Nations That Don't Use The Metric System

http://digg.com/general_sciences/Here_s_A_Map_Of_Nations_That_Don_t_Use_The_Metric_System

You see how few nations don't use metric system, so be sure to have metric system in your game editors and your game engines! ;)

It's also called International Metric System... :P

People who use the metric system think they're so elite. But I don't see you using metric TIME!

meh, I'm glad I moved to the US before everything in England went to KG. I like the old imperial system which feels more human. So long I can still use metric for tiny measurements I'm happy.

I hate 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 of an inch. All seems like nonsense to an artist like me :)

Metric system rocks. I've been living in the states for 5 years now and everything still confuses the crap out of me. I'd take my meters/kilograms any day!

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

I like inches for measuring most stuff because it's easier to remember than cms and is largely based on common sense. A foot is roughly the length of your foot, an inch is about the width of your thumb, a yard is around the height of your waist or the distance from the middle of your chest to your outstreched arm, a fathom is roughly your height or the loose width of your outstretched arms and a span is 9 inches which is the width of your outstretched hand. All these old measurements were based on the human body. So you can measure quite well without having to use a tape which saves time. For small measurements I do use cm though.

LOL @ sswift!

Metric system is best IMO as its all based on pure water and is 10 based like the number system.

10mm = 1cm
100cm = 1m
1000m = 1 Km
10cm\3 = 1 Liter = 1Kg
1000Kg = 1 Metric Ton
1 pascal = 1 newton/m2 (i think :/)

This is so simple, more scientific and is 'originless' (as we all have water in common)

The old British "Imperial system" the americans still use probably goes back to the Romans. For size/distance how long a thumb or inch is and guessed that a "good mans foot" is 12 of these long. (or the other way round :) .
As for weight, it is more or less based around an important "somebody" in the london merchant guild's idea of what a "stone" and "pound" should weigh. Hardly a recipe for international accuracy (ok these days its a 'standard' but its hardly scientific in origin) and people cannot even agree on its origins.

@sswift, LOL! - you remind me of my grandad :P

who cares about the science in everyday scenarios. I find it a lot easier to judge in feet and inches than centimeters, pints and gallons, and lbs for smaller measurements and km means nothing to me whatsoever.

I grew up in England in the 70's through 90's and had to learn both. I Prefer the human measurements for anything that doesn't require detailed accuracy.

Thats simply because you have been brough up with it (its the same with anything). My generation of UK kids were brought up on both, so i understand and can gauge both. However as someone who uses both i han honestly say that metric is easier fo me. You can translate between weight, volume and distance so easily.

For metric generation who only know and 'feel' in metric, the imperial system is completely alien and follows no -logical- relationships.
Still prefer a pint to an "arf-lita" though, simply because its MORE but that is the ONLY reason. :D

Problem with that is that my foot could be 30 cm and your 10 cm, and it all falls down when you try to messure something with feet :P

exactly, name one womans foot thats 12 inches long! (i doubt theres many "real" women with feet that big :)

EDIT: According to all knowing Wiki, it was actually based on "The foot of Hercules" by the romans (known as herecles by the greeks). I figured they were involved somehow.. and now we know!
[I love 'useless' facts :D]

So we have:

One system based on the physical mass of water. Which is all around us and part our very existence.

..OR..(Drumroll)

A system based on some old roman's idea of what a mythical greek hero's foot was like!

No contest really :/

The imperial system is old and outdated, and it should be left alone to die..

I feel it's complete stubornness and ignorance to not move forward with a more efficient system. While i'm one of the ignorant ones who still uses pounds for human weight and lunchmeat, feet for height, and inches for...nevermind, I can admit that it's only my ignorance of not getting used to the new conversions.

Imperial example:

12 inches  = 1 foot 
3 feet  = 1 yard 
36 inches  = 1 yard 
440 yards  = quarter mile 
880 yards  = half mile 

While I think these conversions are completely retarded, I couldn't really care less what people use. They just need to start teaching the metric system more in the schools of countries that continue to use the imperial system. (*cough* United States)



I won't bring up concious nightmares here...

I'm in the US. I wish we used metric. Problem is, I'm used the current system.

The Imperial system is actually easier to use inherently because its numbers are more divisible.. 12 can be divided into 6 3 2.. With 10 you only get 5 and 2. So you half it but half it again and you get awkward 2.5. The metric system only seems easier if you've been drilled it in from a young age.

