Yet Another Fascist wants you to do it her way — by law, if necessary.
This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2014 at 19:09 and is filed under Dystopia Watch.
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2 Responses to “‘It’s Time for the US to Use the Metric System’”
Forty years after metrification was forced on Canadians, we still know half a pound of beef is a nice serving size, but wouldn’t know if a two kilograms would be enough for a meal for six. We find that a pint of beer satisfies, a liter is too much. A cup of coffee is easy to measure – 250 milliliters not so much. Everybody knows an economy car gets forty miles to the gallon or so, but we’re not sure if 13,5 liters per 100 kilometers is good bad or indifferent. If I told someone I just put 15 grams of sugar in their coffee, they’d be mystified. I hit my 3wood just over 200 yards (if I get it right). If I went on a diet, I’d be trying to lose twenty pounds. So your map is a little inaccurate – Canada is nearly as white as the US. Oh – and if I asked my cousin from London how much weight she’d lost on his diet, she’d tell me “two stone”. Better lighten up the shade of Britain as well.
Basically, traditional units are based on ergonometrics. The metric system is some Frenchman’s invention, and is based on his mistaken idea of the distance from the north pole to the equator.
Traditional units are based on the human body, which everybody had handy — an inch is three barleycorns or about the width of an adult big toe, a foot is self-explanatory, an ell or cubit is the length of your forearm, a yard is the distance from your nose to the tip of your middle finger with the arm stretched out horizontally, etc. “A pint is a pound the world ’round.”
Metric units are only available to those who carry measuring sticks around with them, and I’ve never met anybody who does.
May 30th, 2014 at 21:52
Forty years after metrification was forced on Canadians, we still know half a pound of beef is a nice serving size, but wouldn’t know if a two kilograms would be enough for a meal for six. We find that a pint of beer satisfies, a liter is too much. A cup of coffee is easy to measure – 250 milliliters not so much. Everybody knows an economy car gets forty miles to the gallon or so, but we’re not sure if 13,5 liters per 100 kilometers is good bad or indifferent. If I told someone I just put 15 grams of sugar in their coffee, they’d be mystified. I hit my 3wood just over 200 yards (if I get it right). If I went on a diet, I’d be trying to lose twenty pounds. So your map is a little inaccurate – Canada is nearly as white as the US. Oh – and if I asked my cousin from London how much weight she’d lost on his diet, she’d tell me “two stone”. Better lighten up the shade of Britain as well.
Basically, traditional units are based on ergonometrics. The metric system is some Frenchman’s invention, and is based on his mistaken idea of the distance from the north pole to the equator.
May 31st, 2014 at 05:56
Traditional units are based on the human body, which everybody had handy — an inch is three barleycorns or about the width of an adult big toe, a foot is self-explanatory, an ell or cubit is the length of your forearm, a yard is the distance from your nose to the tip of your middle finger with the arm stretched out horizontally, etc. “A pint is a pound the world ’round.”
Metric units are only available to those who carry measuring sticks around with them, and I’ve never met anybody who does.