Metric vs imperial

[Axier 2]

America as a whole should adopt the metric system. That is an attitude that I will always stand to. As a side note, we Americans use United States customary, not original imperial, which is the case for most nations still using outdated measurement systems.

 

Now, I say this, but I am horrible at metrics, because you aren't really taught it at all in US schools.

[Rhapsodyman2000 22]

Hey, I don't mean to stir up any thing here, but I feel i have to say that my own country [Canada] converted from imperial to metric about 40 years back... To be fair, we don't have nearly the population of the US now and even less back then, but the means to communicate and coordinate are so much more developed today than they were back then. All i mean to say is that it's certainly feasible for a nation to convert and easy enough on the society to adopt the new system. There's probably no better American analog than Canada as well, as we share the same language and the majority of our culture.

 

In the end, it's more a balance of costs. Converting the US to the metric system would be a (quite sizable) one-time cost. The cost globally of supporting two measurement systems, in terms of manufacturing compatible technologies and software is incredibly difficult to estimate with any degree of accuracy. Although most likely small in comparison to the total-conversion in a short time frame, it can be considered an annual global deficit that doesn't go away, it draws on the global economy continually. It would be hard to say with any certainty whether a conversion would pay for itself in the next 100 years, or even 150 years, but I'm quite sure America as a nation plans and hopes to be around for many, many times longer than that. It will pay for itself eventually, and in all likely hood, the cost of doing it will be long forgotten before such a time happens.

 

I think (and I'm just trying to be straightforward here), that it's the United States' propensity to think on shorter time frames, and along more instant-personal-gratification tracts that prevents the change from happening. To be honest, the number of times I see Americans talking about various ways to cheat their government or employers out of payment saddens me. I'm well aware that not all Americans are like this, many of them are hard workers who take pride in their accomplishments. I just feel that there are a fair too many of you who are just a tax on your economy, and for whom the "American Dream" is to be paid as much as possible for as little effort as possible.

 

Just an opinion from a spectator to the north.

 

The Population of the United States is about 318,025,000 individuals, Canada has about 35,344,962 (that's almost 10x the population!). Of course, some would say that would mean we have much more tax dollars the throw our weight at changing our system, but you would be missing the point. The biggest issue to changing our measurement system, besides the cost of changing all the road signs and such, is our population. So many people in the United State are still being taught very limited amounts, if anything, of the metric system and the level of confusion and unpopularity would be vastly greater than what we've seen of the whiners in this thread. To be serious, we've put ourselves in a trap, and the only way for the US to convert the system is to slowly introducing the metric system through each generation till all there is to lose from changing is money. People need to understand that we still have an older generation who refuse to adapt to the changes and the only way we could ever have a quick change is if we took away everyone's rights and forced them into relearning camps (jokes aside, It would literally take FORCE to get us to change like that and that doesn't make politicians very popular.) 

 

I cannot see the US adopting the metric system in the next 25 year or even 35 year. I'd even go as far to say that, if no crisis prompts it to happen, it may take a solid 60 to 100 year for the change to be established. 

[dunkleosteus 2,425]

The Population of the United States is about 318,025,000 individuals, Canada has about 35,344,962 (that's almost 10x the population!). Of course, some would say that would mean we have much more tax dollars the throw our weight at changing our system, but you would be missing the point. The biggest issue to changing our measurement system, besides the cost of changing all the road signs and such, is our population. So many people in the United State are still being taught very limited amounts, if anything, of the metric system and the level of confusion and unpopularity would be vastly greater than what we've seen of the whiners in this thread. To be serious, we've put ourselves in a trap, and the only way for the US to convert the system is to slowly introducing the metric system through each generation till all there is to lose from changing is money. People need to understand that we still have an older generation who refuse to adapt to the changes and the only way we could ever have a quick change is if we took away everyone's rights and forced them into relearning camps (jokes aside, It would literally take FORCE to get us to change like that and that doesn't make politicians very popular.) 

 

I cannot see the US adopting the metric system in the next 25 year or even 35 year. I'd even go as far to say that, if no crisis prompts it to happen, it may take a solid 60 to 100 year for the change to be established. 

