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Author Topic: Countries who have NOT adopted the Metric System
quelar
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posted 18 July 2007 11:14 AM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 

This is old, probably not 'news' but really helps to illustrate what we're dealing with when it comes to our neighbours.

ETA : Sorry if there's scroll for anyone, who knows how to resize the pic?

[ 18 July 2007: Message edited by: quelar ]


From: In Dig Nation | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 18 July 2007 11:25 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Uh. I'm not sure quite what this indicates or proves, other than that they use an unpopular measuring system. Is there an actual problem with the system, other than that it is not the norm?

P.S. Maybe just link to the picture instead of embedding it.

[ 18 July 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 18 July 2007 12:08 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The metric system is easier.

I dispute Canada being a member of the metric system nations. In fact, Canada may be the most backward of all nations, being that when I go to the supermarket or anywhere else, I see things measured in both systems. I can by meat by the lb. or the kilo.

Nice way to make price comparisson more difficult.

And the mathematical convenience of the metric system in Canada is often not what it could be because quantities are as often as not in odd mumbers.

Case in point, I just went into the pantry and a bottle of Sunflower oil said it contained 946ml. Like another 54 ml would have killed them to round it to a litre.

Sure, I know that math isn't that hard. But are you likely to do that on every item you buy at the grocery store?


When I was young, they brought in the metric system and everyone touted it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. We'd be the last generation to have to learn to add, subtract multiply and divide fractions, etc. Teachers boasted that they could save hours and hours of instruction time by moving to the metric system.

My daughter's boyfriend just completed his high school exam for math, a subject that gave him the most trouble.

And you know what he had most difficulty with?

Addition, subtraction, and multiplying and dividing fractions.

What a country.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
The Wizard of Socialism
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posted 18 July 2007 12:16 PM      Profile for The Wizard of Socialism   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"The metric system is the tool of the Devil!" - Abraham "Grandpa" Simpson.

Actually, when I was growing up in smalltown Saskatchewan, they used to say that "Liberal is french for metric." And my dad used to call liters, kilometers and kilograms "Trudeaus."


From: A Proud Canadian! | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Moshe Feinstein
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posted 18 July 2007 12:25 PM      Profile for Moshe Feinstein     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
when I go to the supermarket or anywhere else, I see things measured in both systems.

Not on the highway signs.
or in car showrooms.
or at the CN Tower.
or the gas station.
or weather reports.
or the Winter Olympics.
or canned food/beverages

About the only place in Canada where measurements are in BIG IMPERIAL is fresh produce (and little itty bitty Metric numbers underneath), and McDonald's (with the Quarter Pounder, except in France where it's the Mac Royale cause they don't know what the fuck a quarter pound is - Pulp Fiction).

ETA - waist sizes for pants are still Imperial

[ 18 July 2007: Message edited by: Moshe Feinstein ]


From: Manitoba | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
arborman
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posted 18 July 2007 12:46 PM      Profile for arborman     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Height and weight are usually in pounds - I don't know how many centimetres tall I am, and I find it a bit wierd to say I weight 110 Kilos.

I got to live right on the fault line between two measurement systems when I worked as a third-party observer on a factory ship that was buying nets full of fish from Canadian fishers.

The Poles wanted all measurements in kilos, the fishers in pounds or tonnes. I used geometry to estimate weight in kilos, converted to tonnes (lbs), and then was roundly condemned by both sides for being hideously biased.

The Poles 'Ten thousand Kilos!?? Cholera!! (Polish for $&#*#&%*&#@! Canadian stooge!"

The Canucks "22,205 pounds?!! Are they feeding you too much vodka? **$%(#*&#@)#@&!!!"

What a treat it was. But there were excellent sunsets, and the pay was good. Not so the food.


From: I'm a solipsist - isn't everyone? | Registered: Aug 2003  |  IP: Logged
Dead_Letter
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posted 18 July 2007 12:47 PM      Profile for Dead_Letter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Michelle:
Is there an actual problem with the system, other than that it is not the norm?

