Units of measurement

Metric is the only way to be...so simple

and yes I live in America. I got used to metric in two ways

1. Science...duh

2. Running...I never said I was running a 3.1 miler, I said 5K, 10K...the only time I used miles was when I ran my marathon, but even then I just said marathon not 26.2

Foxface

 

Metric for everything (having done an Engineering degree Metric is a god send) but as a pilot I have to use Imperial measurements for altitude and distance (Nautical Miles) but bizzarely the length of runways at airports are given in meters over here so its a mess tbh.

Since I fly a Piper Arrow an American aircraft I have to do all the weights and peformance in imperial since that's the official figures form Piper.

So day to day (since I moved to Ireland driving is in Metric now) I use metric.

Although in the UK I use Imperial for road distances, and I casually give some figures in the old system, like my hight nobody says they are 190cm its always been 6'3" etc.

 

I am seriously in the minority here. I use the Imperial system, and always will. Though I know that once I become a material scientist and shit, I will be forced to use the metric system. While the metric system is easy to understand, I will look at you like a head grew out of your ass if you use it talking to me. I use the Imperial because I am American, so that is what I grew up with and that is what will always be used here so I am going to stick with it. In science class and in engineering, I will gladly use the metric system, with the exception of Celsius degrees. That shit makes no sense in any way, shape, or fashion.

Anyways, that is just me.

 

I like Imperial, because I find it quaint, and more interesting. It's less cut and dry, ;less binary. I like all the quirks. I grew up with it, so it's familiar. I figure the scientific minded are smart enough to convert between the two, and can always just use metric.

 

Given that Metric was invented during the First French Republic, it's remarkably good. SI is a really useful upgrade, but I'm not sure if it'll replace the older form any time soon.

Imperial is just ridiculous to keep going. It's as archaic as non-decimal currencies.

 

physics says metric

(excluding natural units)

 

I use Metric for everything, but my height and weight... can not get my head around centimeters for my height or kilograms for my weight. :eusa_doh:

In Canada we tend to use Metric for everything (for the most part), except when talking about ourselves.

 

I don't care if the U.S. complains so much about change, they need to hurry up and switch over to metric. It's still pissing my off that people here don't use it. It's so much easier to understand...

 

Metric for temperature, distances from one place to another (i.e. kilometers), and some random other things.

Imperial for bodily height and weight, construction, small distances (e.g., 3 feet between two objects), and for cooking (teaspoons, cups, pounds, etc), and more.

This funny combination is pretty common in my neck of the woods.

 

I use both for my job everyday as a draftsman, but I have to say I would rather use foot and inches over metric any day of the week. Not too many people around here know that 25.4 mm = 1", so everything I draw is in foot and inches.

 

I'm split...

I prefer English in everyday life. I use mph, feet, gallons, inches, F*, etc and I think they work well. Metric makes more sense and if I grew up with it, I'd probably be fine using it in daily life.

I prefer METRIC when working on cars. 4mm up to 30 something mm fasteners. On my Mercedes, I can look at a bolt and say "yup, that's a 10mm bolt" and get the right tool. The whole car is metric. The SINGLE most irritating thing was working on my mom's Dodge where one bolt was metric and another SAE. Drove me bonkers. Metric is easier to visualize too. It's easier working with whole numbers rather then fractions.

Sometimes, if I feel like being a little shit, I'll ask for somebody to hand me "The .357" wrench or the .40 caliber wrench. I'll say it and the person will look at me funny. It helps if they shoot or reload cartridges.

I DID have a guy tell me he weighed "X stone" and I looked at him like he had a 3rd eye. Apparently a stone is a unit of weight in the UK or Scotland. Never heard of it prior to him using it.

 

I'm a chemist so Metric it is.

My friends hate me I list everything in Metric, I also use 24 hour time.

 

I am an American, but have actually used metric because I have lived in Germany. I also used to live on the border with Canada. I think metric makes more sense but would take time for most people to adjust to it here.
On the other hand, I am old, and when I was in 4th Grade in 1978, in the American schools on base in Germany, I was taught the metric system, and we were told then that the US would completely switch to the metric system by.... Drumroll Please... 1984...

That obviously did not happen. What did happen is a bastardized half conversion, where an American car will have a mix of metric and SAE bolts. Even worse are industries like model rocketry, (Not just the little estes ones but even bigger ones with motors up through M or N). The rocket body length and diameter is measured in inches, the motor dimensions are diameter in mm, and length in inches. Rocket weight is in pounds, but thrust is in Newtons. It would make so much more sense to switch all the way to one system or the other. My preference would be metric.

 

Metric ftw, although my cultural upbringing will forever leave me an ignorant fool using it.

Admittedly, the tinfoil hat-wearer in me worries about the day America finally does adopt the metric system (it will come), if only because the oil companies/government will use it as an opening to really jack up gas prices because they know Joe and Jane Sixpack will be too defeated by the conversion to see that they're being ripped off.

 

I just wish that they'd gone through with the conversion back in the 70's so I wouldn't have had to make the transition.

 

I can use metric but it doesn't feel as natural as imperial. I'm constantly saying to myself "now thirty centimeters is about a foot. A meter is a little longer than a yard." I can estimate inches with my fingers but not so much with centimeters.

 

Well science is a different story, Fahrenheit (or any imperial measurement really) should not be used for science.

But in common every day parlance talking about weather, I prefer Fahrenheit. I guess, like you, it's just a matter of growing up with a certain system and getting used to it.

I still prefer Fahrenheit for the reasons I stated. I think negative numbers should be reserved for reaaalllly frigid temperatures, like in Fahrenheit. When the weather reporter in the U.S. says the temperature is going to be in the negative degrees, it really means something in Fahrenheit. Whereas Celsius goes into the negatives when it's only 31 degrees Fahrenheit, which isn't really that cold. I just don't like negative degrees generally, which is why I prefer their much more limited use in Fahrenheit.

 

Wheres the both option? Its pints of beer, stone for human weight, kilos of fruit/potatos, miles for driving, metres for small distances...

Its both for me

 

Throughout elementary school and middle school I was taught to use mostly the imperial system and that was what my parents used most commonly as well, but then in high school and my advanced classes I was expected to understand and work with the metric system. I just switch back and forth between them now pretty comfortably for most things. The only thing I have trouble really switching back and forth between is in temperature, because in my science classes we never touched Celsius, we just used Kelvin. So I can't figure out what temperature they are talking about in British television shows until they walk outside...which is a minor inconvenience