rickybobby
Please bring back Tapestry of Nations
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
I work in a hospital, and we use metric volumes exclusively.
Guess what. NASA uses the metric system quite a bit.
Guess what, it was only meant to be a joke
Also inaccurate since Liberia and Myanmar also use Imperial measures.
And, no, I have no idea why I have that bit of useless information memorised.
Got it. I'm a little slow this very humid week.
I don't believe I said that's all they use.
Most people in the US wouldn't. I am now retired and one of my hobbies is finding new recipes to try via the internet. Often non-US recipes come up which is why I occasionally use measurements in grams.Okay, I've "seen" them. Never made one, and don't see doing it it the near future.
Got it. I'm a little slow this very humid week.
I don't believe I said that's all they use.
Not likely.Metric system is far easier to learn and to use. Period. Truly.
I grew up in Canada and we were forced to learn both to some degree, but mostly relied on metric. My kids are growing up in the U.S., and to my surprise, they are learning both now!!
So perhaps at some point the U.S. will wise up and switch.
You might be right, but just a set of silly reasons IMO. Resisting something better and more efficient because change is hard.Not likely.
The Government tried to shove it down our throats once and it didn't happen, so I'm thinking that a voluntary switch is pretty much not going to happen.
Far too much money, time, and effort, involved in fixing something that most people believe isn't broken.
Much like Great Briton holding on to their Pound Sterling system when the rest of Europe gave in to the Gnomes of Zurich and switched to the Euro.
Granted.You might be right, but just a set of silly reasons IMO. Resisting something better and more efficient because change is hard.
I definitely don't disagree with you, but we have people working in stores who can't make change for a dollar without a calculator. You're talking about fractions. I don't think we'll ever switch for everyday stuff for that reason.
I don’t see the parallel with language. That is very much tied to culture — makes sense for people to retain, protect and pass on. Not so with a system of measurement.Granted.
But silly or not people will resist change that they see as unnecessary, burdensome, or "Not our way".
Witness the fact that there are hundreds of languages in use today in a time where instantaneous World wide communication is a reality and a single language would be much more efficient.
Try to get people to make that change............
I came across that once. The computer went out at the restaurant and the line was getting longer. She was using pencil. Got the manager over and showed them both how to do it. Say the bill is 34.85 and you are given a 50 dollar bill. You start counting change from 34.85 up to 50 dollars. Learned that from my step mother who worked as a sales clerk at Sears back in the stone age (1950s)
I don’t see the parallel with language. That is very much tied to culture — makes sense for people to retain, protect and pass on. Not so with a system of measurement.
People reflexively resist change yet it’s around us every day — and we end up dealing with it. There’s no intelligent reason to resist a change that is in fact an improvement. Only excuses.
It is not a language in the sense that it makes sense culturally for people to protect it and pass it on.It is a "language" in that it is a set of terms that we use to define a certain thing, in this case distance, volume, weight, etc. English (or Imperial) units are one language that most Americans have learned and are comfortable with because that is what they use to define measurements. Metric is a different language with terms that define values that aren't the same as the ones our system uses, so we can't easily switch between the two. It's not like 1 cm = 1 inch, that would be a much easier change.
It is not a language in the sense that it makes sense culturally for people to protect it and pass it on.
Makes no sense to keep the current inferior system.