[ 18 July 2007: Message edited by: Michelle ]


That IS the problem with the system, Michelle.

But it's more a problem for Americans. From what I understand, their insistence on using the Imperial system troubles many of their exports, making them uncompetitive compared with products that actually DO work under metric.


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quelar
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posted 18 July 2007 01:34 PM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Not to mention the occational Billion or two dollar error due to conversion errors.

Canada still does use a huge amount of Imperial, in building materials especially, but that's only because of our constant input from the US. I doubt any of us would talk about Farenheit without them there. Unless of course, you're talking about the book. Or that Moore movie.


From: In Dig Nation | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 18 July 2007 09:55 PM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
U.S scientists use the metric system

But, U.S engineers don't.

Apparently this was the problem that caused one of those billion dollar Mars space probes to disappear.

At least that's the excuse they gave us when they knew damn well that the Martians had shot it down.


From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Will S
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posted 19 July 2007 08:42 AM      Profile for Will S        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I run into trouble mixing the metric and Imperial systems. I have no idea how to order sliced meats without using grams (I have no clue how big ounces are), but if an object is bigger than a kilogram, I switch to pounds when I guess weight.
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fellowtraveller
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posted 19 July 2007 08:47 AM      Profile for fellowtraveller     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Road signs in the UK - for both distance and speed limits -are posted in miles per hour.

Canada is nominally metric, but many people of all ages refer to their weight and height in Imperial measure, housing is referred to universally in square feet, food is commonly displayed in both measures, consumer items like lumber and sheet goods are sold in Imperial measurements. There are many more examples.

[ 19 July 2007: Message edited by: fellowtraveller ]


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munroe
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posted 19 July 2007 10:15 AM      Profile for munroe     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
What's the measurement equivalent of being bilingual? There can be advantages. When I did my final examination for my carpentry TQ I was given two books - one in metric and one in imperial. I completed in metric (easier) and checked it in imperial (you get use to converting). It was great in catching errors as you didn't simply make the same calculation mistake twice.

Ah yes, the yankees. My sister was a victim of free trade and forced to live in Atlanta for a few years. As a younger Candian, she thinks in metric, so the issue arose from time to time. You guessed it - she was accused of participating in a communist plot (probably a muslim plot these days)!


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Bacchus
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posted 19 July 2007 10:19 AM      Profile for Bacchus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
or in car showrooms.

Actually when I bought a car last year (and last week when I brought it in for service) all the cars I looked at had both the mpg and km per l posted


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West Coast Greeny
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posted 19 July 2007 10:24 AM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by quelar:

This is old, probably not 'news' but really helps to illustrate what we're dealing with when it comes to our neighbours.
[ 18 July 2007: Message edited by: quelar ]


Axis of evil?


From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 19 July 2007 10:25 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yeah, that's always what I find the most confusing in the US - looking at the speed limit signs and doing a double-take at impossibly low speeds. Or seeing a road sign that says, "Buffalo - 100" and thinking, "Oh, we'll be there in 50 minutes to an hour." Then realizing - oh yeah. Miles.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
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posted 19 July 2007 10:28 AM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by West Coast Greeny:
Axis of evil?

Ha! Yeah, the US, Myanmar, and Liberia.


From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
scooter
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posted 19 July 2007 10:40 AM      Profile for scooter     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The United Kingdom should be coloured red.
From: High River | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
quelar
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posted 19 July 2007 10:48 AM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Nah, they're almost there..

The United Kingdom and Saint Lucia are still in the process of official complete conversion[3] (although the metric system is now used universally in all but a few fields); other countries in the former British Empire completed metrication during the second half of the 20th century, the most recent being the Republic of Ireland, which finalised conversion in early 2005.


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Doug
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posted 19 July 2007 03:47 PM      Profile for Doug   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:

Case in point, I just went into the pantry and a bottle of Sunflower oil said it contained 946ml. Like another 54 ml would have killed them to round it to a litre.


That sort of oddity happens because they're using industry-standard packaging that's still Imperial. 946 ml happens to be equivalent to 1 quart.


