People do math with calculators now. Get with the program!

Metric System. Just move the damned decimal point.

Why should anyone need to know that 1/8" is .125"? Think of the children! Now, hand me that 11/32" wrench, dammit!

Grump!

"Hey, Bubba! Take an inch and 9/16" off that board."

"Here ya go, boss"

"Dammit! 9/16" is the first line PAST the half inch mark, not the line before it! Shit! Go get another board. This one's too short now."

Today, we live in a world where our young people can no longer read a clock with hands. We must simplify!

I blame the circle for all of that 12 and 24 nonsense. If there weren't any circles, we wouldn't have that problem at all.

Ban the circle!

"What is your mass?"

"About 13 stone."

"And you're how tall?"

"18 hands."

Well, then, your mass is average for your height. But, do watch those snacks. I don't want you gaining much more.

Just like the cubit did, eventually.

I used to do a lot of woodworking, and designed woodworking projects for magazines like Popular Mechanics and Family Handyman.

Normally, I worked backwards. I'd built the prototype project first, taking the necessary photos as I went, and then do the drawings to send to the magazine, along with the step-by-step instructions. Sometimes, I'd build designs using organic measurements, based on my own body dimensions. Things went very quickly that way. For example, my hand span is exactly 9 inches. Other measurements used finger and joint widths and lengths. A lot of measurements were made from the dimensions of parts of the project. Sometimes, I'd cut one part and then just start building, using it to measure other parts. That organic method of design and construction worked very well.

Once the project prototype was done, I'd measure it as I created the drawing, adjusting real measurements to become the ideal measurements for the project as it would be built by others. That way, the initial build went quickly and smoothly. Saving time was crucial, given how lousy the pay was for such projects.

Of course, that worked only for stand-alone items. When I designed a workshop building for one magazine, I did have to do the drawings before construction. That project was too complex to just start building, and it need to be according to the building code.

Ĉu mi klarigas min?

It's easier to learn Esperanto if you speak Spanish or French than if you speak English. It's a damned foreign language, innit?

Now, bring me that metric Phillips screwdriver!

Oddly enough, though, I often use the Spanish or French instructions in multi-lingual owner's manuals, just to keep up on those languages, since I don't have that many opportunities to speak them these days.

I'm not sure what will happen to that if I reverse the translator.

Not that I need a translator.

And England is not one of them. It’s the US and I believe a small African nation. It really is telling that the US sticks to the old system. When we tried instituting metric, signs went up with both. If people wouldn’t have freaked out we gradually could have gotten used to it.

It doesn't really take that long to adapt to metrics. One of the biggest problems, though, is in building materials and housing. A complete switch would screw up repairs on buildings, since materials with metric measurements couldn't really be used alongside inch measurement materials in and on existing structures.

A lot of things, though, have already been changed. I don't think there are any cars made any longer that are all inch measurement. The auto industry has been quietly switching for some time, especially with regard to fasteners. These days, you have to have tools in both standards to work on just about anything. I hate that. I keep two toolboxes - one metric and one inch. What a wasteful situation!

I don't remember if it was the fourth or fifth grade, but we spend an entire damned school year on fractions. Half the kids never did understand them, actually. The decimal system is dead simple. Were it in place, that entire year could have been spent on more productive math.

"This is the numerator, class, and this is the denominator..."

"Today, we'll begin learning how to multiply fractions, class..." Nobody got that right. Well, I did, but that's different.

I want us to start using stones and fortnights.

Not really, but the number on the sign anyhow. That's gonna make some portion of the populace feel good.

If you are willing to sit with me for hours and hours and patiently teach me to convert what we use now to what you want I will vote for it also.

However, I must first tell you that I have a learning disability and am still unable to do in my mind what we here in the states have. In fact it takes me awhile to figure it out even on paper. Any type of measurement is very hard for me to learn.

No, I am not stupid but some things I take a long time to get or only partly get it.

I do agree that the school year should either be longer or go year around. Kids lose to much when they have that much time away from learning.

but the metric system is required for American products to sell in the global, metric marketplace. but …

this is America, and i'm convinced that the carter administration's baby steps towards the metric system were responsible for the Reagan victory. "if you give them an inch they will take a yard." said the gipper in a frenzied defense of capitalism against the red metric hordes. …...