Temps Over 100! But What Units?
While here in the US, we know that we are speaking of Temperature in terms of degrees Fahrenheit. 100 degrees F is about 40 degrees C (Celcius). 100 degrees C is the Boiling point of water! None of us would live in that temperature. We certainly won't live very comfortably at 100 degrees F either.
Why do I mention this on ABG? Because just about every vehicle we buy/use, every drop of fuel they consume is measured in two units - the International System of Units ("metric" or SI units) and inch/foot/pound/gallon units. Dimensions have to be quoted in both unit systems. Technicians have to maintain two sets of tools. In the Bosch Automotive Handbook, 5th Edition, 10 pages are devoted just to the conversion of units! Why is this still happening in the 21st century? Because we in the US don't want to change our traditional ways and, since we are big and powerful, the rest of the nations have to put up with it. It wastes time and money, causes confusion. It certainly builds in an extra cost making things we buy - including our autos - more expensive and prone to errors of conversion. About 95 percent of the world uses metric units. We are the holdouts!
NASA suffered the lost of a space probe to Mars. It slammed into the surface instead of gently landing. Why? Because some calculations were done in US units while all the rest were in SI units. Nobody caught it.
Are we going to carry a set of obsolescent/archaic units of measure into the new vehicles of the 21st century? If we are part of a globalized economy, do we want to rest of the world to build vehicles for us by our units of measures or theirs? Which is the "way forward"? As an engineer, though I am most comfortable with miles, foot-pounds, PSI and MPG, etc., it is past time when we make the switch and new green vehicles should lead the way.
I guess it depends on how smart and adaptable the American public is. If all the world can work and measure in metric units, can't we? Is it just because of our pride that we resist? Is it an issue of nationalism? Will it hurt so bad if we buy liters of fuel instead of gallons? Give our weight in units of kilograms? (I weigh 51 kg.) We want to succeed in a globalized economy, don't we?
Oh, 100 degrees F is 37.9 C. Either way, its hot!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
kagiso 1:04PM (7/21/2007)
My favourite map:
'Three countries have not officially adopted the International System of Units as their primary or sole system of measurement.............'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Metric_system.png
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AlexNC 1:13PM (7/21/2007)
This is a very difficult switch. You would think it would be easy, but it's not. And it is not about "how smart" americans are. This is not about smarts. We learn in different units, so our brains are shaped by them. It is very difficult to switch. Lust look at the DOT. They tried to switch to metric, and it didn't work. Many millions if no billions of dollars were lost do to errors.
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TG 1:44PM (7/21/2007)
Canada is now Metric but as I grew up inches, feet, and gallons were the norm.
So the tendency is to use the best of both methods.
While Metric is official and the *law* [cough!], food supermarkets make widespread use of *pounds*.
A Kilo is more than two pounds so the pound is more ideal for foodstuffs and the price is less than half of what a kilo would be.
Looks like the pound will survive in our *Kilo* world.
If the USA should go metric, it is painless really and much better for the technical side of life. = TG
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Mike Z 1:31PM (7/21/2007)
When I was in England, Fuel was sold by the liter, speeds and distance in miles. Fuel economy was meanwhile was published in MPG (imperial gallons) or L / 100Km. Talk about even more messed up.
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David 1:43PM (7/21/2007)
In technical areas like science, engineering and others there is no question we should be using metric measurements. For kids growing up in a metric school system it will be very easy. The only people that should have a lot of trouble are the folks that need to use metric now when they grew up with the old system. It won't be real easy, but there's no good reason to not do it.
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garym_069 2:29PM (7/21/2007)
Yes, the metric is logical and in easy of 10's just like the dollar is in decimal, however most and I do mean most yanks, don't even know the simplest of measurments in the old english let alone learn a another. If U don't believe just ask any other them how many onces in a lb or gal, how big is a acre, how many yds in a mile, how many square yds/ftin a square mile and U will almost allways get the same anwser, Aaaaaaa I don't know". As with the attitude of well this system is gud enough so why learn another.I wonder if they got paid in pieces of 8 and it's factional way would they like that too?
So the bottom line is unless a gov't actually makes a real push to change, it just ain't gonna happen.
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Ed 2:35PM (7/21/2007)
It's one of those goddamn communist plots! ;)
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A5-14 2:35PM (7/21/2007)
Why isn't temperature measured in Kelvin? That is the SI unit for temperature.
It seems that countries pick and choose what units they want to use, so why fault the US for it?
