The Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn for April 03, 2011

Snerk!

It’s like english - if they can’t speak it - I’m not listening!

There’s no room for the metric system here. Canada was nuts for going to it.

Oh, and Grog of course there’s room for the metric system. It is far more logical and far easier to learn than our bizarre system. All that keeps us from converting is arrogance and fear (which are so often related).

Don’t forget “The Longest Meter.”

I grew up learning, it, cdward. I hated it. But then maybe you’d like your football & baseball fields measured in meters. All your basic kitchen cooking measurements in metric while all your decent cookbooks aren’t.

And I really enjoyed converting the daily temps from celsius to farenheit so that it could make sense to figure out what I should be wearing.

As far as I’m concerned you can have it.

Forget that silly metre-kilogram-second system, let’s use the Furlong/Firkin/Fortnight (FFF) system. After all everyone knows the speed of light is approximately 1.803×10^12 furlongs per fortnight

Hint: One furlong per fortnight is very nearly 1 centimetre per minute

You get used to the metric system - I wasn’t impressed when it came down under but with a few year’s of translating everything back again it started to be more manageable. Although, as someone said the other day, the only tricky thing is height … when they talk about a suspect the police are hunting and say he’s 190 cm tall, we all rus for the rulers! Mind you, i also have trouble with babies’ weight!

metrics…bah!

Grog, I’m a “crazy” canadian who loves the metric system…much simpler and orderly. 0º C is freezing point, 100ºC is boiling point….how much simpler can it get? Same thing with the rest.

I know how it works, Canadian idiot. I used to live where you do. That doesn’t mean I have to like it. That system is best for those who were born to it - not to those who where quite happy with things as they were - and not having to convert anything.

@Canadian idiot Actually, I think temperature is about the only place where the “traditional” system has an advantage over the metric system. This is because 0F to 100F covers the temperature range seen in most places on Earth. Yes, some places get hotter and some places get colder, even on a regular basis, but they’re considered unusual.

She left France so she wouldn’t wind up on the dinner table.

there’s a place in France where the women wear no pants……

C’est la Vie… such is life.

It has been over 30 years now since Canada went metric and lots of people , including myself, still use the old system a lot. I haven’t bought a “kilogram” of nails anytime recently. And people still ask for things like hose , etc. by the foot. I bought a hundred ft. of hose which had to be cut and the guy measured it by unrolling it and using the tiles on the floor, which are , of course still 12 inches square.I’m in my 50’s and I probably won’t live to see the day that the old system is completely done away with.

A miss is as good as 1.609 kilometers.

”Today we convert to the metric system”

Is it 1973 again?

Whatever!

@ladyfingers86: Scientific calculators do.

One can’t be born to a system if the system is not in place when one is born. Thus until the metric system is adopted in the US, everyone will have to change over and learn the new system as well when it is.

If we switched to the metric system, it would be a challenging change initially but in due time would become second-nature. Given how convoluted our current system of measures is, in a year or two most people would probably better understand the metric system than they do our current system. I mean, c’mon - 3 tsp per TBS, 16 TBS per cup, 2 cups per pint, 2 pints per quart, 4 quarts per gallon; 12 inches per foot, 5280 feet per mile; 43,560 s.f. per acre, 640 acres per square mile, etc., etc. This versus a system where EVERYTHING is Base 10. Us not switching is ridiculous and an embarrassment.

I too live in Canada and use the metric system - most of the time. I still go into the lumber store looking for 2x4’s and 4’ x 8’ sheets of plywood. Winter temperatures in Celcius are fine but I prefer Fahrenheit in the summer - I know how cold -30C is but I have trouble with +30C. I do know that when visiting Phoenix and it is 116F that I will melt! For distances, I live far enough away from the center of the universe (That’s Toronto for us in NE Ontario) that we don’t use either system - how far is it to Toronto - about 6.5 hours!

Hi fishbulb! When I was in school (up north in Canada) we learned the imperial measurement system. But, with the imperial system, our gallons were 160 fluid ounces, and your US gallon was 128 fluid ounces. Same thing with your pints, yours were 16 fluid ounces, ours were 20. Talk about confusion for us Canucks! I’m an old-timer now (well, 57), and I personally like the metric system, it took a while to “think metric”, but it does have it’s advantages when everyone talks the same meta-language.

I messed up a while ago in a grocery store here in Vancouver by asking the clerk for a quart of milk. She just stared – the youngster had no idea what a “quart” was!

@CoBass, another advantage of the Fahrenheit degree is that being 5/9 the size of the Celsius degree, you don’t have to resort to fractional degrees as often in everyday use.

I think the English-Metric controversy is an interesting illustration of the difference between the individualistic, bottom-up approach favored by English-speaking peoples to the centralized, top-down Continental approach…you see it in law, subway design, etc.

The U.S./imperial system for worms has no feet.

The metric system can walk The Green Kilometer, in my opinon!

I’m for the metric system every inch of the way.

We like metric with its units of 10s because we have 10 digits on our hands and feet. If we had, say 7 digits on each hand and foot, we’d be counting by 7, 14, 21, 28, etc.

Charlie, you must be a little younger than I. I vaguely remember that we were planning to convert to metric. I grew up in the 40-50s and I have done lots of drafting and sewing. Your questions mean nothing to me but looking at the plastic tubing in my fountain, I could see that while it is about 3/8” on the inside-it is 1/2”on the outside, so I need that from the store. I can pick up a piece of fabric and figure by the width how much I’ll need for a dress etc. I would never want to try to re-train my brain (or force that on anyone else). My mind is programmed to work in a practical manner. I’m learning new crafts from new SCA friends and I appreciate that. I will never want to UNLEARN skills that I find really useful.

Diss ers ’Merca! Weh use de Imperul sistum!