Any Americans using the metric system in daily life? | Hacker News Reader

Any Americans using the metric system in daily life?

5 pointscalid16 comments

i.e. in day to day personal life outside of work/school

Working on sourcing parts for Reprap's and I was shocked to find out that the metalworkers in the area had to convert all my numbers to standard. In electronics manufacturing we used whatever the print had so I just assumed everyone did. I stick with the standard I am used to which is use whatever the print has on it...if its standard I use standard, if its metric I use metric.

I still prefer miles and gallons to km and liters but if I am doing a precise measurement I will use mm. In electronics everything is metric so that is what I use.

Conversion errors kill spacecraft...right?

At least in the USA you're consistent (or so I'm lead to believe). In the UK, fuel is sold in litres, but fuel economy is quoted in miles per gallon...

I always thought part of the reason for the switch from gallons to litres was that the price in gallons was getting too high. Now we need to switch from litres to decilitres!

Wonder if this would ever drive a similar change in the States.

I still can't think of fuel economy in anything other than mpg despite not knowing how many gallons are even in my tank.

Only everyday. I HATE our system. Any math, science, design, I only use the metric system.

It's just so much easier to do math and not nearly as confusing when you're trying to communicate with someone. Pound? Wait Pound Force or Pound Mass, wait maybe I meant a Slug. Horsepower, wait what. It's like someone randomly pulled names out of a hat and assigned them random numbers.

The word horsepower does originate from some measure of the power of one horse :) But I concur, I'm English, so I've grown up with the metric system, but there are also some imperial stragglers around (distance, speed, etc), and I can say with out a doubt that metric is so much easier to use and understand. Eg: I have absolutely no idea how many yards there are in a mile, but I know it's 1000 meters in a kilometer.

When would you need to know how many yards there are in a mile (aside from a damn good pub quiz type question!)

I've never needed to know the amount!

But then again - who's used the pythagorus theory since leaving school? :-)

I excerise (kettlebells), drive (Honda Insight), cook (with Metric kitchen tools), build (home projects), own Metric only tape measures, and think in Metric, dropped the antiquated American Imperial System years ago. No problem if you have the right tools and do not 'convert' measurements. Only buy if product is in Metric units. All in Pennsylvania. Just use it.

I'm a wannabe chef, and I use it for all recipes I've created, or adapted from others. Ratios for baked goods are much easier to work with in metric than imperial. Same goes for woodworking, and anything else with smaller distances. Try as I might, I'm still too used to 'miles' to switch to kilometers.

What do you think of my instructable.... http://www.instructables.com/id/Metrication-of-Recipes-Simpl... one lbs > 500 g one ounce (dry or fluid) > 31.25 g or mL one cup = 250 mL one tablespoon = 15 mL one teaspoon = 5 mL

I'm a pharmacy student and nearly all the calculations I do on a regular basis are done using the metric system.

I switch back and forth between metal working and wood working on a daily basis and have used metric for both for 15 years. With the wacky thicknesses of plywood/etc fractional units are just not convenient any more.

I've almost entirely switched to the metric system in my daily life, but then again, I'm an American living in Thailand. Hard not to change when you live overseas ;)

Not yet, but I log my body weight every day and lately I've considered doing it in kilograms to force myself to use the metric system more often.

I wish the metric system was base-12. It's so close to perfect.

Imperial System is based on people with 12 fingers and toes. Thus you can tell an American from a Canadian or anyone else in the World.

all my running is measured in km.

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