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1985 Gripen 2:55PM (7/21/2007)
I was just thinking about this the other day when I was renewing my (U.S.) passport. The height and weigh measurements are in feet/inches and pounds. As a child of the 70's when the U.S. "officially" switched-over to metric I was wondering why in 2007 my passport still uses the "old way". I don't know metric as well as anyone else, but I would have to learn if we actually started USING it in everyday life. If I had a reference point (knowing my height for example would help me in comparing to other lengths) would be helpful in my learning the metric system.
I think that as a society we paid "lip service" to conversion and never really did.
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Tony Belding 4:33PM (7/21/2007)
Getting rid of imperial units entirely has been tough because of the USA's system of government. The federal government can't dictate units of measurement to the people (aside from federal employees, within the scope of their jobs), and has only a limited ability to dictate units of measurement to the various states. If the public opposes metric road signs -- and many did -- then the public will get the final word.
Along the same lines, how could the US Govt force TV stations to broadcast weather reports in Celsius? How could they force supermarkets to sell produce by the kilogram? Congress doesn't have the power to force that -- and even if such a law were constitutional, they would face the wrath of voters from it.
However. . .
I'm pretty sure the US military switched to metric long ago, and the metric system is universal in scientific research and education. I think car manufacturing in the USA switched to metric measurements and metric fasteners in the 1980, didn't they? In just about every area where coordinating measurements with the rest of the world is important, the switch has already been made.
I have some doubts about the claims of high costs associated with Imperial units in the auto industry. As far as I know, all the engineering and manufacturing is done with metric units, then imperial units are only provided after the fact. Where is the big cost factor in this? I just don't believe it. It seems to me like this should be fairly trivial.
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dygituljunky 5:50PM (7/21/2007)
Part of the problem in the US is that we won't just dive in with both feet. The metric waters feel cold when we just stick our toes in; we are slowly wading into metrication. If we, like Australia, simply decided to make the switch over the next, say, 5 years, we'd be done with it and then move on. Because the government decided to make the switch "voluntary" we've ended up in mess like the UK. Let's just make the jump so that we don't continue to hold our northern neighbors up in their metrication. Let's just make the jump so that everyday unit conversions will finally be easy (10s vs 12/8/16/etc).
Oh, and see metricationmatters.com for an article on why we should use mm as the small unit of length rather than the cm.
Tony Belding, Congress has a Constitutional right to define the units for the country. They probably don't because many want to be reelected and they think that declaring the US metric will get them voted out in the next election.
TG, your logic is only slightly flawed. Grocers charge the same whether you get 1 lb or .454 kg. It's the display price per unit that APPEARS higher for kg. It might make it easier for the grocery stores to transition if they sell produce like this: $2.00 per kg ($0.91 per lb). Yes, yes, it's still dual-labelled, but everybody has to help make the switch. The Canadian government could also enforce the switch.
kagiso, of the three *officially* non-metric countries:
- the US is one of the original members of the Treaty of the Metre yet we still usually use US Customary units (inch-pound).
- Liberia and Myanmar typically use metric units in everyday life due to trade with metric countries influencing the units used on product labels.
An inch, by the way, really is just 25.4 mm, by definition.
ABG, could you post stories using both US and metric units for car dimensions, power, etc? ... Make that metric first with US units in parenthesis, please.
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Randy 7:31PM (7/21/2007)
Why do we have to change at all?
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kagiso 8:04PM (7/21/2007)
I think that the US is close to being converted to metric by commercial pressure from the rest of the world. This has already happened for example in wines and spirits, where the EU standards of 750ml for wine, and 1 litre for spirits are used in the US, partly because you want to sell Californian wine and Jack Daniels to Europe.
A lot of the conversions are actually quite easy:
One litre is roughly two pints. One litre of water is one kg. 1 kg is close to two pounds. 1 m3, is 1000 litres. 1m3 of water weighs 1000kg, which is a 'metric tonne' and, coincidentally, is bizarely close to an imperial ton.
Water freezes at zero Celsius and boils at 100 Celsius, which is pretty easy to remember.
1 inch is 25mm, or 4 inches is 100mm.
1 mile is 1.5km.
An apple has a mass of about 100g, or one Newton force at the earths surface (picture Newton and the apple).
Most of the other metric units follow logically from the above basic units.
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MikeW 8:20PM (7/21/2007)
Miles per gallon represents US values. We want more from life (life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness) More miles per gallon = good. The X liters / 100 kilometer represents marginalization. I got less than you, well I didn't even use any because I got rid of my car, well I got rid of a lung to reduce my 'carbon footprint'... See, not logical.
You are born [hopefully not hatched] live, then die [anyone reach 125 years yet?]
Also very humanistic, a foot is about the length of a, foot. Not some fraction of the distance light travels in the time of how many oscillations of a cesium atom.