TEN IS NOT A MAGIC NUMBER. IT DOES NOT MAKE A SYSTEM SPECIAL OR MORE EFFICIENT. IT JUST MAKES IT LOOK NICER COS WE HAVE 10 FINGERS.

2.5 is not awkward to me, its two and half apples, what is wrong with you imperial people??? you want to rule the world with integers :P

Ah, so that explains it's prevalence in countries with double digit IQ citizens.

> Ah, so that explains it's prevalence in countries with double digit IQ citizens.

Is that Imperial IQ or Metric IQ?

My question is, who on Earth had a 12 inch foot back when they came up witha foot being that length - even for today that is pretty darn large...

The UK uses both systems but that might overtax an american brain.

At school I mostly used metric (40 year old UK person). And I'm happy to use kg, km etc.

BUT, I'm 5'10" (haven't a scooby doo what that is in metres) and 12st 8 (nor that in kg).

Also, when I'm driving in Ireland, 1km goes by very quickly!

I think most UKers are like that.

Basil

Neither system is "magic." The world evolves just fine with either.

... just don't mix up the conversions or bad things happen when you go to Mars.

There's really no need to bash Americans (Flameduck and Smilertoo). I remember back in the 70's there was a big push to go metric. But it just didn't take. Frankly, I use whatever system everyone else is using. When I was in the UK I used metrics. Calling us stupid is just mean.

Consider the source.

That is because there was no practical use for it in society.

Our primary maths system is base 10. Metric is base 10. Imperial is all over the place. Sure it might divide further before you get fractional and that people in America etc (and people over a certain age in the UK) know what you are talking about, but they are the ONLY two advantages.
Ask yourself this:

-Whats 4691 Miles in yards , feet and then in inches?
-Whats 4691 Km in meters , centimeters and then in millimeters?

Well, i dunno about you, but i cant even be bothered to work out the miles, the Km i can do in my head.

Considering the enormous benefits of using it it is a small price to pay.

The uk is a mixed bag for sure. The food industry was forced to go metric despite the fact that the older generation found it confusing. However, the road speed signs are still in imperial (mph) and many height/distance signs are in yards and feet

Lol. Thats mainly because its people over a certain age running the place :),

Anyway, not for long if the EU gets their way (its about their only really sensible idea so far regarding the UK)

I'm a builder and I use.... both! :)

For precision work, I'll definitley use metric, otherwise, imperial is good enough to work in.

Dabz

My farther is a builder. He measures rooms or areas by walking from 1 end to the other. He reckons 1 stride is about a metre(!)

It can be quite confusing for me because he rarely states what system he is using:

"I need to pick up some 2 by 4 later"

What's that then? Inches, cm, millimetres?


We are confronted everywhere by confusing multitudes of measurement methods - Shoes, Clothes, food, and worst of all, currency!
I think sometimes they make it confusing so you cannot easily tell whether you are being screwed over

The absolute worst thing I really hate is how prices magically end in .99

Now only £199.99!!!

@ Jim Brown
If you really want to get confused a 2x4 is 1-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches lol

2 by 4 is a common size of plank used in building and is in inches, until recently building materials were all in imperial system, now it's all gone metric.

Edit: sorry, I think 2 by 4 is in cms.

> Problem with that is that my foot could be 30 cm and your 10 cm, and it all falls down when you try to messure something with feet :P

Lol, your foot is 30 cm and mine is 10 cm, I like the way you put that. The thing is that most men's feet are about a foot with shoes on, so if you happen to have normal size feet then it's handy to measure something roughly by walking one foot in front of another. If you use metric then you have to multiply 30 by the number of footsteps which is not as handy. I was raised mainly on the metric system but later I got used to the imperial system and now find it easier to measure with. For example, I find 5 foot 9 1/4 easier to remember than 176 cms for some reason.

That's just ignorant.

I can't work it out either but then I haven't been brought up with the system.

Degrees isn't metric yet there's no uproar about that. If you tried to force everybody to use right angle = 0.25 new degrees I doubt it will be popular... simply because 360 is such a nice number to break off into 180 90 45..

Then we have radians. This is the arguement in reverse.. radians is akin to metric system (mathematically superior, whatever that means) and degrees is akin to imperial (easier to use). I'm sure if you were drilled from birth how to use radians you'd find them easy and second nature - but you're not. Just like the imperial system seems nonsensical to you but is second nature to others.

The only difference is the metric system is now more popular among laymen than radians are. Hopefully we all know that popularity doesn't alone make something better...

My last game supported non-metric and 12 hour clock for US customers and metric and 24 hour clock for Europe.

I was in grade school in the 70's when they tried to push the metric system,... people like my dad are the reason it never stuck (Union guy, can tell any wrench size for any bolt by simply looking at it). I really wish it would have because it would have made things soooooo much easier. As a result of this, I was taught the metric system, but have to live in an imperial system world.

Quick, sort these numbers high to low!
1/4, 3/16, 7/64, 11/32, 1/8

or

.5, .7, .3, .25

I do like miles and Fahrenheit, however.

I mean really,... 40 degrees Celsius,... what is that? 3 feet? :)

Oh the irony...

It's 4691 * 10^3 meters, 4691 * 10^5 centimeters and 4691 * 10^6 millimeters. So what's it in imperial? Surely you were brought up with one system or the other...

That's because you're flat out wrong.

Wrong again. By the arguments presented here in favor of the imperial system, radians are the imperial analog. It has nothing to do with being "mathematically superior", although radians are a less arbitrary measurement than other ways of describing an angle (or more accurately, the length of a circumference). Radians (much like the imperial system) is simply easier to divide up into nice "complete" numbers. A circle is 2*Pi. Half a circle is Pi. A quarter of a circle is Pi/2. An eighth of a circle is Pi/4 and so on.

Actually, the food industry has to provide both, which seems like a reasonable compromise, given our half-in half-out approach to the EU. There was a story in the news recently about some pub which was getting in trouble for only selling beer by the litre.

It's all the way your brought up :o) I wouldn't have much of an idea of how fast something is going, in KPH, but i could give you a good estimate in MPH. Same with height of people. I couldn't tell you their height in meters and centimeters.

However, confusingly, i can tell distance in metric, same with volume.

It's mostly metric for me, and yes, it is easier to work with in maths.

> I couldn't tell you their height in meters and centimeters.

That's easy, a meter is pretty much a yard.

1.5 Kilometers is roughly a mile (roughly)

2 liters is roughly a half gallon

It's amazing what I've picked up from Role Playing Game conversions...

We should all be thankful we are not using AMOS_3D degrees. Having to divide 360 degrees into 65536 would be horrible, although using only integer math did make it much faster...

One thing I thought was weird here in the US is cooking. In England all the cookery books had regular weights g, oz and lbs. For the longest time I didn't cook anything that needed normal ingredients because we don't have scales. Recently I found out that everything in recipies is measured in cup volumes here and not weighed at all :)

So half a cup, here, 2 cups there, 3/4 cup something else. Actually makes it much easier.

> Edit: sorry, I think 2 by 4 is in cms.


Nope, that would make it less then and inch by about 4/5 of an inch.

Here is an article on why 2x4 ends up being 1.5 by 3.5 (which sounds plausible enough but could be a total crock for all I know)

http://ask.yahoo.com/20001010.html

Oh yeah, you're right, it's in inches, example here. I changed my mind when I thought 2 inches is a bit thick. Didn't know it's actually 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.

The thing with building materials is that most builders indeed talk in imperial most of the time.

When asked what sized sheet of plasterboard I need, I'd probably just say an eight by four (feet), but the actual size of a full plasteroard is 2.4mx1.2m...

There are also various thinknesses of plasterboard too, the most common are 9mm,12.5mm and 15mm... So if I need 9mm and 15mm, I'd state that in metric, but for 12.5mm which is the most used board, you'd probably hear me say 'half inch' out of habit.

The 2x4 topic is about right (above) when you buy it from builders merchants, sawn timer for fences etc etc is indeed a true size, though dressed stuff can knock off a fair few mm's.

But you can actually buy true 2x4 dressed, but its a little more expensive due to the added thickness of the sawn timber before its planed.

In all fairness though, 1 1/2x3 1/2 is good enough for jobs that require '4x2'!!! :)

Dabz

EDIT:



Surely that should be 'Why are "2-by-4" wood studs really 1 4/8's by 3 4/8's inches'

As a rule if I'm measuring between two defined points then I would use which ever system is the easiest to remember, but because the work I do uses drawings that gives measurements in metric then I use those.


That depends on what trade they're in (and country).
Dealing with wood, bricks and boarding you could use imperial or metric for the odd ball sizes, but dealing with pipes is a little bit different.
Design drawing are always in metric. What size to use depends on what material the pipe is made of.

Iron is always imperial (closest size to design drawing).
Plastic waste imperial or metric (closest size to design drawing).
Copper pipe should now be metric (and matches design drawing).

All threaded fittings are BSP (British Standard Pipe) imperial sizes.

