Is it necessary to switch all road signs in the US and UK from imperial to metric?

speedycatz

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Like for instance from mph to km/h (speed limit) and from feet to metres (height restrictions)?

I believe Canada, Australia and New Zealand managed to complete the conversion decades ago and they are still part of British Commonwealth to date. So why the British and also the Americans haven't put an (apparent) effort towards metrication?
 
Beneficial? Debatable. Necessary? No, I can't even remember the last time it's come up in politics. No one here cares, once you learn a system it just becomes natural.
 
You'll have to kill me before I accept km/h in my home country. That is all. :p
 
Because imperial units make sense. Not saying that metric does not, just saying that there isn't really a beneficial reason to switch to metric. Even our crappy public education system does an adequate job of teaching us all metric units alongside imperial, so it isn't like nobody here knows the metric system.

Also, because race car.

Edit: Also, because Sammy Hagar.
 
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As more than one person has pointed out, it would be switching from one totally arbitrary measurement system to yet another totally arbitrary measurement system. Not a lot of point, there. (Especially since we tried it in the 70s and it was vehemently rejected by the public.)

There are even societal reasons not to switch; some have observed that switching to metric also makes people less able to 'do' fractions. Or, apparently, use other systems.

It's especially amusing to go on a Jag forum and see all the metrickers moan about not comprehending a simple set of fractional-sized tools. The moaning gets really bad when you throw the Whitworth system in. Meanwhile the SAE/Imperialists grouse a little but keep going, because for them metric is easy and they've learned it after the slightly more complex system (of which Whitworth is a subset).

I can easily work in Imperial, SAE (which is different when you get to fluid measures), Whitworth and Metric. The continental Europeans I've worked alongside over the years often have had major issues wrapping their heads around anything that isn't metric. :dunno:

Trivia: Whitworth is still alive and well and being used in consumer products. Millions upon millions of Whitworth fasteners are churned out every year by otherwise "metric" producers. Not going away any time soon. What is it used in? Camera tripod/accessory/baseplate mounts. The thread is 1/4" Whitworth.
 
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It's especially amusing to go on a Jag forum and see all the metrickers moan about not comprehending a simple set of fractional-sized tools.
Fuck fractions, I don't wanna pull out a calculator every time I need to figure out what wrench I need!!!! :p

Metric is much easier and a much more logical system than Imperial but at the same time I don't see much point in switching from one to the other. Global metrification would make matters slightly more convenient but its not like its all that hard to estimate speed/distance while switching between the two.

Now if you wanna talk switching the entire world to drive on the right side of the road, THAT would be something useful (especially if we can get rid of the strict ass import laws in this country)
 
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So why the British and also the Americans haven't put an (apparent) effort towards metrication?

Give us one good reason to do it?

Don't just say - to match with the rest of the world. That's not a valid reason. And nor is saying that it will be easier for tourists that visit those countries. You just multiply the street sign by 1.6x. If you say "too difficult", then I would say - people take math classes in the UK and the US and learn how to multiply, maybe you should do the same? (this is not targeted at you in any way, I don't have anything against you - I'm just giving a hypothetical example in order to prove a point.)
 
Camera tripod/accessory/baseplate mounts. The thread is 1/4" Whitworth.

That was a bit of a surprise when I first heard about it, but I suppose the threads were like that decades ago and have to retain compatibility with old cameras.

It won't be a surprise that I need a combination socket set for working on my Land Rover, BL used a random combination of metric and imperial even before the 10 previous owners started replacing bolts.
 
Fuck fractions, I don't wanna pull out a calculator every time I need to figure out what wrench I need!!!! :p

I have a set of very dirty, very well used metric wrenches and sockets and a set of clean, untouched "imperial" wrenches and sockets if that says anything about my opinion on that matter. :p
 
More importantly should we switch from the Sumerian time system to Metric time? :p
 
More importantly should we switch from the Sumerian time system to Metric time? :p

You already are using some SI units to measure time. Ever heard of this little bugger called the second?


"She gets 300 Hectares on a single tank of Kerosene"

Fuel consumption should be measured in square metres... after all, l/km is just another way of saying m?/m, which is m?. On average, my car uses 0.07mm?.
What's the common unit below the inch? Saying "my car does 0.000107230392 square inch" sounds just weird (that's 34mpg). How does "107 square thou/mil" sound? :lol:
 
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Like for instance from mph to km/h (speed limit) and from feet to metres (height restrictions)?

I believe Canada, Australia and New Zealand managed to complete the conversion decades ago and they are still part of British Commonwealth to date. So why the British and also the Americans haven't put an (apparent) effort towards metrication?
Great Britain is metrified, has been for ages. Only Burma, Liberia and USA (what a nice club eh) refuse to adopt the SI-sytem as their primary or sole measurement system.

Yes, Great Britain still posts speed limits and distance in miles, but everything else is, bridge height, road width and such must be in meters. Being a member of the EU it's inevitable that the UK will need to adapt to the ruling standards eventually, altough there are no time frames given at present. As for the US, well they enjoy building barriers to confuse foreigners in all aspects, when you like me deal with international trade it's apparent just how similar Russia and the US is. Stiff, unflexible, protectionistic and suffering from NIH. The latter being the reason why the US isnt metric.

Related: http://www.libdemvoice.org/20000-road-signs-in-kilometers-an-evil-eu-plot-17417.html
 
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