The temp units are smaller in F, then C. So unless you are so anal to use fractional degrees C, like I want the passenger side HVAC to be set to 22.5 degrees C, instead of 72 or 73F.
Abe Simpson backs me up
"The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it."
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Sebastian 9:21PM (7/21/2007)
Very well said. In addition, the SI system makes also more sense and it's easier to use. By the way, I weight 77 kg and am 1.75 meters tall =D
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Nick H 12:06AM (7/22/2007)
Liters.... Shouldn't that be litres? ;-)
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Pete 10:52AM (7/22/2007)
In the early 70s I was an army brat in Germany. We learned metric and had to learn to switch back and forth since American bases still used US measures. We adapted just fine. Lived in the States in the late 70s when US was trying to convert. There was something short of a revolution against changing, but it happened in some area anyway. I couldn't understand the resistance because, having learned it as a kid, it was so easy to flip back and forth. Most of the time the arguments were economic - mechanics would have to buy a new set of tools, people wouldn't understand food priced "per kg", etc. Other times it was just Yankee pride and stubbornness at work.
If ya want to harp on standardization, then how about encouraging England, Australia and Japan to ditch right hand drive! Supporting those two formats can't be cheap, either.
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dygituljunky 5:26PM (7/22/2007)
Randy, we don't have to switch. We can continue to be befuddled by measurements and seemingly random conversion factors. We can continue to make costly mathematical errors because of our conversion factors. We can continue to be inconvenienced by our stubborn Yankee pride.
I'll have to look up the figures, but NOT going metric actually costs us a great deal of money each year.
MikeW, how does miles per gallon represent our values? If you want units that get larger for better efficiency, how about km/L? The reason that L/100km makes sense is that you can determine, through very simple math, how many liters of gas (or other fuel) it will take to go 200 km ... or 250 ... or whatever. Either way the conversion factors are easier to work with in metric.
My foot, in a shoe, is usually 12 inches on the dot. My ex-wife's foot is closer to eight or nine inches so she has alot more "feet" in a mile. But seriously, do you really want to put your feet all over stuff to measure it?
When you get down to it, the metric system is human in scale, too. My hand is 100 mm wide. My stretched stride is 1 m long. It's also a meter from my hip to the ground. I mass roughly 115 kg (currently) and I'm working on getting down to roughly 100 kg. My foot is close enough to 300 mm for estimation purposes (although I try not to put my feet on stuff to measure it). To say that the meter is not human in scale is to ignore the power of the easy metric conversion factor: just find a unit or multiples of a unit that fit the measurement task.
The average human cannot tell the difference in a 1 degree C change in temperature, some of us can; but, again, to say it is less accurate is to be inaccurate in your argument. The primary difference between C and F is C's relation to the other metric units.
And Abe Simpson? I'm pretty sure that the writers of "The Simpsons" were illustrating the silliness of the US Customary units with that quote. Sarcasm is one of the primary humor devices used by "The Simpsons." Quick, without looking up the conversion factors and without using a calculator, what is 40 rods to the hogshead in miles per gallon? Ironically, through advocating metrication, I've become much more familiar with the US Customary unit conversion factors and I couldn't tell you how large a hogshead is or how long a rod is.
Here's my favorite example conversion factor: feet in a mile. Think to yourself how confusing that number is to a dyslexic. Think how hard it is for said dyslexic to not only learn what numerals are used but which order they go in. Now, go from inches to miles. (Do it without a calculator) Now, think how much easier it is for a lysdexic to go from mm to m (* 1000) and then from m to km (* 1000). There are 1 000 000 mm in one km. Easy.
And, as for the British pint: keep it as an authorized unit for alcohol sales at a pub. But I'd rather buy a 500 mL of ale at a US pub than 1 US pint.
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Luke 5:44AM (7/23/2007)
I was born in Australia in 1972. Australia went metric in 1966 and I never the old units. My parents never seemed to have any trouble using the new units, and now they are much more comfortable using the new units.
My father is a tradesman, and he and all his contemporaries use millimetres (mm) for all measurements on building sites, and most people would think you were joking if you mentioned feet or inches.
It must be a dreadful burden using the old units if you're someone who needs to do anything technical or do calculations.
I mean, a quarter of a kilometer is 250m, 3.5km is 3500m is 3500000mm, so easy.
A quarter of a mile is 1760/4 yards, 3.5 miles is 3.5 x 1760 yards, in inches that would be 3.5 x 1760 x 12, good grief what a pain! Pass me that 5/16ths screwdriver to bury in my head, please...
Luke
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Desiri 7:21AM (7/23/2007)
America is very conservative and tends to lag 50-100 years behind civilised nations in social matters. Look how long they clung to slavery and segregation.
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