Of all the countries in the world, only three backwaters still use the archaic Imperial system of weights and measures:
- Liberia
- Myanmar (a.k.a. “the country formerly known as Burma”)
- United States of America
I say we let them get some decent governments first, then worry about getting them on the metric system.
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@Morgan
About 75% German soldiers killed in the war died on the Eastern Front.
The Soviets took Berlin.
The Soviets liberated most of the camps.
The Soviets killed the most Germans.
And they did all this despite that moronic tyrant Stalin “purging” a large part of the army because he was a paranoid dick.
America helped a lot but most of their efforts were in the pacific fighting the Japanese.
As a US citizen, let me apologize for morgan. There is just so much ignorance in this country. He probably voted for Bush both times, too.
…sigh….
Okay because the U.S doesn’t have a decent gov. Jelly much.
The whole world would be under a communist regime without America’s help. We also made huge contribution to the United Nations and actually had the idea for a peace keeping organization when Woodrow Wilson went to Paris to create a treaty after WWI. His idea (which was called Wilson’s 14 points) would have prevented WWII if his points had been accepted. The other allies; however, wanted Germany to pay for their actions during WWI. So the others didn’t accept all of his points and they forced the war-torn Germany to pay reparations which would starve the German economy and allow a dynamic leader to step in. This allowed Hitler to step in with hardly any opposition from the rest of the world. If the allies had accepted Wilson points, WWII wouldn’t have occurred and six million Jewish people wouldn’t have been killed and Russia wouldn’t have had a revolution and the Soviet Union wouldn’t have formed. Without the Soviet Union, China would have stayed Nationalist, Korea would have stayed whole, we would have avoided the Cuban missile crisis, and the entire world would be years ahead technologically. Without the United States, the world would have been conquered by Germany by the twenties and the entire world would be a place without creativity, free speech, expression, or anything the U.S. stands for.
So, if all of your scientists and military are using the metric system, what does that tell you?! I have to buy 2 sets of tools to accomodate Metric(the world) and Imperial(USA). this seems backwards and a little inefficient. Not to mention, it is NOT hard to learn metric… your dollar is already based on this system…if you can count by 10′s, you’re good. I think the rest of the world just feels like its annoying for everyone to convert to your arcaic system because of your pride and “stickin to your guns”. I dont see any advantage to NOT using Metric. It seems to me that America likes their status quo, and in this day and age, where the country is having such problems economically and with maintaining good relations with other countries, that status quo isnt valid anymore, and you guys are starting to fall behind.
Who gives a damn? What system the Americans use. As long as it works for them. This is just a website for those who hate United States Americans’ and its citizens.
Don’t know about Morgan but I am embarrased for our current president obama. Bush was way better. Who cares if we don’t use the metric system.
Michelle: You say that every time something bad happens we ask you for help? Ok, good thing you guys helped US with OUR war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea etc. I have been in Afghanistan doing your job for you and I don’t remember training Talibans in the 80′s, I don’t remember pissing them off either, and I certainly don’t remember them trying to attack me, guess I was drunk at the time, huh? Good thing the world police is there to help me with my war in Afghanistan.
I hope that little show killed off the need to blurt out more of that irrelevant bullshit.
The Imperial measuring system is not better than Metric, no matter how much you feel we owe you.
@alex
Wonderful American patriotism, anyone who doesn’t praise U.S.A is a hater.
As for the rest of you:
I don’t really see how this is something to fight about. Really! Let them keep their own system if they like it so much.
Truth be told is that the one thing that pisses me off is (as you can see in many of the comments here) that many (not all) Americans are convinced that they are the best of the best.
U.S.A keeps naming itself the greatest country on earth and I’m getting so sick of it. And just stop bitching about the military, a big military is like a big car, overcompensation.
You heard me U.S.A! I think you have a small dick!
Now I’m just going to lean back and watch the “U.S Hater” comments rain.
jack american: uranium, petroleum, ford contracts(both sides, belts and break pads), coca cola contracts(fanta was made so coke didn’t lose money in Germany), jp Morgan ammunition contracts, ibm contracts (the punch computers in the concentration camps were serviced by a nice man who flew over from new york every two weeks) this is why the us entered WWII . as for free speech reporters without borders places the us at 47 in the world http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2092173/World-Press-Freedom-Index-2011-U-S-U-K-drop.html
This seems like the same kind of dispute than “why British people still drive on the wrong side of the road?”
1. US has to use units like “the Astronomical unit” or “light-years” that are NOT “1x 10 to the power of n of the meter”. So the metric system is inadequate but some arel promoting it like “cure-all snake oil”.
2 No metricated country has ever sent anyone to the moon and back alive. President Kenedy said “we do it not because it is easy but because it is hard”. Now metric is promoted as “easy”. So? We have NOT chosen the easy..
3. USA consumes 40% of world’s GDP. The other 95% of the world (metricated) consumes the other 60%. So why can’t we use our own system.
4. Metric System is decimal like our dollar. It is NOT digital (binary) and we are in the digital age. The US customary system is binary. Because of the factional system, we can keep dividing by 2 and still remain precise. The metric system needs rounding and so is NOT precise & imperfect.
e.g. 1 yard divided by 2 = 1/2 yd = 1-1/2′ = 18″
1/2 yard divided by 2 = 1/4 yd = 3/4′ = 9″
Buy 1 lb of meat for 4. Each can get a quarter pounder = 4oz each.
You don’t cut a pizza or cake into 5 – do you???
