Imperial vs. Metric

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Telesque · #1 Unread post by **Telesque** » Sat May 21, 2005 5:22 pm

A thread from the New Biker section posed questions about 'cid to cc' convertion.

Now, while the rest of the world goes about converting to 'Metric'*, we Americans seem to really be in love with our system of units. Granted, the use of Metric has been on a rapid rise in the last couple decades, but most of the general public still propbably couldn't tell you the basic conversions.

Now, I guess this is a Q for Americans, but there's other places out there that still use their own unit system, so...

Do you really care if we just drop the Imperial system, and pick up Metric? Are there any personal opinions on the matter of system conversion?

* Metric is the common/lay term for 'SI' (International System of Unit). 'Imperial' is the standard non-SI system for any given country.

Toyuzu · #2 Unread post by **Toyuzu** » Sat May 21, 2005 8:38 pm

I'd go metric, it certainly makes more sense mathematically. It would be hard to get used to kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour though.

Telesque · #3 Unread post by **Telesque** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:13 pm

Toyuzu wrote:I'd go metric, it certainly makes more sense mathematically. It would be hard to get used to kilometers per hour instead of miles per hour though.

I don't mind switching to km's, but the Brits (I think it's them?) measure their gas mileage in 'reverse'.

The US equivalent of their system would be '1.9 gallons per 100 miles' instead of the '55 miles per gallon' that we're used to. Not sure why they do it like that.. Probably because they measure their milleage by how far they have to travel, and we measure ours by how much money we have to spend?

Toyuzu · #4 Unread post by **Toyuzu** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:18 pm

That probably has something to do with the fact that they have been paying way too much for gas for so long, that the focus became the gas, instead of the vehicle using it. For some people over there, you buy a vehicle based on how much gas you have to put in it, rather than how it looks, or how fast it goes, etc.

Telesque · #5 Unread post by **Telesque** » Sat May 21, 2005 9:28 pm

Yeah. That's actually one of the reasons I don't plan on upgrading to a larger bike anytime soon. They're fun and all, but if it doesn't get better gas milleage than my cage, it's not for me.

As it is, I get ~55 per gallon on the Shadow, but I'd still like better milleage.

Happen to know of any really, really fuel efficient bikes that'll do 55 MPH?

It wouldn't work as a commuter to work and back (well, maybe once in a while) because doing 70 on the freeway is a lot faster than taking the normal roads, but I could use it to run to the store and whatnot.

Mag7C · #6 Unread post by **Mag7C** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:28 am

I'm all for metric. Screw America trying to be different, imperial makes math so much harder.

le_r0umain · Sun May 22, 2005 9:35 am

I have beenusing the metric since I can remember. It is what most of the world uses now. Even the brits are slowly switching...
But there's something I like about the imperial system: since it usually contains 12 sub-units it is easy to divide by 2, 3, 4 and 6. Whereas the metric (decimal) system only divides neatly by 2 and 5.

blair · #8 Unread post by **blair** » Sun May 22, 2005 9:35 am

Mag7C wrote:I'm all for metric. Screw America trying to be different, imperial makes math so much harder.

Yeah, but is there anything cooler than Sidney Greenstreet kicking out with the fractions in The Maltese Falcon?

(So I got 800's on my math GRE's...what of it?)

Randy · #9 Unread post by **Randy** » Sun May 22, 2005 12:32 pm

blair wrote:
Mag7C wrote:I'm all for metric. Screw America trying to be different, imperial makes math so much harder.
Yeah, but is there anything cooler than Sidney Greenstreet kicking out with the fractions in The Maltese Falcon?

(So I got 800's on my math GRE's...what of it?)

It is sort of an American hallmark being difficult to understand and not making a lot of sense to people in other silly countries. Why should our math be any different? If anything, we should come up with a more obtuse form of math and try and convert everyone else. Just to do it.

Telesque · Sun May 22, 2005 12:52 pm

Randy wrote:
blair wrote:
Mag7C wrote:I'm all for metric. Screw America trying to be different, imperial makes math so much harder.
Yeah, but is there anything cooler than Sidney Greenstreet kicking out with the fractions in The Maltese Falcon?

(So I got 800's on my math GRE's...what of it?)
It is sort of an American hallmark being difficult to understand and not making a lot of sense to people in other silly countries. Why should our math be any different? If anything, we should come up with a more obtuse form of math and try and convert everyone else. Just to do it.

Man, I started hearing the national anthem playing in the background when reading that.

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