 

 

The complexity of adopting a new measurement system doesn't scale linearly with population when discussing such large numbers. The United States does indeed have nearly 10 x the population of Canada, but 30 million people is still an enormous number of people. The infrastructure and resources required to convert a population of 30 million is not equal to 1/10th of what is required to convert 300 million. Further, Canada had no concept of the metric system either. The highschool I attended was around 40 years old, and one of the classrooms I had a class in still had an old poster from the time of the conversion. It tried to give easy conversions between Fahrenheit and Celsius, saying things like "30 degrees isn't a good temperature to go skiing, more like a day at the beach!" and stuff like that. 

 

Given the number of extraneous things you manage to spend your budget on, the country could certainly make room for a conversion, although I agree that the likelihood of that occurring is quite low. I just want to make the point that it isn't the cost or complexity of the task that's holding you back.

[Rhapsodyman2000 22]

The complexity of adopting a new measurement system doesn't scale linearly with population when discussing such large numbers. The United States does indeed have nearly 10 x the population of Canada, but 30 million people is still an enormous number of people. The infrastructure and resources required to convert a population of 30 million is not equal to 1/10th of what is required to convert 300 million. Further, Canada had no concept of the metric system either. The highschool I attended was around 40 years old, and one of the classrooms I had a class in still had an old poster from the time of the conversion. It tried to give easy conversions between Fahrenheit and Celsius, saying things like "30 degrees isn't a good temperature to go skiing, more like a day at the beach!" and stuff like that. 

 

Given the number of extraneous things you manage to spend your budget on, the country could certainly make room for a conversion, although I agree that the likelihood of that occurring is quite low. I just want to make the point that it isn't the cost or complexity of the task that's holding you back.

I think you misunderstood what I meant. What I was saying, is that there is more to lose than money when It comes to the US making the change. When I was talking about the population, I was meaning that change can be managed better in smaller societies. My point was that quick change of this magnitude cannot occur without force and that it takes time for people to agree that it is worth while. Another thing you have to take into account is the likelihood of  us taking this on as one Nation (especially with our state system). The most likely scenario would be that each state makes adjustments as they see fit.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong, and when the change happens, it will be voted out among the states whether to ratify the changes.

 

There are many reasons why the United States have not fully invested into the change and it is not just money. It is a matter of priorities, cooperation, and understanding that makes this more difficult for us.

[AllenWL 186]

 

While I can't say anything about the day/year and distance, the temperature for Fahrenheit is not all that weird if you think about the fact that it was not based off of water's freezing/boiling point in the first place. And really, why is the point where water freezes the 'logical base level'? I mean, Kelvin, is a temperature system where 0 is the absolute 0(the coldest you can get).

It just depends on what you use it for.

 

And at the end of the day, TFC is a game. If the food is 160 oz and you eat 10 oz per bite, and it changes to 160g and eating 10g per bite.... well, the only change is that the words oz turned to g.

 

I say just let the developers do what they want with it, with whatever system they want

[transcengopher 349]

While I can't say anything about the day/year and distance, the temperature for Fahrenheit is not all that weird if you think about the fact that it was not based off of water's freezing/boiling point in the first place. And really, why is the point where water freezes the 'logical base level'? I mean, Kelvin, is a temperature system where 0 is the absolute 0(the coldest you can get).

It just depends on what you use it for.

 

And at the end of the day, TFC is a game. If the food is 160 oz and you eat 10 oz per bite, and it changes to 160g and eating 10g per bite.... well, the only change is that the words oz turned to g.

 

I say just let the developers do what they want with it, with whatever system they want

Kelvin is slightly worse than Celsius, actually, because while it does have logical (albeit unreachable) zero level, it doesn't have an explanation for it's unit of measurement size. There's nothing that tells why 0C is 273.15K and not 100K or 300K other than the fact that unit size is taken from Celsuis to begin with for convenience's sake.

[ante185 6]

While I can't say anything about the day/year and distance, the temperature for Fahrenheit is not all that weird if you think about the fact that it was not based off of water's freezing/boiling point in the first place. And really, why is the point where water freezes the 'logical base level'? I mean, Kelvin, is a temperature system where 0 is the absolute 0(the coldest you can get).

It just depends on what you use it for.

 

And at the end of the day, TFC is a game. If the food is 160 oz and you eat 10 oz per bite, and it changes to 160g and eating 10g per bite.... well, the only change is that the words oz turned to g.