@RT
But you can keep dividing by 2 metric system. Because 10 can be dividing by 2.
1 meter divided by 2=1/2 meter=5 dm=50=cm=500mm
1/2 meter divided by 4=125mm
By 1 kg of meat for 4. Each can get a quarter of kg=250 g
And I can cut a pizza of cake into 2 or 4 or 5. I don’t know why you use rule for cut pizza or cake.
@RT
Largest economies by GDP is EU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)
@RT
You are a nut bar.
1. AU and light-year are base units, much like the metre (note the correct spelling) or your mile. See also gigaparsec, femtosecond, and kilofortnight.
2 The metric system is to be avoided because it is simple? Really? You’d rather do things the difficult way, only because it’s difficult? Here’s a spoon – build me a tunnel.
3. Without getting into how greedy and possession-obsessed the Americans are (see recent videos of Black Friday at Walmart for examples) and measuring how important a country is by your god the dollar, why not just count heads? The US has 309 million people, which is less than 5% of the world population of 6.93 billion. I’ll turn your question around: So why don’t you use our system?
4. Digital = binary? US customary system is binary? You really lose it here, don’t you?It looks like you are one of those people who think that you cannot divide 7 by 2.
>e.g. 1 yard divided by 2 = 1/2 yd = 1-1/2′ = 18″
>1/2 yard divided by 2 = 1/4 yd = 3/4′ = 9″
Take it a step further, RT.
9″ divided by 2 is? Or does your analogy break down here?
>Buy 1 lb of meat for 4. Each can get a quarter pounder = 4oz each.
Buy 1kg of meat for 4. Each can get 250g (no McDonalds reference for us)
Buy 1kg of meat for 5. Each can get 200g (still a lot of meat – even for an American)
Buy 1kg of meat for 10. Each can get 100g
Buy 1kg of meat for 7. Each can get 143g (done in my head – no fractions)
>You don’t cut a pizza or cake into 5 – do you???
Sure I do – can’t you? Each slice is 360/5=72 degrees. Are you telling me you cannot estimate 72 degrees? That you cannot visualize a pentagram on your pizza? And who cares if you’re off a bit? It’s easier to do if it’s a square pizza or a rectangular cake, though.
My point is this: you are a nut bar.
You’ve forgotten about the Bahamas we don’t use the metric system also the UK still uses the imperial system for many things like miles, pounds, and ounces.
Hey Anon x, Rob, Rikard, Zachary and the rest: If America falls, where will have to fall back to? What country do you know that allows such freedoms to exist? Do you think gay people will be able to live peaceably in Iran? Or the Progressive anarchists (AKA: Obama, Ayes, etc.) to work in freedom to destroy America? Do you really think the despots in Liberia, N. Korea, China will let you just fire comments opposing their beliefs and let you get away with it? Wow! Talk about ignorant! I kiss the fucking ground EVERY time I return to the US! EVERY FUCKING TIME!
How could possibly Bush the war criminal be better than any president in U.S. history? Let alone the second worst recession? I am not even beong political here.
Perhaps that kind of ignorance made us not to adopt the metric system. Sigh.
Yo out there, coming to you from this archaic corner of the world, Canada was forced to go metric when part of my country, (the part that wasn’t to bright) elected a nut case called trudeau who made Canada go metric, if Canada had of had some backbone we still would be imperial, no one needs to go metric, it just messes up our country. It is also designed to divide a country and that is not democracy @ work.
Thank you
J C and Heather Cruickshank
The metric system it has 2 giant flaws that make the Imperial system better.
1. The Fahrenheit system is much more accurate than Celcius without using decimal points. Proof that there is a noticeable difference in the huge Celcius degree range is the fact that most digital Celcius based thermometers use decimal points for 20.5 degrees and such.
2. The other advantage is that we Americans get more for our money on our system. In other countries, like Canada for instance, when they raise the price of gas by 1 penny that is approximately the equivalent to raising it by 4 cents in the US Gallon. There are several occasions when gas goes up in the US by 9 cents, and it goes up by 3 cents in Canada. Do the math, that is approximately 3 cents more per US gallon that Canada pays. Not to mention the many items that we get in the US as a dozen (12) or even baker’s dozen (13), when in other countries you would get 10.
Ultimately though the question here is not which is better, but why do we still have the Imperial system in the US?
The answer is that the schools have pushed and pushed for the transfer to metric for decades now, and the people chose not to accept it. That’s just it. In this wonderful country they can’t just say “we are now on the metric system”. Here we have a choice, and that DOES make us the greatest country in the world.
Just got home from a 3 month vacation in the US. Although I have been there numerous times and have been to 48 states as well as coast to coast in Canada and 10 European countries. I had no idea Americans are as brainwashed as they are. You have no idea about the rest of the world because the. American education system only teaches about how wonderful the US is. Nowhere have I seen the poverty that is in the US. Yes you have some rich, but most live in squalor below the poverty line. As far as freedoms, you don’t have the freedoms that are common in the rest of the world, except for a few Communist and dictator countries.
Please buy a passport and travel outside your little world. You will find it cleaner, safer, more affluent and much more modern. Sorry for being so blunt as I have met many good people in the US, but they have been blinded by their education brain washing.
Nice researching for all your information on the Internet faggots. Oh and how are you going to tell me about my own country (United States of America) when you truly know nothing of our country. Oh and let me guess you are either Russian or British cause every person I have talked to and puts the U.S down ends up being that and I think you guys have been taught to depose Americans
*despise Americans
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