From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
munroe
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posted 19 July 2007 04:04 PM      Profile for munroe     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Not sure about that Doug. Don't standard recipes call for amounts of oil that divide into 946 and not 1000 (oops, that's because they've been converted from imperial as well).

[ 19 July 2007: Message edited by: munroe ]


From: Port Moody, B.C. | Registered: Jun 2007  |  IP: Logged
Jingles
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posted 19 July 2007 04:08 PM      Profile for Jingles     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The fact that Americans refuse to join the world is such an obvious indicator of their isolation than anything else. They stick with their archaic, stupid system precisely because the rest of the world rejected it. Their Amerosupremecy cannot allow them to change. To change to the metric system would mean the terrorists won.

Since America is the greatest country on the face of the earth, it stands to reason that their system of weights and measures is likewise the greatest. Therefore, it is incumbent on the rest of the world to change to their system.

I have, however, thought of a way to convert Americans to the metric system painlessly and, more importantly, easy for their, ahem, diminished capacity to understand: I propose to teach them the "football field".

Since their inferior football field is 100 yards long, their ability to understand base 10 calculations is already well developed. For example, instead of saying "It's ten kilometers to the gas station", say "It's one hundred football fields to the gas station".

They can also use this measurement for temperature. Instead of "water boils at 100 degrees celsius", say "water boils at touchdown".

Badda boom, badda bing, Americans are using metric (although they don't even realize it).


From: At the Delta of the Alpha and the Omega | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
ceti
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posted 19 July 2007 04:41 PM      Profile for ceti     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Actually, it's true that the failure to adopt the metric system tells a lot about the US and why I am rather pessimistic on them turning things around as opposed to going into terminal imperial decline.

If they cannot even adapt to the metric system, dollar coins, or coloured money beyond a few pallid shades, then I hardly see their political system evolving.

Of course Bush might change all that with his trashing of the entire system of checks and balances, leading to perhaps something new.


From: various musings before the revolution | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
TemporalHominid
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posted 19 July 2007 07:32 PM      Profile for TemporalHominid   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Jingles:
To change to the metric system would mean the terrorists won.

.



I think that is a great punchline.

oh, you were serious ...

This idea the US has rejected metric is largely a myth.

Actually, in some disciplines, the metric system has been used in the United States since the early 1800s. Anglophones who study French and Spanish immersion in the US, also study metric. A lot of Hispanic people are like Canucks in that they can interchange between Imperial and metric when doing business etc. The U.S. military uses metric measurements extensively to ensure interoperability with allied forces.


I really liked the Original Star Trek. Roddenberry was ahead of his time using metric on a National TV show in some episodes, then exclusively in Next Gen.

In a Futurama episode, a lunar farmer informs Fry, of the temperature drop during a lunar night:

quote:
Farmer: "Drops down to minus 173."
Fry: "Fahrenheit or Celsius?"
Farmer: "First one, then the other."

Futurama, the Series has Landed

[ 19 July 2007: Message edited by: TemporalHominid ]


From: Under a bridge, in Foot Muck | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
TemporalHominid
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posted 19 July 2007 07:39 PM      Profile for TemporalHominid   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by munroe:
she was accused of participating in a communist plot (probably a muslim plot these days)!


I wonder

What are the Reds and the Muslims growing in these plots these days? Also, I wonder, is it still subsistence farming? Are communists resistant to growing crops in straight rows in their plots because the lines resemble the stripes of the American flag and the stripes on Jesus' back when he was whipped?

[ 19 July 2007: Message edited by: TemporalHominid ]


From: Under a bridge, in Foot Muck | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
B.L. Zeebub LLD
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posted 19 July 2007 07:45 PM      Profile for B.L. Zeebub LLD     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by scooter:
The United Kingdom should be coloured red.

It's worse than that, they still weigh themselves in stone...

I got nothing but dirty looks when I suggested to my fiancee's friend that if she wanted to lose weight, she simply needed to find a bigger stone...


