Current Events > Have you thanked Ronald Reagan yet for stopping the US Metric System Conversion?

(+) Yeah! (+)

80/80

In 1975, the United States Metric Board was created, with the goal of converting the United States to the metric system.

However, this Board was abolished by Ronald Reagan in 1982

thank you President Reagan
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Every fucking day

Didn't the imperial system cause the mars probe to crash.
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I was thinking about this the other day where people try to argue that the metric system is just so much more intuitive and makes sense


but the truth is we hold on to base 10 just because we have 10 fingers. That's literally the only fucking reason we use base ten

and seeing as no one counts on their fingers anymore I don't understand why people don't use Hex or Binary or literally any other number base.

Tropicalwood posted...

Didn't the imperial system cause the mars probe to crash.

iirc two different groups of people were calculating the numbers and the second people forgot to convert the units so the calculations were using the wrong numbers

why the fuck would i thank some former leader of a foreign country for delaying the scientific progress of said foreign country
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The angst that Reagan causes on this board is entertaining
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G_G posted...

why the fuck would i thank some former leader of a foreign country for delaying the scientific progress of said foreign country

You claim delaying scientific progress when we landed men on the moon using non-metric systems, yet no country that exclusively uses metric has ever landed on the moon. Maybe if your country used pounds and feet instead of kilograms and meters, your country could have a successful manned mission to outer space beyond Low Earth Orbit.
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No one landed on the moon. Imperial isn't really a system for measuring, it's a massive ancient spell that creates an illusion.
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I wonder what kind of crazy shit ol' Ronnie would have tweeted if Twitter existed back then...
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Milkman5 posted...

I was thinking about this the other day where people try to argue that the metric system is just so much more intuitive and makes sense


but the truth is we hold on to base 10 just because we have 10 fingers. That's literally the only fucking reason we use base ten

and seeing as no one counts on their fingers anymore I don't understand why people don't use Hex or Binary or literally any other number base.

The choice is arbitrary and they both have merits, but if literally everyone else is using one system (except Liberia and Myanmar), then at some point you need to swallow your pride, take one for the team, and switch.

I don't actually think converting would be worth the immense headaches that it would cause, but it's what should have happened once the Système international decided on their units.
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Milkman5 posted...

Tropicalwood posted...

Didn't the imperial system cause the mars probe to crash.

iirc two different groups of people were calculating the numbers and the second people forgot to convert the units so the calculations were using the wrong numbers

correct

traditionally the solution in the scientific community is "everyone should use metric so nobody forgets the 32.2 conversion from lbm to lbf"
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Pounds, feet, and fahrenheit are more precise than kilograms, meters, and celsius, therefore the imperial versions are better

Miles are better than kilometers because a 100 mph pitch > a 160.9 kilometers per hour pitch
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another quality topic from the liheral

Damn_Underscore posted...

Pounds, feet, and fahrenheit are more precise than kilograms, meters, and celsius, therefore the imperial versions are better

Where are you getting that from? If anything, you could argue that metric is more precise because the imperial units are defined in terms of the metric ones. Officially, 1 inch is precisely 2.54cm. On the other hand, there's nothing stopping you from defining 1cm as precisely 1/2.54 inches, but neither is better or more accurate than the other.
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treewojima posted...

another quality topic from the liheral

lol
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Cheese_Crackers posted...

Damn_Underscore posted...

Pounds, feet, and fahrenheit are more precise than kilograms, meters, and celsius, therefore the imperial versions are better

Where are you getting that from? If anything, you could argue that metric is more precise because the imperial units are defined in terms of the metric ones. Officially, 1 inch is precisely 2.54cm. On the other hand, there's nothing stopping you from defining 1cm as precisely 1/2.54 inches, but neither is better or more accurate than the other.

he is trolling.
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The US already uses metric everywhere except manufacturing and daily life. It's too expensive and too pointless to switch entirely. A full switch is a purely sentimental move that would only serve to please liberal neckbeards.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

Pounds, feet, and fahrenheit are more precise than kilograms, meters, and celsius, therefore the imperial versions are better

The US doesn't use imperial measurements they use US customary units.

But I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who walked 1000 miles to fall down at your door

or

But I would walk 804.672 kilometers and I would walk 804.672 more just to be the man who walked 1609.34 kilometers to fall down at your door
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royale with cheese.
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Milkman5 posted...

I was thinking about this the other day where people try to argue that the metric system is just so much more intuitive and makes sense


but the truth is we hold on to base 10 just because we have 10 fingers. That's literally the only fucking reason we use base ten

and seeing as no one counts on their fingers anymore I don't understand why people don't use Hex or Binary or literally any other number base.

Duodecimal/dozenal/base 12 is the best.
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The dozenal system is stupid. The main argument for it is that it would be easier for everyone because 12 has a lot more factors than 10. But billions of people would have to relearn mathematics! The simplest example of this is when you see the symbol "10", it would no longer mean what you think it means. Your mindset would have to totally change.

And that applies to every number symbol after twelve... or whatever they will call it now, another problem with the dozenal system is that no one can agree on names and symbols. The most common ones are dec (x from algebra), el (backwards 3), and do (10), but this is from a gizmodo article about the dozenal system:


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Damn_Underscore posted...

The dozenal system is stupid. The main argument for it is that it would be easier for everyone because 12 has a lot more factors than 10. But billions of people would have to relearn mathematics! The simplest example of this is when you see the symbol "10", it would no longer mean what you think it means. Your mindset would have to totally change.

And that applies to every number symbol after twelve... or whatever they will call it now, another problem with the dozenal system is that no one can agree on names and symbols. The most common ones are dec (x from algebra), el (backwards 3), and do (10), but this is from a gizmodo article about the dozenal system:

Yes, it would cause problems in the short term, but future generations would be raised on dozenal. They'd understand it as well as we understand decimal. If we would switch we could standardize the names and symbols. There could even be a transition period where both are used.
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Damn_Underscore posted...

The dozenal system is stupid. The main argument for it is that it would be easier for everyone because 12 has a lot more factors than 10. But billions of people would have to relearn mathematics! The simplest example of this is when you see the symbol "10", it would no longer mean what you think it means. Your mindset would have to totally change.

And that applies to every number symbol after twelve... or whatever they will call it now, another problem with the dozenal system is that no one can agree on names and symbols. The most common ones are dec (x from algebra), el (backwards 3), and do (10), but this is from a gizmodo article about the dozenal system:

What is this elvish shit?
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But, Reagan failed.
Go to your local grocery store, right now. Everything there has metric units on the label.
Hard liquor and wine are sold exclusively in metric, and beer is starting to be.

For there to be a transition period there would have to be people who are able to learn and teach the dozenal system. For me personally, I think I could learn the dozenal system but it is very confusing to me right now. If other people are like me, the big problem is arithmetic is the most basic math and more advanced math subjects assume you know basic arithmetic like second nature. If you are teaching algebra and are confused about the arithmetic, that is not good.

Also the people who want the dozenal system say that the decimal system is bad because 1/3 = .333 repeating for example, but donzenal isn't perfect either. 1/5 in dozenal would be really ugly. I think it's .2444 with the 4's repeating, but I'm not sure if I'm doing the math right.

IMO the decimal system is great and basically if ain't broke don't fix it.
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