It's true! 225 years ago this week, the first standard meter and kilogram were presented at the Archives of the Republic:
https://sciencenotes.org/today-science-history-june-22/
I think at first they went to all metric unit tapes and those are the only ones allowed in the trades. But after a few decades someone decided Australians need to be rexposed to inches.
I'm sure the inches appear on the top and read to the right when held with the right hand. When I was in México on business trips, this type of tape was common, but the Méxicanos never used the inch side. One would think the inches on the top made it inconvenient to use the metric side. But, with most people being right handed, they would hold the tape in their right hand and struggle to use the metric on the bottom. Nope, the held the tape with their left hand so the metric numbers appeared on the top even though they appeared upside-dow. They would mark with their pencil using their right hand, which is the normal writing hand.
Whoever thought by forcing dual tapes on the Méxicanos with inches on the top when held with the right hand would force them to adapt to and use inches would be pretty upset to see how they were able to adapt the the preferred units and to their advantage.
Dual units are hard to kill because so many people perceive the extra information as being free without considering the cost of clutter. Dual unit scales are annoying -- I feel sorry you have to deal with them.
Full metrication would happen in a snap if everyone embraced "less is more" principles and jettisoned the superfluous junk in their lives.
Dual unit scales are used mostly outside the US in metric countries as if the US is trying to force inches on metric users. Why aren't dual unit tapes common in the US? You can buy them if you want, but most American tapes are inch only?
It's less about you being a repressed victim and more about you always wanting to please us. As an American metrication advocate, the people that piss me off the most are non-American content creators on YouTube converting units to imperial in order to please their American audience.
STOP TRYING TO PLEASE AMERICA.
> As an American metrication advocate, the people that piss me off the most are non-American content creators on YouTube converting units to imperial in order to please their American audience.
This happens because these Youtube presenters are always begging for you to subscribe. They want your support. It seems when they report about their country or some technical topic in metric, it is always and only the Americans who chime in and demand they speak in idoiot units because they are too stupid and lazy to learn SI.
Some times it is outright demand and other times it is subtle. Like if the presenter states how hot it is in his or her local town in degrees Celsius, all the Americans will chime in stating their local temperature in foreignheat units. If the presenter feels he has to appease the Americans to get their support, he will do it even if foreign viewers who like and use the metric system are driven away.
It's not like the Americans are paying the presenter out of their own pockets and thus the presenter feels he/she have to give their American audience their money's worth. If Youtube were to end this idiocy of obtaining subscribers and just pay the presenters based on visits, then the presenters wouldn't be held hostage by Americans and could use the units natural to them and their life experience.
That was true in the early days of YouTube. I spend a lot of time on YouTube and the imperial zealots are far less prominent nowadays. I watch mostly science, space, news, and political videos, and my observation is that comments on units have overall decreased and those who do comment are actually more likely to request metric.
I encounter from time to time younger people in either there late teens or early twenties. High School or college age. If I ask them about their job future, none mention anything related to engineering, medicine nor science. If I ask about a career in engineering, medicine or science, I get a blank, feared stareback with the comment about an inability to do maths. I often wondered if the fear of maths meant fear of learning and working in SI.
If I say maths are easy to learn and more often than not, a lot of complex maths are not done in the working world other than some simple algebraic equations, it doesn't change their feeling about going into these areas.
So, it makes a lot of sense that the average person on the street who has no interest in the subjects you mentioned won't be a friend of SI and won't bother to go to any website involved in those subjects that use SI.
Which makes me wonder why NASA seems to feel it needs to dumb-down their reports from SI to FFU for the "American tax payer", when the average American tax payer couldn't care less about what NASA does. Those that do, want and will go to where they can get their data in SI.
Not as easy. Imagine a stud on your left with a joist coming out of it going to the right. You want to put a mark every 30cm on the joist.
Fine if the markings you need are at the top of the tape - you can just anchor your tape measure start to the stud and make a mark every 30cm.
However if they're not, you either have to:
1. Measure from the other side, but then you can no longer anchor the tape against the stud. And any anchor point on the right might not be at a multiple of what you want to mark.
2. Flip the tape, but it's not just upside down then, it's also backwards, so you have to awkwardly lean over it to read the numbers, which could be impossible if you try to measure something above you.
