Why do Americans write their dates down backwards?
- Thread starter aps1984
- Start date
You're ALL wrong, this is the internationally approved standard which is FAR superior:
2010-04-05
that's April 5th.
See it's just like numbers like (picks a random number) 480, the most significant digit, the "4" in the position to denote the number of hundreds, the largest unit, is on the left where it will be read first and be considered first.
It is vitally important when looking at a date the most immediately obvious thing is the year for many reasons:
-in Excel style databases, auto sort will sort them into year, rather than by day of month or month which is useless.
-you won't possibly misread the first digit, and it's more important to be in the right year than the right month.
-ease of writing, people need to think correspondingly longer to remember finer dates, remembering the year hardly takes any effort, month, takes a bit of thought especially near the end/beginning of a month, and day you need to recall recently or glance at your watch/phone.
-the dashes are much clearer and indicate it is the international format, as with "05/02/2010" it is not immediately obvious if it is the US or UK standard.
-international format is not "owned" by any country, patriotism doesn't come into it
-it is the standard format for serious business
one good feature of the international date format is for dates that have become names of events, like 9/11, they remain in the same order, as it would be 2001-09-11 and still be pronounced the same. So no drama there.
So, stop being a tool and start using the International Date format!
2010-04-05
that's April 5th.
See it's just like numbers like (picks a random number) 480, the most significant digit, the "4" in the position to denote the number of hundreds, the largest unit, is on the left where it will be read first and be considered first.
It is vitally important when looking at a date the most immediately obvious thing is the year for many reasons:
-in Excel style databases, auto sort will sort them into year, rather than by day of month or month which is useless.
-you won't possibly misread the first digit, and it's more important to be in the right year than the right month.
-ease of writing, people need to think correspondingly longer to remember finer dates, remembering the year hardly takes any effort, month, takes a bit of thought especially near the end/beginning of a month, and day you need to recall recently or glance at your watch/phone.
-the dashes are much clearer and indicate it is the international format, as with "05/02/2010" it is not immediately obvious if it is the US or UK standard.
-international format is not "owned" by any country, patriotism doesn't come into it
-it is the standard format for serious business
one good feature of the international date format is for dates that have become names of events, like 9/11, they remain in the same order, as it would be 2001-09-11 and still be pronounced the same. So no drama there.
So, stop being a tool and start using the International Date format!
To be fair, you're not the only country that drives on the right side. Many countries do that. In Germany, for example, we drive on the right side, too.Julianking93 said:
Pretty much every country in Europe (except Great Britain and Ireland) drives on the right side.
Edit: Damn, naruto'd.
We do use the metric system. We learn the american system when we are little so they can fuck our lives by having us learn a whole new system in Middle School. Assbackwards country [sub]grumbles[/sub]Julianking93 said:
EDIT: Also, everything Treblaine said (above).
I've often wondered this myself.
The YYYY-MM-DD system works for arranging things by date, obviously. For instance, 19700831 (1970-08-31) is < 19910725 (1991-07-25).
The DD-MM-YYYY is clearly intended to be read as "The DDth day of the MMth month of the YYYYth year".
Both go consistently from a smaller unit of time to a larger or vice-versa, but MM-DD-YYYY can't seem to make up its mind, which makes it incoherent IMO. Of course if I had been raised to use it I probably wouldn't be so bemused by it.
As for the metric system: TBH I've never really understood the whole "British love the metric system" joke (and I do appreciate it is a joke). Here in the UK plenty of people cook with imperial measurements (e.g. with pounds of butter), we buy pints of milk and drink pints of beer, I hear "miles per hour" more than "kilometers per hour", the road signs are required by law to give distances in miles, etc. Meanwhile the default scientific system is the (largely metric) SI system, even in the USA, as it is over here, so taking all that into account I don't really see that much difference between the two countries (although I've never really been to the USA so I'm probably way off about that). Ironically the "imperial system" is so-named because it was originally the official measuring system of the British Empire (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units).
That said, I do find the metric system more logical and therefore easier to remember. All you have to do is remember the base units (meter, kilogram, second, etc.), and the prefixes (in practise all you usually have to remember are centi-, kilo-, deci- and milli-), and you can form any measurement. The other handy thing is that the whole thing is based around base 10, converting from one measurement to another (e.g. from centimetres to millimetres) only requires moving a decimal point.
And, yes, it probably would be less confusing to everyone else if we drove on the right side of the road, but it would temporarily be very confusing to us! Shame really...
I've often wondered this myself.
The YYYY-MM-DD system works for arranging things by date, obviously. For instance, 19700831 (1970-08-31) is < 19910725 (1991-07-25).
