WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING METRIC SYSTEM!
Posted on 10/24/2017 6:00:25 PM PDT by cotton1706
Well guess what? The American disdain for the metric system may be spreading overseas. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning:
English Vigilantes Use Ladders, Sticky Letters to Exterminate the Metric System: Members of The Active Resistance to Metrication launch ‘raids,’ brave arrest to convert signs to imperial measures
. . . Mr. Bennett is a member of Active Resistance to Metrication, a tiny group that has for years been pushing England to go back to its old weights and measures. . . . In a YouGov PLC poll after the Brexit vote, 45% preferred produce sold in pounds and ounces while 39% wanted it in kilos. Most over 50 wanted imperial measurements; those between 18 and 24 preferred metric. . .
The group said it has changed about 3,000 signs since it formed in 2001—most still in place, it said—and writes to local officials where signs are metric. Members use imperial-inspired code names including “Yardstick” and “Wun Tun.”
They sometimes distribute leaflets at markets reminding traders they can label produce in imperial units alongside metric and have written clothing companies urging them to use imperial units only in catalogs.
Movement toward metrication threatens to erode British culture, said Stephen Dixon, 56, a supporter of the Active Resistance to Metrication and a member of a sister group, the British Weights and Measures Association, which opposes compulsory metric-system use.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
I also like the fact that a litre of water is a thousand cubic centimeters in volume and weighs one kilogram at Standard Temperature and Pressure.
I’m an engineer and the metric system is logical - and I got started in the metric system as a Marine: all of our maps were measured in kilometers (”Clicks”) and our artillery was all metric as were our rifle calibers.
[ The French, after their guillotines wore out. They set it up over an estimated distance which turned out to be wrong. So the metric system is based on a mistake, IIRC. ]
Put out your hands,
Stick out your tush,
Hands on your hips,
Give ‘em a push,
Do it again you’re doing the French Mistake. Voila!
(OK I might not have gotten that exactly right)
When living in a metric society, the outside temperature was usually given in Celsius. I learned how to mentally convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit. I had to. When I walked outside, I didn’t know how to feel in Celsius. Strange but true.
And that’s kind of a hybrid, as it’s an inch-fraction socket that is needed to turn most plugs. The threads are metric.
But again, how long did that go back for the threads? Was the Model T that way?
I really and truly loathe metric units.
Who invented it anyway?
Playing guitar I’ve learned something like this.
Music can’t be divided into 10 parts. It is what it is. The piano keyboard is designed that way because that’s how many notes there are. And it’s brilliant.
Not all things can be divided into 10 equal parts. Having a gallon or a pound broken into 16 parts makes that measurement far more tuned with reality.
The metric system isn’t junk, it’s just not perfect.
I guess if you had to be able to coordinate with foreign forces that knew the metric system, it was better to adapt to them than force them to adapt to you.
I can understand a preference for the imperial system in measures that have become conventional in some aspect of our lives ... like a football field that is 100 yards long, a highway lane that is 12 feet wide, measures of height and weight for people, etc.
I find it ironic that we all hate the metric system to measure things, but our money system is metric based. Our money system is rooted in the same base 10 system as metric system. Whereas our measurement system is rooted in a 16 base system. Just sayin’
I remember getting whacked by a meter stick wielded by my science teacher in middle school. I don’t remember what I did but I deserved it.
I can’t imagine the caterwauling that we would hear out of “metric music.”
From Treasure of the Sierra Madre
That was one wise thing America did with its monetary system.
England had its pounds, shillings, and pence for a long time. And duly drilled its schoolchildren in how to calculate with them.
We have our hundred-penny dollar, and yes we still use pennies even though there are periodic noises about abolishing them.
All spark plugs were originally made by Bosch. I am not sure when others began making them.
The metric system was made up by the same dear fellows who brought you the french revolution because they wanted to remove nature entirely.
It was in part a revolt against the French church. The grievances were doubtless exaggerated, but also, state churches tend to be really easy to compromise.
So France said fooey on all this God stuff.
We have our hundred-penny dollar, and yes we still use pennies even though there are periodic noises about abolishing them
And don’t forget “Pieces of Eight”.
For a long time we traded Securities in fractions. Fractions are substantially more practical then tenths.
Huh, I thought it was Peter Van Meter. I’ll be dogged missed it by a mi..er...kilometer.
The new speaker Newt(90’s) would have been the perfect intellectual/gov’t official to lead a discussion on the subject. Fact is the metric system is more accurate and uses base 10 in the new math remember that? Next we start driving on the other side of the road. It’s American chauvinism and I love it!
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