The Metric System vs. The Imperial System. Change?

In the custometric system one pound would equal 500 grams.

And that's why standardization of the metric system was welcomed everywhere else!

(I used to enjoy driving in Canada because my car got so many more "miles per gallon"!)

i've worked on a few metric projects over the years.

setting up the drawings was a PITA, but once that was outta the way it was easier in terms of showing dimensions (which we did in milimeters)...

We still haven't gone completely metric - most of us still use imperial for height and weight, and of course, there are still the inaccurate 2x4's All the hospitals and doctors' offices tell you what you weigh in imperial if you ask them. And grocers are sneakily using both (one or the other) in their flyers. But at least we're not like the UK who use metric on the road but not at the gas station!

I actually find it annoying when shopping for picture frames (as an example) who list their measurements in cms because I have to use my calculator Everyone should advertise/post everything in both since the US will always be a standout to metric and many of us boomers still haven't truly transitioned.

It's the other around: the UK uses mostly imperial units on road signs for distance measurements and speed limits, petrol is sold and priced by the litre (At least since more than 15 years in my own experience.)

Edit: from 1995 onward the gallon was replaced with the litre.

Ha, in Australia mileage (ha!) is measured by how many litres it takes to go 100 kilometres, but with the rise of EVs I guess even that quirk will be replaced, by ‘range’.

Thanks for that explanation, I completely misinterpreted that.

BTW 1 litre water is even closer to 1 kilogram than a pint is to a pound (0.99802).

The thing that I really love with SI is how the definitions of units of measurement relate directly to their definitions in, and derivations from, the in the 7 base SI units. That made high school physics much more logical and understanding self reinforcing. I mean separating mass from weight? Genius.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit

I just did this Week’s Saturday Paper Quiz.

One relevant question came up. The quiz is kind of unique that it’s based on an honour system and tells you what percentage of answerers got it right. It’s a safe bet that the majority of answerers are Australian residents who subscribe, and are likely professionals 35 and older….

What is the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit?
Correct
212°F.

41% of people got this question correct

Some actual demographics from the publisher https://schwartzmedia.com.au/media/pages/titles/the-saturday-paper/1689390801-1701143851/thesaturdaypaper_mediakit_dec23.pdf

I feel like this should be settled by a yardstick vs meter stick duel.

and I get the bigger one.

You're right and thank you. It's been years since I was there but it was amusing to see the two units.

That's probably higher than the percentage of people who could tell you how many feet there are in a mile! Most of those customary units were based on approximations. A mile was supposed to be an approximation of 1,000 complete paces (two steps). Of course it will vary on the size of the person and the length of their stride. But I just laid out a tape measure and two steps measured 5'3" – very close to 5.28 feet. Similarly, an ounce was based on the amount of water in one normal swallow. And it's surprising how many times I get 8 swallows out of an 8 ounce tumbler. These sorts of measurements obviously aren't consistent enough for the sort of accuracy demanded by modern society.

My point was that a significant percentage of older, educated Australians didn’t know the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit just to underline my point that attachment to imperial widely dies even in those who grew up with it.

The 41% genuinely surprised me, I figured everyone around my age and older would have that burnt into their brains and even those a decade younger would not have escaped it. Maybe I’m further up the curve of readership than I thought.

Australia’s metrification timeline

1972 sticks in my mind as I remember a newspaper headline ‘TO HELL WITH CELSIUS IT’S TOO DAMN HOT’ during a heatwave where it got to 41c, I remember that day at school.

1971 – The Australian wool industry converted to the metric system.
1972 – Horse racing converted in August and air temperatures were converted in September.[6]
1973 – All primary schools were teaching the metric system alone: many had been teaching both imperial and metric for some years. All secondary schools were now using the metric system.
1974 – Large scale conversion across industries, including packaged grains, dairy products, eggs, building, timber, paper, printing, meteorological services, postal services, communications, road transport, travel, textiles, gas, electricity, surveying, sport, water supply, mining, metallurgy, chemicals, petroleum, and automotive services. Most beverages, aside from spirits, also converted to metric units by the end of the year. The conversion of road signs took place in July, aided by a publicity campaign to prepare the public.[7]
1976 – The building and construction industry completed its change to metric measurements (within two years) by January.
1977 – All packaged goods were labelled in metric units, and the air transport, food, energy, machine tool, electronic, electrical engineering, and appliance manufacturing industries converted to metric.
1987 – The property industry, the last major industry holdout, converted to metric.
1988 – With Western Australia fully implementing the change, metrication was completed nationwide and the metric system became the only system of legal measurements in Australia.

Old familiar things are very often not only remembered but also used.

Since 1063, for example, there has only been the *franc' in France - introduced in 1960 as the 'new franc'. But even in the 1990s, I still saw and experienced information in old francs when paying (conversion was no problem as 100 old francs corresponded to one new franc).

I think I've failed to communicate - I think 41% is incredibly low - I completely agree with what you're saying. (Cute how the conversion from franc to new franc was metric )

I remember when that was going on. Some of the diehards were actually talking about moving to the USA! Good old USA, land of ubiquitous firearms and old fashioned yardsticks – the true measure of freedom and liberty!

The thing is, there's not much call to know the exact number of feet in a mile. It's taught in school, yes, but in real life you just hear things like, "It's only two miles down the road," and you know approximately how long it will take you to get there. There's no need to know that it's also 10,560 feet.

Some people are better at recalling those sorts of figures – I'd like to see how many people can spit out other numbers which we learned in school. How many miles away is the sun? What's the diameter of the earth in miles? How many feet in a furlong? How many square rods in an acre?

Yeah, but boiling point of water seems useful/practical.

I still remember the sun is 93,000,000 km away (8 light minutes?), Avogadro’s number is 6.023 x 10^23 (although recently seen it stated as 6.022) and that a coulomb is 6.242 x 10^18 electrons

Not sure if I’m right, but that’s what I remember.