The DD-MM-YYYY is clearly intended to be read as "The DDth day of the MMth month of the YYYYth year".
Both go consistently from a smaller unit of time to a larger or vice-versa, but MM-DD-YYYY can't seem to make up its mind, which makes it incoherent IMO. Of course if I had been raised to use it I probably wouldn't be so bemused by it.
As for the metric system: TBH I've never really understood the whole "British love the metric system" joke (and I do appreciate it is a joke). Here in the UK plenty of people cook with imperial measurements (e.g. with pounds of butter), we buy pints of milk and drink pints of beer, I hear "miles per hour" more than "kilometers per hour", the road signs are required by law to give distances in miles, etc. Meanwhile the default scientific system is the (largely metric) SI system, even in the USA, as it is over here, so taking all that into account I don't really see that much difference between the two countries (although I've never really been to the USA so I'm probably way off about that). Ironically the "imperial system" is so-named because it was originally the official measuring system of the British Empire (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_units).
That said, I do find the metric system more logical and therefore easier to remember. All you have to do is remember the base units (meter, kilogram, second, etc.), and the prefixes (in practise all you usually have to remember are centi-, kilo-, deci- and milli-), and you can form any measurement. The other handy thing is that the whole thing is based around base 10, converting from one measurement to another (e.g. from centimetres to millimetres) only requires moving a decimal point.
And, yes, it probably would be less confusing to everyone else if we drove on the right side of the road, but it would temporarily be very confusing to us! Shame really...
On the car side of road issue, flip a coin.
Due to the design of a car it has to be on ONE side of the road, it doesn't matter which just as long as the country agrees at the end of the day it hardly matters at all. Why should there be an international standard saying that ALL the cars in the world had to be right (or left) hand drive?
It's like what is the "right" internet protocol used for the world wide web, we all have to agree one one standard or the internet just won't work.
America does have some standards I like with Mains electricity being one, 120 volts and slightly higher frequency means less onerous requirements on power supplies. But their plugs are naff.
Due to the design of a car it has to be on ONE side of the road, it doesn't matter which just as long as the country agrees at the end of the day it hardly matters at all. Why should there be an international standard saying that ALL the cars in the world had to be right (or left) hand drive?
It's like what is the "right" internet protocol used for the world wide web, we all have to agree one one standard or the internet just won't work.
America does have some standards I like with Mains electricity being one, 120 volts and slightly higher frequency means less onerous requirements on power supplies. But their plugs are naff.
I live here and I don't even know why...
Eh guess It doesn't matter very much anyway
Quoted for truth. Who cares if the US writes their date differently than the UK or other nations, as in the long run, it shouldn't really matter.Zap Happy said:
Its not hard, Why teach two systems when the rest of the world uses Metric and its the only one that matters? Its the retardedness of the situation that angers me!Treblaine said:
I love how a gram of water is equal to a single millilitre which is equal to a cubic centimetre.jamesslater said:
I use metric when it comes to maths, but if I ever have to carry something or feel it's heft... pounds just make more sense to me. I can FEEL a pound more and I can GAUGE an inch much better. That's why I'm much more impressed by a 24 inch monitor than a 600 millimeter one.
But stones and ounces can go RIGHT TO HELL and fuck fractions of inches to hell, use decimal places or round up. 1 3/8 inch WTF kind of length is that!!!
Kilometres per hour are fun, everything sounds like it is 1.6 times faster. Speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour sounds way sexier than 60 miles per hour. And the military forces of the world all use Kmph, jet liners use Kmph, so do those European sports car types, kmph is just the vocabulary of HIGH SPEED!
Miles per hour just seem mundane. 30 miles per hour... it just doesn't seem deadly... I remember seeing and advert about road safety where it said "hitting a child at only 30 miles per hour-blah-blah-blah" yeah, even government safety officers think it doesn't sound fast.
Now 50 Kilometres per hour... HOLY SHIT someone ever survived that!
Why do British write their dates weird?
Because thats how they were taught how to do it by their parents. We're diffrent, get over it.
On a side thought, I always thought that 'American' english is weird. Putting 'Z' where a prefecly good 's' should go has always bothered me.
Because thats how they were taught how to do it by their parents. We're diffrent, get over it.
On a side thought, I always thought that 'American' english is weird. Putting 'Z' where a prefecly good 's' should go has always bothered me.
most people know what month it is, and do not need it. Usually when looking at the date on a display I just need the dayKubanator said:
Because we adopted it from England while they were still our Big Brother and we declared independence before those things caught on over there.Julianking93 said:
