The metric system and schools in the United States.
My daughter came to me the other night with a math problem involving the metric system....why? Why do they keep cramming that system down our throats if we are never going to use it?
I have yet to roll open a blue print of a building and have it be in metric (although it would make life a lot easier than trying to add up fractions and inches and come to the same location as a block layer).
When I went to school back in the day, they kept telling us this would be how the world would be measured; of course they forgot to mention, not the US of A.
Why do they bother to teach it to children and insist they know it in our public schools?
Unless you are going to work on a foreign car (or try to take off every other part on a ford),it is totally useless.
RTh
Schools must prepare the children for work or more school. If the kiddies will be travelling or otherwise dealing with folks and measurements anywhere outside the US, if they are gonna go to college and take any science classes, or if they are gonna join the US military, they will deal with the metric system. As you point out, if they're gonna work on foreign cars--such as Toyotas now made in the US, Canada, and Mexic, or if they're gonna work on Fords, they may need it. So the only people who do not need the metric system are framers and roofers (and when I was a roofer, someone asked for a metric crescent wrench once--I gave him one with a 20cm handle!).
Originally posted by WulebgrGood points. They have been doing this switch over since when...the 50's?
Schools must prepare the children for work or more school. If the kiddies will be travelling or otherwise dealing with folks and measurements anywhere outside the US, if they are gonna go to college and take any science classes, or if they are gonna join the US military, they will deal with the metric system. As you point out, if they're gonna work on forei ...[text shortened]... roofer, someone asked for a metric crescent wrench once--I gave him one with a 20cm handle!).
I would think the USA would have been able to re-tool by now. What is the dang hold up? Buildings would actually be the size drawn on the prints, not one inch shorter. I could actually own just one set of wrenches and sockets. My johnson would sound larger, and it would make life just that much easier.
RTh
Originally posted by RingtailhunterAny job in the medical field dealing with drugs/medication prescribing and documenting demands good metric system knowledge. Just as getting Americans to learn a foreign language other than French, getting us to learn the metric system is like wringing water from a rock....I'm thankful that I have a basic working knowlege of it....temperature conversion still has me stymied though...🙄
The metric system and schools in the United States.
My daughter came to me the other night with a math problem involving the metric system....why? Why do they keep cramming that system down our throats if we are never going to use it?
I have yet to roll open a blue print of a building and have it be in metric (although it would make life a lot ...[text shortened]... k on a foreign car (or try to take off every other part on a ford),it is totally useless.
RTh
As an engineer I prefer the metric system, it's much more efficient and there are other benefits:
you get to drive faster (60 mph vs 96 kpm! - or I can't drive 95!),
you're taller (5 foot 3 inches vs 168 cm)
gas cost less ($2.95 per gallon vs 0.79¢ per liter)
and you weigh less (285 lbs vs 130 kg)
As an outsider, the system seems even sillier in Britain, where they seem to have chosen at random which realms of life were to be penetrated by the metric system. However, it makes very little difference practically, because from context one learns to say, for example, that they used 4 litres of fuel to drive 30 miles in a vehicle 5 metres long.
Originally posted by chancremechanicdegrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit multiply by 1.8 and add 32
Any job in the medical field dealing with drugs/medication prescribing and documenting demands good metric system knowledge. Just as getting Americans to learn a foreign language other than French, getting us to learn the metric system is like wringing water from a rock....I'm thankful that I have a basic working knowlege of it....temperature conversion still has me stymied though...🙄
degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Celsius subtract 32 and divide by 1.8
There ya go.
We are brought up into this world counting and calculating in base 10. Why throw ourselves problems by measuring in a different base?
The metric system is by far easier to learn and use than having to remember various names for various different lengths (foot, yard, mile etc). A metre is a unit of length, instead of giving a fraction of a metre an entirely new name, it is prefixed with a multiplier (milli, centi etc.) The same goes for weight, volume, etc. Not only that, but ten cubic centimetres of water is one kilogram (or, at least that's how it was defined), which is also one litre of water. They all tie in.
Japanese is primarily spoken in Japan yet many want to learn it. I do not see anyone rushing to American Measuring Units 101.
Originally posted by DreamlaXIt depends on what you get used to I guess, amazes me how the English could work out change from a pound in shillings, thruppence and ha'pennies ( or whatever) in their heads!
We are brought up into this world counting and calculating in base 10. Why throw ourselves problems by measuring in a different base?
The metric system is by far easier to learn and use than having to remember various names for various different lengths (foot, yard, mile etc). A metre is a unit of length, instead of giving a fraction of a metre an entire ...[text shortened]... in Japan yet many want to learn it. I do not see anyone rushing to American Measuring Units 101.
Originally posted by KneverKnightHehe, the ideal currency I reckon is one like the yen. No fractions, no names for silly multiples, just a straightforward currency that everyone can understand.
It depends on what you get used to I guess, amazes me how the English could work out change from a pound in shillings, thruppence and ha'pennies ( or whatever) in their heads!
Give 1,000 yen to pay for goods worth 578, and it is easily calculated in ones head that 422 is the change.
Give 10 metres for 891.1 centimetres of goods, and it is still relatively easy to work out that the change is 108.9 centimeters.
Give 12 feet for a yard, 21 and five sixteenths of an inch of goods, and how much change is there?
Originally posted by DreamlaXI guess the old system was good if you didn't have a ruler, they had feet and hands (for horse's heights) and so forth, but calculators like the decimal system.
Hehe, the ideal currency I reckon is one like the yen. No fractions, no names for silly multiples, just a straightforward currency that everyone can understand.
Give 1,000 yen to pay for goods worth 578, and it is easily calculated in ones head that 422 is the change.
Give 10 metres for 891.1 centimetres of goods, and it is still relatively easy to wo ...[text shortened]... ve 12 feet for a yard, 21 and five sixteenths of an inch of goods, and how much change is there?
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea sounds better than 40,000 Kilometers Below the Surface Of the Ocean.