Hacker News Reader

Comment by masklinn | Hacker News Reader

1. it does have the benefit that it's cross-cultural, you can actually talk to people outside your cultural bubble

2. it's got the advantage that you're using the same measurements as all your trade partners so people don't need two production lines anymore

3. it's got the advantage that people going into science and engineering don't need to build a whole new set of unit references because they've got the one which already works

4. the "huge expense" is pretty much made out of whole cloth for the purpose of saying you can't switch, the UK's metrication cost basically nothing except for road sign replacements which is why those are still imperial

View on HN

This should be part of TTIP and TPP, actually.

Use SI and ISO standards for everything.

ISO A4 paper, ISO time (2015-08-14 23:52 UTC+2), Metric, etc

> 1. it does have the benefit that it's cross-cultural, you can actually talk to people outside your cultural bubble

We already do that.

> 2. it's got the advantage that you're using the same measurements as all your trade partners so people don't need two production lines anymore

Two production lines? For what?

> 3. it's got the advantage that people going into science and engineering don't need to build a whole new set of unit references because they've got the one which already works

Yup, failure to use the metric system in everyday life is why the US has the worst scientists and produces the least scientific output. Oh, wait.

> 4. the "huge expense" is pretty much made out of whole cloth for the purpose of saying you can't switch, the UK's metrication cost basically nothing except for road sign replacements which is why those are still imperial

I agree with this one. It probably wouldn't be terribly expensive to implement, though I would question the priorities of anyone who is really hung up about it (like the grandparent post who started this whole discussion).

> Yup, failure to use the metric system in everyday life is why the US has the worst scientists and produces the least scientific output. Oh, wait.

Failure to use the metric system everywhere cost NASA a $125 million Mars orbiter just 16 years ago, and yet here you are, insisting that this is not a problem, and throwing in a non sequitur to justify the position.

Science and engineering have already made the switch to metric. NASA and JPL aren't using imperial when designing their probes and rockets anymore.

> Failure to use the metric system everywhere cost NASA a $125 million Mars orbiter

No, bureaucratic failure to address the concerns of people who spotted the error well in advance of the launch cost NASA $125M. The investigation report makes that clear, especially when it goes on to make recommendations for avoiding future mishap; nobody recommended that the engineers needed to brush up on their units.

And yet here you are, insisting that the issue was that we didn't switch over to the metric system, and throwing in some unsupported claims to justify the position.

Using metric everywhere would have avoided this particular mistake. Although indeed, the bureaucracy would probably have let some other error slip through (like mistaking cm for mm).

> 1. it does have the benefit that it's cross-cultural, you can actually talk to people outside your cultural bubble We already do that.

Do you really? Whenever I hear an American telling the temperature of the weather, I have no idea what they mean. I have to guess from the context if it's hot or cold, and even what units they're using because they rarely mention the "Fahrenheit" part.

Conversely, how many Americans would recognize that "35 degrees" is blisteringly hot while "15 degrees" means you'll need a jacket and "40 degrees" could kill you if you don't find shelter quickly?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com