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I like the metric system for driving on the highway for 1 simple reason

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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:01 PM
Original message
I like the metric system for driving on the highway for 1 simple reason
1 hour of driving at 100 KM/hr = 100 KM.

So, you're up in Canada and it says Vancouver is 300 KM. Without traffic, that's about 3 hours.

If you drive faster, well, then the time includes bathroom breaks. :P

Easy right?

They should just change it all tomorrow, what the heck.

I like Canada anyway.
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neverforget Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:05 PM
Response to Original message
1. No way, hoser!
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
7. Careful for some(all?) Canadians hoser is no joke
I think Americans think of it as something like "Hey, homeboy", whats happening?

It isn't. I found out the hard way.

Don
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
14. listen to my homie
word.

slang is not timeless. :D
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neverforget Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #7
17. I've called my Canadian father in law a hoser and he didn't mind.
But I'll take it under advisement....
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-09-10 08:01 AM
Response to Reply #17
29. You are doing fine
I used it once and had to go on to explain the entire Great White North show we used to watch here. It was a nightmare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsgVspgy184

Don
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:18 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. No point in steering now
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zipplewrath Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:09 PM
Response to Original message
2. As long as you always drive 100 km/hr
I just don't have problems dividing by 6. (or 7, or 8)
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madinmaryland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:10 PM
Response to Original message
3. Not to confuse you, but if you drive 10 minutes at 100Km/hr you will have gone
16.66666667 Km, where as 10 minutes at 60mph would be 10 miles. Hmmm.

:shrug:
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:13 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. you didn't account for toll booths in your calculations
:grr:
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madinmaryland Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:25 PM
Response to Reply #4
11. If I was in Delaware it would take 10 minutes to go a mile. What would that be...
REAL FUCKING SLOW!!

:mad:

:hi:
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. It's not slow
where else can you cross an entire state in 10 minutes? :D
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Possumpoint Donating Member (937 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 09:02 PM
Response to Reply #13
21. To Answer The Question
Maryland on I-81 between WV and PA..
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Posteritatis Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:14 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. In my neck of the woods people tend to measure by quarter-hour increments
Anything less than fifteen minutes is "less than fifteen minutes" or otherwise "nearby," and past that it's all time. In that case, fifteen minutes at 100km/hr is 25km, which is a perfectly usable unit of distance.

It's weird; I couldn't tell you (well, immediately tell you) how far it is from Halifax to the town my grandmother and most of my other relatives live in kilometers, but I know it's two hours away. Same thing in town - "that place is twenty minutes' drive, an hour by bus," etc.

Travel measurements are weird.
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:21 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Friend of mine lived in the edge of Phoenix before they finished all the freeways
we'd ask him how far someplace we were going was (mind you, always in the Phoenix metro).

everywhere was always an hour away. :wtf:
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Stinky The Clown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:14 PM
Response to Original message
6. Drive a mile a minute. 100 miles to Vancouver is 100 minutes - about an hour anna haff.
Fun with numbers, huh?
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. does that work in Tronno?
:evilgrin:
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:25 PM
Response to Original message
12. People are unrecommending this LOL
take off!
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:32 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Strange, huh?
:kick: & R
:P
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neverforget Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:40 PM
Response to Reply #12
18. Give it a rec, eh?
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
15. The reason the metric system conversion failed here was because of the half-assed,
"nibbling around the edges", way it was not done.

I learned the metric system in grade school and it was so much easier and logical than the anachronistic mish-mash we so desperately cling to.

The only way to switch is to switch, period.
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The Straight Story Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:41 PM
Response to Original message
19. Us Americans like things more difficult, makes us stronger
:)
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 08:49 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. if not smarter
i mean not smarter.
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Possumpoint Donating Member (937 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 09:04 PM
Response to Reply #19
22. For 64 Years
Edited on Tue Jun-08-10 09:04 PM by Possumpoint
I've used and dealt with the American Standard systems of measurement. Don't confuse me with a system built on logic.
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Morning Dew Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 09:17 PM
Response to Original message
23.  convert my 53 "kilometer years" to U.S. style years and
I'm only 32.9 years old.... I'll buy that for a dollar.
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rzemanfl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 09:27 PM
Response to Original message
24. A city boy, my first job out of school was in predominantly rural
area where all directions were in units that were a quarter of a mile or multiples thereof, "Go South one mile, turn right, go a half a mile, turn left, go a quarter of a mile and look for the driveway. All the roads were on section lines.
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Jamastiene Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 09:32 PM
Response to Original message
25. I'm still trying to figure out why they chose 12 inches for a foot.
Why not 13 or even 15? And why is there no unit of measurement called knee, elbow, or penis? What makes feet do damn special?
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Liberal Veteran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 10:04 PM
Response to Original message
26. There are three scruples to a drachm and 20 grains to a scruple and thats how it was intended!
:P
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smalll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 10:10 PM
Response to Original message
27. Um, I hour of driving at 60 miles per hour (relatively equivalent) --
works out to a mile a minute. That's even more elegant -- on a minute by minute basis! Plus, 60 isn't THAT fast -- so one can often drive each next highway mile in somewhat LESS than a minute -- a pretty good feeling!
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CreekDog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jun-08-10 10:36 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. but then you get 273 minutes
:wtf:

that's um...:banghead:

i like my way: 2.73 hours. :)
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HopeHoops Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jun-09-10 09:12 AM
Response to Original message
30. I just like the fact that it says you can do 100. That just sounds cool.
Edited on Wed Jun-09-10 09:14 AM by HopeHoops
Yeah, I know it is only 60 and change but still.

On Edit: The US system still has it beat. If the sign says 20 miles, that's about 20 minutes. The clock tells you how far away you are.
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