Heronblade said:Not exclusivelyCaiphus said:Also, is ton not a Metric measurement?
The ton as defined by the UK is defined as 1016 Kg, or about 2,240 pounds
The ton as defined in the US is defined as 2,000 pounds, or about 907 Kg
The metric ton is exactly 1000 Kg or about 2,204 pounds
To help with the confusion, the former have been called "short ton" and "long ton". Also, the metric version is sometimes spelled as tonne
In any event, American here. We've been stuck between the Imperial and Metric system for decades. The original plan was for a gradual shift, with many standards using both imperial and metric units. That kind of stalled out.
Speaking for the engineers that have to convert all this mess into a usable format, the vast majority of us loathe the imperial system from the bottom of our nerdy hearts. The reluctance of the American populace at large to switch to the more efficient and easier to learn ISU standard is incredibly annoying, and there is a very strong sentiment that we should simply swap over to doing everything in metric, to hell with anyone not prepared to finish switching with us.
Unfortunately that sentiment is not quite strong enough, its a bit like organizing a strike, either everyone's on board or the few involved just get screwed.
Ok, yes, there's more to it than that, it will take a lot of free capital to switch things over that no one wants to spend, and a lot of people don't have a clue how to deal with metric units.
this and this.DANGER- MUST SILENCE said:There is one and only one advantage: Degrees F constitutes a larger range of numbers than degrees C. So in the very specific instance of being in a climate-controlled room with a digital thermostat and the goal of maximizing the comfort level of the room, assuming typical designs which work in whole numbers, degrees F gives more selectable data points and therefore allows more fine-tuning of the temperature. Now that I'm in a country where everything is Celcius I'm constantly flipping my airconditioner between 23 and 24 degrees C (73.4 and 75.2 degrees F) because all I want is 74 degrees.
Of course, this could be solved by any vaguely competent engineer who knows how to use decimals, so really the only advantage of the Imperial system is it provides a way for Americans to pretend we are better than everyone else by how we're willing to inconvenience ourselves.
it's more down to being butt loads of expensive changing every single system (it's quite mind boggling how much would have to change) to metric and getting the stubborn older generations to agree with changing to it, and i thoroughly enjoy cranking it down between 60-61 degrees F, while celcius wouldn't quite give me that satisfaction
but really, in class we use the metric system about 90% of the time, but then again my asshole teachers use EVERYTHING just to try and catch us not using the correct unit so they can take off satan level of points, fucking annoying.