Metric? What do think?

[ThrottleJockey]

It makes me laugh when someone claims either system to be more accurate than the other. Both systems are capable of being divided into infinite increments thus rendering them equally accurate. While a system based upon 10s may be easier to calculate in your head, it isn't any more accurate. That's like saying counting in english is more accurate than counting in german.

 

[~gd]

I think that technically we are "converted"...at least on the record books. I don't mind the metric system and grasp it fairly well, I just prefer the english system for some odd reason. Working on cars in the eighties and nineties certainly made it easier to learn conversions...About the only thing I can think of that I would like to see changed is our clock/calendar. Neither work and neither are accurate ways to measure speed/distance. I would like to see a metric clock and calendar. Leap day is a prime example of how and why our calendars/clocks are wrong, it exists solely as a makeshift correction to a flawed calendar. It's my birthday and even living with it for over 40 years I have difficulty fully explaining it. We got it wrong at the turn of the century if my research is correct and that is why our current system sucks so bad, I can prove at least a 24hr inaccuracy/discrepancy in our clocks/calendars. Might not seem like a big deal but astronomically may be the difference between "night and day".

Well our days are not constant so anything based on them is going to be inaccurate. A calendar is a counting device not a measuring device, as someone that worked on cars, it is like anyone can tell the number of cylinders with a fast look but the cc displacement can only be determined by measurement, if you want accuracy you measure each cylinder and add the results, not measure one cylinder and multiply by six. Accurate clocks can be had at a reasonable price and leap seconds are often used to adjust the clock so it agrees with the day. Finally the whole time thing in common uses is not truly metric i.e. it is not based on powers of ten. ~gd

 

[hqueen13]

Time is relative anyway

 

[k15n1]

We learned metric early in school. It's more accurate for science. I don't have problems using either, since I've been used to it for so long. I just recently got a new digital scale. The old one is being used to weigh chickens now.

I prefer metric for measuring my eggs to get a more accurate weight for my records on the first eggs, and the huge ones. I have an old 1920s scale I use for just the regular eggs.

Sorry to be the troll, but metric isn't more accurate. It's just units. Precision and accuracy are independent of units.

BTW, units are mostly made up of other units. So if you choose a base set of units, the others can be derived from them. In the physical sciences, length, mass, and time are the usual choices---gram-meter-second for example.

Some elements of the metric are based on physical properties, so that's... good? For example, temperature is based on boiling and freezing points of water. Fahrenheit was a physician, so he wanted to base a temperature scale on average human body temperature and the coldest temperature you could get with ice and brine. Unfortunately, he collected his data in a hospital so 100 oF is actually slightly feverish. And the ice/brine thing was obviously technology dependent. So at least some of the metric units can make more sense. But in other cases, it's arbitrary. Distance (the infamous meter) is basically arbitrary, like a foot. If we decided to use feet, millifeet, kilofeet, etc, there would be even less difference between the two systems.

 

[Hinotori]

On my kitchen scale, metric is much more accurate since grams are a smaller unit than ounces.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Still have to laugh (cynically) at the loss of a probe to Mars a while ago where the software team writing the orbital insertion software code used one unit of the measure and the team writing the flight software code used the other. Not a good outcome...

 

[baymule]

I vote against metric. I measure in feet, inches, yards and LBM's (that is little black marks on the measuring tape ) I cook USING a measuring cup.....sort of. I use a spoon......out of the kitchen drawer. Recipes are a GUIDELINE, not to be exactly followed. WEIGHING the ingredients????? WHY? More of anything makes it better, just toss it in! One time my DD wanted to know how to make cornbread and I couldn't tell her. She had to watch me and for her benefit, I used a measuring cup. She wrote it in black magic marker on the refrigerator.

 

[k15n1]

On my kitchen scale, metric is much more accurate since grams are a smaller unit than ounces.

If what you say is true, it's the fault of the manufacturer of the scale, not the system of units. There's 2 parts of a scale---the weighing part and the displaying part. If they round to the nearest oz, that's a problem in the design of the scale, not the units themselves.

 

[Hinotori]

They round to the nearest 1/4 ounce. Both scales I have do that. They are from different manufacturers. Annoys me to no end. Sometimes I need to know a smaller amount. Mom says she has a scale set somewhere that was great grandmas that I can have if she ever finds it. It's an old balance scale with the different weights you can put on one side. Great grandma used it for eggs when she was selling them. Mom thinks she brought it with her from Switzerland when she came over.

I haven't played with hubby's reloading scale so I don't know how it measures.

 

[k15n1]

They round to the nearest 1/4 ounce. Both scales I have do that. They are from different manufacturers. Annoys me to no end. Sometimes I need to know a smaller amount. Mom says she has a scale set somewhere that was great grandmas that I can have if she ever finds it. It's an old balance scale with the different weights you can put on one side. Great grandma used it for eggs when she was selling them. Mom thinks she brought it with her from Switzerland when she came over.

I haven't played with hubby's reloading scale so I don't know how it measures.

Oh, a reloading scale can be super accurate. 1/2 g, I think or better.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_(unit)

A grain is a unit of measurement of mass that is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definition of units of mass. However, there is no evidence of any country ever having used actual seeds or cereal grains. Rather, expressions such as "thirty-two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear" appear to have been ritualistic formulas, essentially the premodern equivalent of legal boilerplate.[1]:27[2]

Since the implementation of the international yard and pound agreement of 1 July 1959, the grain or troy grain (Symbol: gr) measure has been defined in terms of units of mass in the International System of Units as precisely 64.79891 milligrams.[4]:C-19[7] 1 gram is approximately 15.43236 grains.