everybody is in the habit of saying/talking everything twice/two times anyway

[estiers]

(Swedish feet of cause).

Is that anything like Swedish Fish??  (YUM!)

[Tom]

 :P   Where is Gefilte?   :-\ :D

[TexasTimbers]

Thanks to our bilingual/french laws/rules everyone/everybody is in the habit of saying/talking everything twice/two times anyway

:D That is funny/comical. :D

[Paul_H]

When I was in elementary school we learned Imperial measurements and because that was that was my introduction to weights and measures,it is still how I see the world today(as Tom mentioned)
If I hear "200 metres" I roughly convert and think to myself "a little over  200 yards, or 600 feet"
I got caught fighting in school and got the yardstick across my butt as punishment.I'm thankfull it wasn't a metre stick on account of the extra 4" of swing a metre has over a yard.

And the fight wasn't my fault,Mickey started it. smiley_argue01

[scgargoyle]

I had to chime in on this one. The USA is one of the last countries in the world that is not metric, so I think we are 'out of step'. Once you learn it, metric is much easier (at least for a machinist). Many products you use are metric anyway, but have been converted for your convenience. What annoys me is when they mix stuff. I recently bought and assembled a very nice Ridgid tablesaw, and the fastenings have SAE threads, but metric heads! What's worse, the 1/4-20 screws had 10mm heads, but the nuts were the standard 7/16"- two measurement systems on one fastener! Many (35) years ago, I had a business building wooden rowboats. At the time, the gummint declared that the US would be fully metric in 10 years. So I bought a meter stick and a metric tape measure, and designed and built all my boats in metric. Those crusty old New Englanders thought I was some kind of 'commie' when I recited the dimensions of the boats in meters. I actually had to convert the dimensions to keep peace. I think we should get over ourselves and adopt the metric system, like the rest of the world.

[sharp edge]

I,m all for the metrics more standardizing the better. Tired of taking .03937x mm. Glad the calculator was invented.   By the way should we change the side of the road we drive on or should they? 8) 8)
SE

[TexasTimbers]

Don't move my cheese please. Metric may make more sense but it has never won a world war whereas inches and gallons have won both World Wars. ;D

[thurlow]

 Est-ce que c'était une claque aux gens qui ont en même temps eu plus de 1300 unités de mesure ? ;D L'ok, ne m'indiquent pas ; si l'initialisation s'adapte, portez-la.

[TexasTimbers]

That's easy for you to say! Should I be offended ???

[thurlow]

Ain't got a clue...........the only French I know is, " Petit garçon, avez-vous une soeur" ?

on-line mechanical translation

[thecfarm]

When I was in fifth grade we was reguired to take a metric class in school.This would of been around 1973.The USA was going metric.As you can tell it never happened.Don't know if that is good or bad.Haven't heard anything about changing for many years now.

[Dave Shepard]

Well, we're half-baked metric. Worked on a newer vehicle lately? My Kubota tractor was made in Japan, it's metric. The loader and backhoe were made in the USA, they are SAE. :

Do we need to get into rods, chains etc.? I like how the old measurements played into todays measurements. Why is a mile 5280 feet? Well it's divisible by the yard, 1760 of them, and chains, 80 per mile, and rods 480, or 6 per chain. But wait, there's more! Do you know why roads are the width they are? And why are fence rails 11 feet....it goes on and on. We could even get into drams and piffles. Ok, I made the last one up, but I bet you didn't know til I told ya. ;D

Dave

[jon12345]

I know what a piffle is, the metric system is one  :P

[limbrat]

The standard may not have changed but about 15yrs ago (5yrs. before i got out) all federal and state road construction projects converted to metric.
I like it alot better and dont see a good reason to stay mired.

[pigman]

I wish the U S would go metric. Using two measurment systems is too confussing for this old man.


Bob

[WDH]

TW.  That was a very informative post.  I think you made your point nicely.  If there wasn't an ocean between us and most other countries, we would be on the metric system too.

[Dan_Shade]

i'd like to get all the metric folks in the US to a convention, then I could arrange a movement to build a fence to keep them to themselves.

there aren't many things on earth that I hate as much as metric.  and not knowing fractions just tells me you're too stupid to do the math.

I'm with Kevjay, we won the wars, but lost the units?  what gives.

[Don P]

I worked in one cabinet shop where we had machinery from flat belted drive to a state of the art european molder. Converting back and forth between machines and cabinet styles (traditional and the "new" to us at the time 32 mm) could be hair pulling. I liked it once we got into straight metric, its a better system. I can teach an adult metric alot faster than fractions, and its suprising how many adults can't read a tape, or do decimal conversions.  But that's another rant  :.

I remember Bill Cosby's skit. God has handed down the measurements for the ark, Noah asks "what's a cubit"  :D. I finally got to see a cubit stick a few years ago, it was from Tut's tomb. You could still see the divisions pretty clearly. Not bad for no mylar coating.

[DanG]

The metric system is coming to the USA, like it or not.  They're just waiting for us old codgers to die off.  Metric really makes a lot more sense than our old system, anyway.  Everything else is counted with the decimal system, and that's all metric is.  Besides, it is based on the size of the Earth, instead of some forgotten King's clodhoppers.  It is 10,000 kilometers from the Poles to the Equator.  I really don't see what the big deal is. ??? :