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Converting to metric

alledanalledan Member Posts: 19,541
edited March 2007 in General Discussion
This last weekend I was reminded at the pace we are converting to metric. I was on I-75 in Ohio when I saw a sign that said:

All signs metric
Next 20 miles
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Comments

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    COLTCOLT Member Posts: 12,637 ******
    edited November -1
    [:D][:D]...man, glad we did not change to that back when they first announced it YEARS ago...[;)]


    ani-texas-flag-1.gif
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    Colt SuperColt Super Member Posts: 31,007
    edited November -1
    Nothing can hold a candle to progress.

    D.
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    select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Well I guess the sign meant to speed up. I can't read kilometers on the speedo..
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    Our measuring system should have been changed to Metric decades ago. Wait a minute, I forgot that this is Gun Broker where any change or new technology causes instant fear among our members. It should come as a relief to all here that we remain aligned with Liberia and Burma by staying with the old system of weights and measures.
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    newtgingrichnewtgingrich Member Posts: 489 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    the rest of the world should convert to our system....and speak english too !!!
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    English is already the international language of science, technology and commerce and the Metric system should hold the same status for weights and measures because it is a superior system.
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    catpealer111catpealer111 Member Posts: 10,695
    edited November -1
    Is converting to metric like converting to Islam? Is metric the measurement of peace?
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    Colt SuperColt Super Member Posts: 31,007
    edited November -1
    GO LIBERIA !!!

    D.
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    PearywPearyw Member Posts: 3,699
    edited November -1
    I guess they will want me to change from 45 acp to a 9mm. NO NO
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    catpealer111catpealer111 Member Posts: 10,695
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Pearyw
    I guess they will want me to change from 45 acp to a 9mm. NO NO


    No, you just have to go from the .45 ACP to the 11.43mm ACP.[:D][:D]
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    Colt SuperColt Super Member Posts: 31,007
    edited November -1
    Does anyone remember when they converted the gas pumps to read liters instead of gallons during one of the gas crises in the '70s??

    3.785 liters per gallon. I always thought it was a scam to convince us we were getting more for less money. Hope that never happens again. I'm too oriented to English/American measurements. Can't figure cups to grams. Too old to change now.

    Doug

    * edited for spelling
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    mrseatlemrseatle Member Posts: 15,467 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Metric system designed by a french guy and is impractical since it gets it's base unit, the meter from an ever changing variable, 1/40,000,000 of the Earth's polar circumference or somthing like that.
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    iceracerxiceracerx Member Posts: 8,860 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Base ten is sort of easier to convert then base 12 (At least with my boots on)..... it's those pesky millimicrons that always mess me up.......
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    You can sense the fear in the hearts of the Gun Broker gang as the very name metric system is mentioned. This would be just another nail in the coffin for the few remaining American widget factories and the widgeters who have assembled those widgets using feet and inches since the first water wheel drove a buffalo hide belt in the factory where grandpa and pop once worked.
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    iceracerxiceracerx Member Posts: 8,860 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    well.... the dinosaur that is the US auto industry has been metric since 1968 or so.... with a few notable exceptions such as the Dodge "B" van and the old Jeeps (not just WW2 Jeeps, we are talking about "that beast of an in-line 6" jeeps)

    As far as travel goes, people from Michigan measure distance in Hours, not Miles or Klicks.
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    The last time I drove anywhere in Michigan distance on the Interstate was more easily measured by the number of pot holes struck per second of driving. Are the roads any better today?
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    select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Heck I did convert to Metric a very very long time ago. I shoot a 9MM and a 6MM. I also have a 5.7 Litre in the Vette
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    iceracerxiceracerx Member Posts: 8,860 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    K - Michigan still has 4 seasons: Almost Construction, Construction, Still Construction and Winter

    Pot holes per second - now that's a velocity!!!!