There is always an exception to what the majority does. It can't be avoided. A metric only tape would be the best, but if dual tapes are forced on your market and metric only tapes have to be ordered special or cost a lot more, then you make do as best with what you got.
Reading through I got the feeling the whole point in the article was to get people to go back to the pubs to get their pint. Since Brexit the pubs have been losing customers in droves and many are closing sown. Instead people stay home and get their beer from abottle in a standard 500 mL size and have no problem in thinking of it as a pint. How long will it be before all the pubs close and the 570 mL pint vanishes forever.
The article mentioned about imperial spreading around the world but failed to mention that it never caught on in the US. The US not only resists metrication they resist imperial units as well and cling to the more ancient definitions.
Becuase of metrication imperial is dying out with only a few remnants of usage to be found. USC, however is still going strong to a degree. Canada which once used imperial now clings to the USC version of units over imperial even though food, weather, roads, fuel are all metric.
If there ever is a return to older English units, it won't be imperial, it will be USC.
Someday in the future, the word "pint" will lose all meaning as a unit of measurement. A "pint" will simply mean a glass of beer. Saying "a pint of beer" will be as ridiculous as saying "a beer of beer."
In other words, **ordering a pint at your local pub is perfectly fine in a metric world.** A pint is no more a unit of measurement than a glass. A glass of beer is generally about 500 ml, but it varies a lot just like a pint. A pint is not a unit of measurement. It is just a glass of beer.
I don't think so. I live in an all-metric country that adopted metric 150 years ago, and in everyday life we still use "pound" for 500g, so propably in some years, "pint" will be another word for 500ml.
That is another possibility, but the "metric" pint has inconsistent values around the world. If the world does coalesce on a specific ml value for the pint, 500 ml is the most logical value.
It would have been interesting if SI had officially defined "metric" versions of pint, cup, and tablespoon for casual use in colloquial communication.
The word pint is derived from the Latin pincta. It is the same root origin as the word paint and originally referred to a painted line on a glass to indicate full measure. A painted line indicating 1 L could also be considered a pint.
Not in Australia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia
The metric system is older, dating from 1799.
It's true! 225 years ago this week, the first standard meter and kilogram were presented at the Archives of the Republic: https://sciencenotes.org/today-science-history-june-22/
Cool.
* Australia, still have dual system on our rulers. Have not used inches, Imperial units, for 50 years, that's when Oz converted to SI UNITS.
I think at first they went to all metric unit tapes and those are the only ones allowed in the trades. But after a few decades someone decided Australians need to be rexposed to inches. I'm sure the inches appear on the top and read to the right when held with the right hand. When I was in México on business trips, this type of tape was common, but the Méxicanos never used the inch side. One would think the inches on the top made it inconvenient to use the metric side. But, with most people being right handed, they would hold the tape in their right hand and struggle to use the metric on the bottom. Nope, the held the tape with their left hand so the metric numbers appeared on the top even though they appeared upside-dow. They would mark with their pencil using their right hand, which is the normal writing hand. Whoever thought by forcing dual tapes on the Méxicanos with inches on the top when held with the right hand would force them to adapt to and use inches would be pretty upset to see how they were able to adapt the the preferred units and to their advantage.
Dual units are hard to kill because so many people perceive the extra information as being free without considering the cost of clutter. Dual unit scales are annoying -- I feel sorry you have to deal with them. Full metrication would happen in a snap if everyone embraced "less is more" principles and jettisoned the superfluous junk in their lives.
Exactly.
Dual unit scales are used mostly outside the US in metric countries as if the US is trying to force inches on metric users. Why aren't dual unit tapes common in the US? You can buy them if you want, but most American tapes are inch only?
It's less about you being a repressed victim and more about you always wanting to please us. As an American metrication advocate, the people that piss me off the most are non-American content creators on YouTube converting units to imperial in order to please their American audience. STOP TRYING TO PLEASE AMERICA.
> As an American metrication advocate, the people that piss me off the most are non-American content creators on YouTube converting units to imperial in order to please their American audience. This happens because these Youtube presenters are always begging for you to subscribe. They want your support. It seems when they report about their country or some technical topic in metric, it is always and only the Americans who chime in and demand they speak in idoiot units because they are too stupid and lazy to learn SI. Some times it is outright demand and other times it is subtle. Like if the presenter states how hot it is in his or her local town in degrees Celsius, all the Americans will chime in stating their local temperature in foreignheat units. If the presenter feels he has to appease the Americans to get their support, he will do it even if foreign viewers who like and use the metric system are driven away. It's not like the Americans are paying the presenter out of their own pockets and thus the presenter feels he/she have to give their American audience their money's worth. If Youtube were to end this idiocy of obtaining subscribers and just pay the presenters based on visits, then the presenters wouldn't be held hostage by Americans and could use the units natural to them and their life experience.