From: A Devil of an Advocate | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 19 July 2007 08:24 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Jingles:
The fact that Americans refuse to join the world is such an obvious indicator of their isolation than anything else. They stick with their archaic, stupid system precisely because the rest of the world rejected it. Their Amerosupremecy cannot allow them to change. To change to the metric system would mean the terrorists won.

Since America is the greatest country on the face of the earth, it stands to reason that their system of weights and measures is likewise the greatest. Therefore, it is incumbent on the rest of the world to change to their system.

I have, however, thought of a way to convert Americans to the metric system painlessly and, more importantly, easy for their, ahem, diminished capacity to understand: I propose to teach them the "football field".

Since their inferior football field is 100 yards long, their ability to understand base 10 calculations is already well developed. For example, instead of saying "It's ten kilometers to the gas station", say "It's one hundred football fields to the gas station".

They can also use this measurement for temperature. Instead of "water boils at 100 degrees celsius", say "water boils at touchdown".

Badda boom, badda bing, Americans are using metric (although they don't even realize it).


10 yards in a first down, 10 first downs in a touchdown. It could work, although we would have to get them to shorten thier football fields (or is it lengthen) a smidgen. Nobody will notice.

It could work, so long as the CFL doesn't make another foray into the United States. Like matter meeting antimatter, both will be obliterated.


From: Ewe of eh. | Registered: Sep 2004  |  IP: Logged
West Coast Greeny
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posted 19 July 2007 08:28 PM      Profile for West Coast Greeny     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by scooter:
The United Kingdom should be coloured red.

Oh, lord. I think they were worse at one point.

Forget the fact they invented alot of the damned system, they tried using other whacky units too.

Fathoms?
Stones and Pounds?
Shillings? Pences and the other Pounds? Even the US didn't screw around with their currency like that.


Thank god for the French for straightening them out.

[ 19 July 2007: Message edited by: West Coast Greeny ]


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BetterRed
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posted 19 July 2007 09:44 PM      Profile for BetterRed     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
10 yards in a first down, 10 first downs in a touchdown. It could work, although we would have to get them to shorten thier football fields (or is it lengthen) a smidgen. Nobody will notice.

Yep, might have to deal with stubborn Yankee egos there, since a yard is about 0.91 metres
Edited to change m into decimals

[ 20 July 2007: Message edited by: BetterRed ]


From: They change the course of history, everyday ppl like you and me | Registered: Jan 2006  |  IP: Logged
VladimirPoutine
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posted 22 July 2007 08:30 AM      Profile for VladimirPoutine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Both mah Daddy Lemuel and cousin Billy Bob have 12 toes. That makes it perfuctly nacheral to say 12 inches in a foot.
Just cuz the rest of the world hez 10 fingers and toes, making us use what everyone else does would be communist!

From: BC | Registered: Jul 2007  |  IP: Logged
Lard Tunderin' Jeezus
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posted 22 July 2007 10:51 AM      Profile for Lard Tunderin' Jeezus   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by West Coast Greeny:
Axis of evil?

Originally posted by Michelle:
Ha! Yeah, the US, Myanmar, and Liberia.


More accurately: the axis of ignorance.

From: ... | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
arborman
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posted 23 July 2007 01:59 PM      Profile for arborman     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Out of curiosity, what systems to Burma and Liberia use? Is it Imperial, or something else altogether?
From: I'm a solipsist - isn't everyone? | Registered: Aug 2003  |  IP: Logged
ceti
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posted 23 July 2007 02:07 PM      Profile for ceti     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Liberia probably does what the US does as an old dependency and Burma has its own (by wikipedia...)
From: various musings before the revolution | Registered: Jan 2005  |  IP: Logged
quelar
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posted 23 July 2007 02:19 PM      Profile for quelar     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Not sure about Burma, but I know Liberia uses Imperial, mostly due to the fact that they gained their independance due to assistance by the US and around the time where the US was the beacon of freedom in the world, they have since taken extraordinary efforts to do tings in the US' honour.

Things like naming their capital Monrovia after the US president Monroe.


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Drinkmore
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posted 23 July 2007 02:19 PM      Profile for Drinkmore     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hmmm, they have metric money.
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