    Much better then furlongs per fortnight
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    dlrjjdlrjj Member Posts: 5,528 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Many of my newer pieces of equipment have already switched to metric nuts and bolts, especially the combine heads. I now have several sets of wrenches in both formats, and I'm finally getting to where I can guess metric sizes close enough to only have to grab a small handful of tools in order to find the correct one that I need.[:D]
    Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is an art form.
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    Colt SuperColt Super Member Posts: 31,007
    edited November -1
    Will no one jump onto the Whitworth bandwagon with me ??

    Doug
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    cmd66cmd66 Member Posts: 1,418 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Screw em, I'm not converting!
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    catpealer111catpealer111 Member Posts: 10,695
    edited November -1
    The standard for the aviation industry is still standard.
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    spurgemasturspurgemastur Member Posts: 5,655 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by mrseatle
    Metric system designed by a french guy and is impractical since it gets it's base unit, the meter from an ever changing variable, 1/40,000,000 of the Earth's polar circumference or somthing like that.




    Not any more: The meter is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. And a second is defined on the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom.

    The kilogram, however, is defined on a ball of silicone that sits in a vault somewhere in Europe....and it's losing mass. They can't figure out why. They're fighting about if and how the KG should be redefined. One camp says it should be defined as a mass that can be supported by a machine supplied with certain amount of power. Others argue that would be too derivative, and that it should be defined as a certain number of molecules of a certain substance.

    I'm all for the metric system. Our system has body parts as the basis of many of it's base units.
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    COLTCOLT Member Posts: 12,637 ******
    edited November -1
    ...screw the metric system...and it is obvious I am not alone with this thought...we didn't change, now did we?

    ...Superior my butt. Maybe for the Euros, this aint Europe, thank God.

    ...no sense in going backwards to join the Euros with their second rate industry and methology. OH! I forgot!...Outside large metro areas most of the Euros still have those quaint villages where their main mode of transportation is a horse and wagon, plow with mules,no electricity, dirt/mud roads, haul water from a well...yeah buddy we should hurry and change over to metric so we can be as "advanced" as these backwards peasants...[;)]


    ani-texas-flag-1.gif
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    MosinNagantDiscipleMosinNagantDisciple Member Posts: 2,612
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by mrseatle
    Metric system designed by a french guy and is impractical since it gets it's base unit, the meter from an ever changing variable, 1/40,000,000 of the Earth's polar circumference or somthing like that.




    Not any longer - the meter has been redefined to be based on the distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second.

    And before that, there were those meter-long platinum-iridium bars that were kept in France. True, the original definition was a variable, not a constant, but ever since those bars were made the meter has had a fixed length.
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    transportation is a horse and wagon, plow with mules,no electricity, dirt/mud roads, haul water from a well...

    Sounds exactly like the dream of the Gun Broker gang, real America where a man can be a man without the need of big cities with their crime and corruption or big government programs.
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    MosinNagantDiscipleMosinNagantDisciple Member Posts: 2,612
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by COLT
    ...screw the metric system...and it is obvious I am not alone with this thought...we didn't change, now did we?

    ...Superior my butt. Maybe for the Euros, this aint Europe, thank God.

    ...no sense in going backwards to join the Euros with their second rate industry and methology. OH! I forgot!...Outside large metro areas most of the Euros still have those quaint villages where their main mode of transportation is a horse and wagon, plow with mules,no electricity, dirt/mud roads, haul water from a well...yeah buddy we should hurry and change over to metric so we can be as "advanced" as these backwards peasants...[;)]


    ani-texas-flag-1.gif




    I hope you're joking.
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    COLTCOLT Member Posts: 12,637 ******
    edited November -1
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    COLT, I have no doubt that even if the rest of the USA went metric the Lone Star State would hold out, just for the hell of it [:D].
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    gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I took a chemistry class fourty years ago. Didn't take me very long to come to the conclusion that conversion to the metric system was way overdue. Blasted shame that we are dragging this out so long.
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    COLTCOLT Member Posts: 12,637 ******
    edited November -1
    kristov quote: COLT, I have no doubt that even if the rest of the USA went metric the Lone Star State would hold out, just for the hell of it .

    ...Well, it's a good thought anyway! Unfortuanately with the number of defense plants, high tech industry located here...they have long since converted to this "commie" form of measurement...and it may just be a matter of decades ([:D]) that us under educated "folk" with only one degree...may very well be forced to follow .