 

I say just let the developers do what they want with it, with whatever system they want

 

I don't want to be nit picky but 160oz is 4,5kg, big difference as 160g is only 1/280th part of that, and 10oz is about 300g or 3hg.

 

However if we are not going to use units on measure on anything more then just food then I am totally fine with using oz,

[Takatifu 3]

I don't give a f*** on what measure we should use. We're going to store 100% pieces of food anyway be it 160oz or 4,5kg.

It's something that isn't going to affect my real life or gameplay in the slightest.

 

I use metric system in real life.

[AllenWL 186]

I don't want to be nit picky but 160oz is 4,5kg, big difference as 160g is only 1/280th part of that, and 10oz is about 300g or 3hg.

 

However if we are not going to use units on measure on anything more then just food then I am totally fine with using oz,

But what I'm saying is it doesn't matter

We can say a 'full' piece of food is 160oz or 160g or 160 bites or 300oz or 300g or 100bites 160 units or whatever.

All we need to know is how much food we have left, and how much food we eat(and really, the only times I look at the units is when I'm making meals.)

 

Does it matter if we have 160 oz of food and we eat 10 oz per bite, or if we have 80 g of food and eat 5 g per bite, or if we have 100 units of food and eat 10 per bite?

All we need to know is that there is food, and we can eat it, and we can estimate how long this bit of food will last.

 

On the same note, metal is counted in units, but we could just as easily say that one ingot is 100 g of metal, and it'll make absolutely no difference whatsoever in the game

[Treyflix 277]

Snip of dunk logic

Dunk, I do not think you quite grasp how superior Canadians are to Americans. And I'm allowed to say that because I'm an American. I lived on the Minnesota USA/Canada border for many years. (International falls, the icebox of America) and it never failed to amaze how everything completely changed as soon as I went across the border. People went from ignorant antisocial drunk hillbillies (some of which were downright dangerously creepy) to incredibly friendly, well educated country folk and rednecks INSTANTLY. I'm not exaggerating! Therefor I have resolved to never live more than 500 miles from the Border. When shit hits the fan, I'm fucking immigrating to the Canadian Rockies. Hopefully this doesn't happen in my life time, but I would not be surprised if it does.

[GunnerX 5]

As an American who has studied Computer Science and Engineering, I will tell you metric is just as bad as SI.  Screw the decimal system.  The Babylonians had it right.  Base twelve, or even better, 60, are far more useful.  Heck, I could even live with binary.  Plus, that way everyone gets to learn new measurements and it's fair all around.

[AllenWL 186]

Dunk, I do not think you quite grasp how superior Canadians are to Americans. And I'm allowed to say that because I'm an American. I lived on the Minnesota USA/Canada border for many years. (International falls, the icebox of America) and it never failed to amaze how everything completely changed as soon as I went across the border. People went from ignorant antisocial drunk hillbillies (some of which were downright dangerously creepy) to incredibly friendly, well educated country folk and rednecks INSTANTLY. I'm not exaggerating! Therefor I have resolved to never live more than 500 miles from the Border. When shit hits the fan, I'm fucking immigrating to the Canadian Rockies. Hopefully this doesn't happen in my life time, but I would not be surprised if it does.

I don't know, I lived in California for like what, 7~8 years?

There where lots of incredibly friendly, well educated people.

 

Really, you can't put one country over another just from the experience on one person.

 

Anyways, to the original point of this thread, I can see reasons why metric can be better than imperial in real life, but I don't see how it can be better in-game

 

For one, I watched the video in the OP.

In that video, we get inches, feet, yards, miles, furlongs, gunter's chain, fathom, shackles, cables, a nautical mile, a league, hand, stick, palm, digit, nail, span, cubit, shatments(or whatever), pace, step, rope, ranson's chain, roman miles, picas, point, twrps, and a line.

Apparently, all units of measurement used in the imperial system.

 

But lets be honest. are we going to use all of them? are we even going to use half of them, in fact? I spent 7~8 years in the US, and all I needed to know was the inch, foot, yard, and mile. the rest of the 23 units I didn't know of, and didn't need.

 

And speaking of length, I've seen distance in minecraft(the length of one block) called meters, feet, and blocks. And all three works fine, because it gets the point across. And that's really all we need. We need to get the point across. As long as the player understands that they have food, and can make a estimate on how long that food will last, it works perfectly.