You do on the odd occasion come across imperial copper tube which you have to get imperial to metric adapters for certain pipe sizes.

And one more note: electric cabling in the UK is always in metric.

Just look on the bright side that the currency in the UK was decimalized in 1971 ( http://website.lineone.net/~davghalgh/money.html ).

>-Whats 4691 Miles in yards , feet and then in inches?

8,256,160 yards/24,768,480 feet/297,221,760 inches. Trivial, even without a calculator.

What's 1 kilometer divided by 5280? Quick... ?

What's 1 mile divided by 5280? 1 foot.

You can find math questions in any unit system that get inconvenient to do in your head, and find others that fit quite nicely.

What's 24 hours in seconds? When can I expect my metric/base 10 time system to make that "better" and "easier?"

IMO, metic has a flaw that should be addressed in using the gram as a standard unit, and I'm hardly alone in this opinion. It's too small for the average human to have a feel for it. The kilogram is the more intuitive unit for most people.

And even the kilogram is suspect. Look at the current definition of a kilogram, and the recent race to redefine it. Hardly a perfect system.

I propose a new system of measures based on the length, width, mass, temperature, memory capacity, and longevity of my cat. But higher and lower order units will be base 10 to keep everyone happy...

...except for people buying computer hard drives who want a 250giga-whisker drive to be based on power of 2 measurements.

meow.

18.9 cm (ok I cheated a bit)

Things is with grams, i've become very good at judging them, as i work in a lab, curing paints and working with paint stainers, so i could hold something and tell you in grams, fairly accurately, what something will weigh, but i get what your saying.

I think metric is easier to work with though. Dividing a number by ten, requires no though at all, your simply removing a zero, or a moving a decimal place. Diving a mile for instance, into it's lower measurements of inches etc, is more difficult.

Time... time is a right pain in the ass.

Yeah I see how trivial this is, phuuleeezeee!

Allrighteee then!
There is such a thing as metric time actually. It would be quite easy to work with once you had a feel for it :)
http://zapatopi.net/metrictime/
What about gradians? The 400' circle. I am not sure what these are like to work with or how they affect or fit in with laws of trig or astronomy though :/

At least the degree and the minute is based on a REAL and common thing - the sun's movement. (just like metric system is completely based on water)
Better and more real than some old mythology like the imperial system is based.

Metric time would be unacceptable i think. It would totally change your perception of passing time and working hours. One hour being 100 minutes i assume? I just don't think that would float at all.

metric time is a severe fail.

> And one more note: electric cabling in the UK is always in metric

In our workplace we have to use particular size of wiring measured using AWG (American system) which is arse-about--face. The bigger the value the smaller the size!

> Metric time would be unacceptable i think. It would totally change your perception of passing time and working hours. One hour being 100 minutes i assume?

Sounds like the makings of a great windup email at work ..

"EU to enforce metric time"

Just to point out - in SI units the kilogram is the base unit of mass, not gram :)

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "standard unit".. if gram is too small just say it in kilograms?

@Foppy: 18.9 cm is inaccurate, you should never round decimals, not even in Pi. The correct answer is 1/5280 km.

>Just to point out - in SI units the kilogram is the base unit of mass,
>not gram :)
>
>I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "standard unit".. if gram is
>too small just say it in kilograms?

Fair point, and it points out the flaw. The base unit of length isn't the kilometer, or the kiloliter, or the kilokelvin, or the kilocandela, or the kilo(whatever.) But for mass, it is. It breaks one of the simplest metric rules: a prefix may be added to a base unit to produce a base 10 multiple of the original unit.

Shouldn't one-thousandth of a kilogram be a millikilogram if it's the base unit?

>8,256,160 yards/24,768,480 feet/297,221,760 inches. Trivial, even
>without a calculator.
>
>Yeah I see how trivial this is, phuuleeezeee!

Is it really that tough? What's the big deal about basic multiplication?


4691
X 1760
--------
number of yards.

I can do that on paper in about 20 seconds. That's nothing special.

Number of yards times 3 = number of feet. That's less than trivial.

Number of feet times 12 = number of inches. Again, less than trivial.

According to basic math, nothing special + 2*(less than trivial) = trivial.

except that kilogram isn't a unit, gram is.
So what you're basically saying is a thousandth of a thousand-whateverunit, which doesn't make sense..

LarsG wrote:

>except that kilogram isn't a unit, gram is.

while Czar Flavius wrote:

>Just to point out - in SI units the kilogram is the base unit of mass, not gram

See? There is already discord in the metric camp! :)