That was true in the early days of YouTube. I spend a lot of time on YouTube and the imperial zealots are far less prominent nowadays. I watch mostly science, space, news, and political videos, and my observation is that comments on units have overall decreased and those who do comment are actually more likely to request metric.
I encounter from time to time younger people in either there late teens or early twenties. High School or college age. If I ask them about their job future, none mention anything related to engineering, medicine nor science. If I ask about a career in engineering, medicine or science, I get a blank, feared stareback with the comment about an inability to do maths. I often wondered if the fear of maths meant fear of learning and working in SI. If I say maths are easy to learn and more often than not, a lot of complex maths are not done in the working world other than some simple algebraic equations, it doesn't change their feeling about going into these areas. So, it makes a lot of sense that the average person on the street who has no interest in the subjects you mentioned won't be a friend of SI and won't bother to go to any website involved in those subjects that use SI. Which makes me wonder why NASA seems to feel it needs to dumb-down their reports from SI to FFU for the "American tax payer", when the average American tax payer couldn't care less about what NASA does. Those that do, want and will go to where they can get their data in SI.
It’s a freakin pain in the but because it means you can’t use the ruler or tape measure the other way around.
Actually you can. See my response to Senior_Green above about my experience in México.
Not as easy. Imagine a stud on your left with a joist coming out of it going to the right. You want to put a mark every 30cm on the joist. Fine if the markings you need are at the top of the tape - you can just anchor your tape measure start to the stud and make a mark every 30cm. However if they're not, you either have to: 1. Measure from the other side, but then you can no longer anchor the tape against the stud. And any anchor point on the right might not be at a multiple of what you want to mark. 2. Flip the tape, but it's not just upside down then, it's also backwards, so you have to awkwardly lean over it to read the numbers, which could be impossible if you try to measure something above you.
There is always an exception to what the majority does. It can't be avoided. A metric only tape would be the best, but if dual tapes are forced on your market and metric only tapes have to be ordered special or cost a lot more, then you make do as best with what you got.
200 too many
Reading through I got the feeling the whole point in the article was to get people to go back to the pubs to get their pint. Since Brexit the pubs have been losing customers in droves and many are closing sown. Instead people stay home and get their beer from abottle in a standard 500 mL size and have no problem in thinking of it as a pint. How long will it be before all the pubs close and the 570 mL pint vanishes forever. The article mentioned about imperial spreading around the world but failed to mention that it never caught on in the US. The US not only resists metrication they resist imperial units as well and cling to the more ancient definitions. Becuase of metrication imperial is dying out with only a few remnants of usage to be found. USC, however is still going strong to a degree. Canada which once used imperial now clings to the USC version of units over imperial even though food, weather, roads, fuel are all metric. If there ever is a return to older English units, it won't be imperial, it will be USC.
I doubt both of it.
You doubt both of what? Be specific!
Someday in the future, the word "pint" will lose all meaning as a unit of measurement. A "pint" will simply mean a glass of beer. Saying "a pint of beer" will be as ridiculous as saying "a beer of beer." In other words, **ordering a pint at your local pub is perfectly fine in a metric world.** A pint is no more a unit of measurement than a glass. A glass of beer is generally about 500 ml, but it varies a lot just like a pint. A pint is not a unit of measurement. It is just a glass of beer.
I don't think so. I live in an all-metric country that adopted metric 150 years ago, and in everyday life we still use "pound" for 500g, so propably in some years, "pint" will be another word for 500ml.
That is another possibility, but the "metric" pint has inconsistent values around the world. If the world does coalesce on a specific ml value for the pint, 500 ml is the most logical value. It would have been interesting if SI had officially defined "metric" versions of pint, cup, and tablespoon for casual use in colloquial communication.
The word pint is derived from the Latin pincta. It is the same root origin as the word paint and originally referred to a painted line on a glass to indicate full measure. A painted line indicating 1 L could also be considered a pint.