Metric vs STANDARD

[stancomputerhunter]

the yanks make up a massive portion of the playerbase

Hahaha..I love it. Calling us Yanks. It's like I'm watching Bridge on the River Kwai or something.

[L3M182]

the yanks make up a massive portion of the playerbase

Hahaha..I love it. Calling us Yanks. It's like I'm watching Bridge on the River Kwai or something.

nah the term yank is very much alive and well over here. i mean what else do we call you?. Americans?. what a mouthful.
Plus its funny because depending on the route chances are it means either coward or englishman. take your pick, i know you'll hate both

[Sulfurblade]

absolutely agree!

Just today I shot a Black Bear, that was like 250KG thought to myself that it looked bigger then that then realized it was in KG and was like hmmm whats the conversion!
To discover it was the big bear I thought that it was, lol.... Why can't it say KG and Lbs or have some ability to toggle your prefered system, Imperial or Metric...

[Toledo]

There is nothing more transparent or intuitive or less arbitrary between imperial or metric. They are both just units of measure, and both are "decimal" since humans usually use decimal math (digits 0-9), because we have 10 fingers. It's all about what you are accustom to.

You are wrong there I think. First off it is not the Imperial System, that was the British System after it's revamping. The US uses the United States customary units. Which are based and defined on metric measurements. But for distances, for example, people will find it difficult to say how long 23.4563 yards are for example. They will still go with Yards, feet, inches which is not decimal of course.

Of course Standard is decimal. As opposed to what, octal or hexadecimal or binary? Decimal means a number system that uses 10 digits (0-9), which of course we do. I assume your confusion (a common one) is that people also refer to partial whole numbers as fractions or decimals (which really means the fraction to the right of the decimal point), eg. 1/4th vs 0.25). But of course they are just two ways of writing the same thing, which can be easily converted, and are both base-10 (decimal) numbers in normal usage. 1/4 is 0.25 and 0.25 is 1/4.

I have no idea why you think it's any more difficult to say or think about how long 23.4563 yards is than it is to say or think about how long 23.4563 meters is? Setting aside the obvious fact that one would rarely, if ever, measure distances like that to 4 signification digits in everyday life, we certainly can, although we'd most likely look at the tape measure are read off 70.37 ft or 844.4 inches. Yards are not used much outside of a few areas like gun ranges and sports like football. And never used for precision measurement.

My guess is that most non-Americans (and non-Brits), don't realize that we have, and use in many cases, tape measures and rulers where the inch is divided into units of 1/10th and not fractions like 1/8, 1/32, etc.. Yep, just like metric, and they've been around for centuries. Most of my tape measures and rulers have both (and metric on the other side !!!!...because we're bilingual ). And in machining, the standard unit of measurement is in "Thous" (formerly mils), which is....you got it....1/1000th of an inch. The tachometer in my car doesn't measure distance in miles and yards or feet, it measures in miles and 1/10 of miles (deci-miles if you will). The gas pumps don't dispense in gallons and ounces, they dispense in gallons and 1/10th of gallons (deci-gallons if you will). Why? Because we can and do know how to divide to 10 too. It's not some magic exclusive to metric. If you asked me how far it is from my house to the nearest gas station, I would say, "5.7 miles", not "5 miles, 1240 yards, 2 feet, 10 inches". Just like I assume you would say it's "9.2 km", not "9 km, 173 meters, 26 centimeters."

American customary was/is based on Imperial, and if I recall, the only material difference is in the volume unit (gallon). In any event, whether one says Imperial, or American customary, or Standard (which is what we usually say), everyone knows what you're talking about. They know that means you're talking about inches, feet, miles, gallons, Fahrenheit, pounds, etc., as apposed to the metric units.