    ...our cattle may get awfully confused about that!...they will be exspecting a 2,000 lb round bail to be dropped off the bail stabber...and only end up with a 907 kilo bale...the cows (not to mention me) will be confused and dissappointed!...[;)]

    ani-texas-flag-1.gif
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    greeker375greeker375 Member Posts: 3,644
    edited November -1
    I remember in 1954 an article in the papers announcing that within the next "few" years all of America would be using Metric.
    Right!
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    Horse Plains DrifterHorse Plains Drifter Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 39,358 ***** Forums Admin
    edited November -1
    The metric system is a good system.......For other countries. This is America and we use a different system here. There is no need for us to follow the rest of the world like a bunch of sheep.
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    youngsparkeyyoungsparkey Member Posts: 398 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    How funny it is reading this post, after just visiting with my brother that is a Cav. Scout in yes the U.S. Army. Funny how he talks using all metric values, sounds like the people of america are the only ones not converting.[:0]
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    1911a1-fan1911a1-fan Member Posts: 51,193 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    i think it is more of fear out of stupidity why there is friction about changing, metric system is very easy itself, but the hard part comes into play when you have to convert standard, which is really easy once you learn how to do that


    i don't have a problem with it, i think it is reverse of most thoughts here on it, it is not going backwards, it is going forward
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    n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by kristov
    You can sense the fear in the hearts of the Gun Broker gang as the very name metric system is mentioned. This would be just another nail in the coffin for the few remaining American widget factories and the widgeters who have assembled those widgets using feet and inches since the first water wheel drove a buffalo hide belt in the factory where grandpa and pop once worked.


    No fear here, just tired of being forced to conform to the standards of others.

    Feet and inches is what we have always used. It has worked just fine for this nation so far, so what is the problem?

    Is it because the rest of the world uses metric and by God, we are part of a Global Community, so we must align ourselves with everyone else? I haven't seen us shut out of international trade, or other functions, due to our system of weights and measures.

    Personally, I don't want to be a part of one big happy world. I like America as she used to be and should be again.

    It isn't broken, leave it alone.
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    n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by lt496
    quote:Originally posted by kristov
    You can sense the fear in the hearts of the Gun Broker gang as the very name metric system is mentioned. This would be just another nail in the coffin for the few remaining American widget factories and the widgeters who have assembled those widgets using feet and inches since the first water wheel drove a buffalo hide belt in the factory where grandpa and pop once worked.


    No fear here, just tired of being forced to conform to the standards of others.

    Feet and inches is what we have always used. It has worked just fine for this nation so far, so what is the problem?

    Is it because the rest of the world uses metric and by God, we are part of a Global Community, so we must align ourselves with everyone else? I haven't seen us shut out of international trade, or other functions, due to our system of weights and measures.

    Personally, I don't want to be a part of one big happy world. I like America as she used to be and should be again.

    It isn't broken, leave it alone.









    amen
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    1911a1-fan1911a1-fan Member Posts: 51,193 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:I haven't seen us shut out of international trade, or other functions, due to our system of weights and measures.


    correct, but guess who bares responsibility of converting it?, nothing comes in or goes out of this country with out being converted here first
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    kristovkristov Member Posts: 6,633
    edited November -1
    My oldest daughter just brought something to my attention as to how the metric system has cheated many good Americans. A fifth of bourbon is actually 757ml but the bottles currently available are only 750ml in size, causing us to be cheated! If the Gun Broker gang can't keep us in Iraq, give GW a third term or make English the only language ever to be heard in this country, they may be able to use the short filled whisky bottles to keep the metric system the hell out of the United States! A hogs head of fuel will get my Mercedes 280 leagues and that should be good enough for anyone!
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    JamesRKJamesRK Member Posts: 25,670 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I can't believe you never noticed the bourbon bottles were smaller after the change. That's some pretty poor mileage by the way, even for a Mercedes 280. [:D]
    The road to hell is paved with COMPROMISE.
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