Saying American Customary (Standard) is based on metric is really just temporal word games, it's based on Imperial. What I assume you're trying to say is that in last several decades the units were converted and standardized to metric (SI) equivalents. This was done for uniform conversions to metric and so we didn't have to maintain some exotic metal in freezer, or light wavelength, since that was already being done for SI units.. For example, the inch was redefined to be 25.4 cm, which meant it was now technically 2 millionths of an inch shorter than it was before. But it's still an inch. There is no metric inch it's based on. Both system have changed the definitions or standard lengths/masses/volumes several times through history. The length of a meter has been slightly changed and redefined to a new standard several times though history. Currently the meter is defined as "the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 second." Does that mean the meter was based on the speed of light? Of course not. The meter is still an arbitrarily chosen length that was retroactively fitted to a repeatable measurement. The fact that it's .299792458 of a second should be a pretty obvious indicator that it was retrofitted and not based on it, anymore than the inch was based on 25.4mm.

I swear, the brainwashing you all get about metric superiority is astounding. Both systems use arbitrarily selected units, chosen by people you will never meet, and both work for their intended purposes. They're just different. I think it's fair to say that the U.S., with our "archaic" units, has been reasonably successful over our ~240 year history, yet you all seem to think we're running around bumping into things because we can't tell how long or far away anything is, or dropping things because we can tell how much they weigh. Not to mention, that most Americans (and Brits I assume), fully understand both, and use both for some things every day. We don't sit around staring at our 2-liter bottles of soda dumbfounded trying to figure out if we can drink it because it's not in ounces or gallons.

Personally, I couldn't care less whether we stay on standard or convert more to metric, I'm fine with both.

So why don't we? 'Cause 'Merica...F--- Yeah !!!

[L3M182]

surley this must be a nightmare for you americans when youre doing DIY or working on a car or somthing. it must take you forever if it wasnt built at home or in burma. Trying to take the bolts out of a VW with your daft socket sets . no wonder you plaster "made in the USA" all over stuff your make. Ironically my only american tool is a gator grip because it fits all size fittings hahaha

[Fletchette]

surley this must be a nightmare for you americans when youre doing DIY or working on a car or somthing. it must take you forever if it wasnt built at home or in burma. Trying to take the bolts out of a VW with your daft socket sets . no wonder you plaster "made in the USA" all over stuff your make. Ironically my only american tool is a gator grip because it fits all size fittings hahaha

What the Hell is a VW????....Oh wait, are they those rusting little cars and vans Hippies used to drive around in the '60s ?

Simple answer is we have both standard and metric sockets and wrenches. Most sets include both. If we're working on something well made, we use the standard tools. If it's some cheap junk imported from the 3rd world,... from a Communist country,... from our friends around the world, we use the metric set. We're bilingual...

I think the "Country of Origin" labeling is a requirement from a law stemming all the way back to the 1930's when King George was trying to poison us by shipping over blood pudding or chips disguised as French fries or something.

BTW, what size ratchet drive does your Gator Grip fit on? 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2"?

[Toledo]

and metric on the other side !!!!...because we're bilingual

from our friends around the world, we use the metric set. We're bilingual...

[Fletchette]

and metric on the other side !!!!...because we're bilingual

from our friends around the world, we use the metric set. We're bilingual...

Yes, we speak Standard and Metric...... Did you really not realize that entire post is a joke? Including the "bilingual" part?

Just in case, I'll help with some of the things....

....I actually DO know what a VW is.
....King George wasn't really trying to poison Americans by shipping over blood pudding and chips.
....I already know that his ratchet drive is most likely a Standard size (1/4", 3/8", or 1/2"), even if the sockets he attaches to it are metric.

[Toledo]

Did you really not realize that entire post is a joke?

Only that post?

[L3M182]

BTW, what size ratchet drive does your Gator Grip fit on? 1/4", 3/8", or 1/2"?

it takes 3/8" or 246/656" its both the same size for you folk. Black pudding is delicious btw do try it if you get the chance. just dont supersize it like you do with everything else, it will lay you up for days