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Do Americans understand celsius?

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Max000
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20 Dec 2013, 3:55 am

pete1061 wrote:
I think it's all about money. It would require a significant investment to change everything over to metric.


The only real cost is repainting road signs. Which have to be replaced from time to time anyway. In fact in the last 20 years more money has been spent to repost metric road signs back into English. Now that is a waste of money.

The real problem is the Republicans who love to obstruct progress. No matter how much sense something makes. :roll:

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pete1061
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20 Dec 2013, 7:49 am

More like re-manufacturing and installing new road signs, including speed limit signs.
You can't just send someone out there with a ladder & a paint brush. Those are plastic reflectors & reflective decals applied in a factory.
Replacing those signs at the normal rate would take decades to get all of them.
and...
changing curricula in schools,
general public information campaigns, educating adults,
re-designing every sort of packaging,
re-tooling of every sort of manufacturing & laboratory processes,
lost productivity getting everyone "up to speed" and lost revenue due to errors during the transition,

and a lot more things I can't quite list off the top of my head right now.
But certainly the expenses will balloon quickly.

It would turn out to be monumentally expensive for everyone.
Not very practical at a time of such economic hardship.
It goes way beyond republicans being stubborn.

But if we suspended the defense budget for just one year...
(there's a better chance of finding unicorns & leprechauns)


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Max000
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20 Dec 2013, 8:40 am

pete1061 wrote:
More like re-manufacturing and installing new road signs, including speed limit signs.
You can't just send someone out there with a ladder & a paint brush. Those are plastic reflectors & reflective decals applied in a factory.
Replacing those signs at the normal rate would take decades to get all of them.


But they are spending money to convert signs from metric back to English. The speed limit has been change from 55 mph to 65 mph to 70/75/80/85 mph. All of the speed limit signs had to be replaced each time they changed it. They could just as easily have changed it to 120 km/h or 130 km/h at no additional cost.

Cost has nothing to do with it. Obstructionist Republicans are the problem.



Last edited by Max000 on 20 Dec 2013, 4:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

mr_bigmouth_502
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20 Dec 2013, 2:20 pm

It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.



Max000
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20 Dec 2013, 4:50 pm

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.


Switching to metric would save money on tools, not cost more. Mechanics would save 50% on tools by not having to buy both metric and English tool sets for domestic and foreign cars. One universal system saves money in the long term. But don't tell that to the Republicans who hate change regardless.



pete1061
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20 Dec 2013, 5:54 pm

Max000 wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.


Switching to metric would save money on tools, not cost more. Mechanics would save 50% on tools by not having to buy both metric and English tool sets for domestic and foreign cars. One universal system saves money in the long term. But don't tell that to the Republicans who hate change regardless.


The long term yes, it would pay off.
But you forget, this is america dude, we don't do long term.

And It's not just about the republicans, :roll:


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Max000
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20 Dec 2013, 6:32 pm

pete1061 wrote:
Max000 wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.


Switching to metric would save money on tools, not cost more. Mechanics would save 50% on tools by not having to buy both metric and English tool sets for domestic and foreign cars. One universal system saves money in the long term. But don't tell that to the Republicans who hate change regardless.


The long term yes, it would pay off.
But you forget, this is america dude, we don't do long term.

And It's not just about the republicans, :roll:


It's just Republicans. As you already pointed out, it was Ronald Reagan who killed the metric system. If Jimmy Carter had won a second term, then the conversion would have been too far along for anyone to stop it. But the Republicans are always there to obstruct progress.



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20 Dec 2013, 7:50 pm

I'm no right-winger, and I actually think it would be good if the Americans switched to the Metric system, as it's a much more logical system of measurement, I was just saying why things might not go over well if they decided to switch.

Of course, they could end up like us and just use a mixture of Imperial and Metric. :P That wouldn't be so bad.



pete1061
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20 Dec 2013, 8:07 pm

Max000 wrote:
pete1061 wrote:
Max000 wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.


Switching to metric would save money on tools, not cost more. Mechanics would save 50% on tools by not having to buy both metric and English tool sets for domestic and foreign cars. One universal system saves money in the long term. But don't tell that to the Republicans who hate change regardless.


The long term yes, it would pay off.
But you forget, this is america dude, we don't do long term.

And It's not just about the republicans, :roll:


It's just Republicans. As you already pointed out, it was Ronald Reagan who killed the metric system. If Jimmy Carter had won a second term, then the conversion would have been too far along for anyone to stop it. But the Republicans are always there to obstruct progress.


You are just stuck in democrat blinder mode. Can't you see beyond party politics?


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mr_bigmouth_502
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20 Dec 2013, 9:38 pm

Another thing I'll add, as long as there are older American cars on the road, people are going to need Imperial tools. ;) I should know this, as I'm friends with a few people who are enthusiastic about vintage vehicles, and I know that there are tons of others out there just like them. And the last time I checked, Canadian cars are built pretty much just like American cars.



Max000
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20 Dec 2013, 9:41 pm

pete1061 wrote:
Max000 wrote:
pete1061 wrote:
Max000 wrote:
mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
It's not just repainting road signs or whatever, entire industries would have to change how they do business, businesses would have to get all new tools and machines and software and whatever else they use, and since it would be a government-mandated change, a lot of businesses would likely demand tax breaks. Things have gotten a LOT more complicated since the rest of the world underwent metrication 40 years ago, and the US practically runs on the Imperial system of measurement.


Switching to metric would save money on tools, not cost more. Mechanics would save 50% on tools by not having to buy both metric and English tool sets for domestic and foreign cars. One universal system saves money in the long term. But don't tell that to the Republicans who hate change regardless.


The long term yes, it would pay off.
But you forget, this is america dude, we don't do long term.

And It's not just about the republicans, :roll:


It's just Republicans. As you already pointed out, it was Ronald Reagan who killed the metric system. If Jimmy Carter had won a second term, then the conversion would have been too far along for anyone to stop it. But the Republicans are always there to obstruct progress.


You are just stuck in democrat blinder mode. Can't you see beyond party politics?


It has nothing to do with seeing beyond party politics. It has to do with the core ideology of conservatives (Republicans).

con·ser·va·tive
(kn-sûrv-tv)
adj.
1. Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.

Conservative - definition

I.e: Most conservative Republicans would rather drop dead then change to the metric system.



ruveyn
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21 Dec 2013, 5:09 am

What is there to understand? Celsius and Fahrenheit are connected by a trivial linear function.

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21 Dec 2013, 6:10 am

Marylandman889 wrote:
A switch to Celsius for The United States might be much better for its citizens, but it would take time. (Maybe not just switching to it, but getting used to it too).


Apart from weather reports what else is holding back a switch to celsius? Is there an objection to the teaching of celsius in schools?



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21 Dec 2013, 9:41 am

ruveyn wrote:
What is there to understand? Celsius and Fahrenheit are connected by a trivial linear function.

ruveyn


For this reason, I think that if the US were to switch to the Metric system, learning how to measure the temperature in Celcius would be a great start.



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21 Dec 2013, 10:12 am

There would still be the matter of the Kelvin scale. The Kelvin degree is the same size as the Celsius degree but Kelvin is much higher. Room temperature is around 300 Kelvin.

Most people do not comprehend thermodynamics.

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21 Dec 2013, 1:23 pm

ruveyn wrote:
There would still be the matter of the Kelvin scale. The Kelvin degree is the same size as the Celsius degree but Kelvin is much higher. Room temperature is around 300 Kelvin.

Most people do not comprehend thermodynamics.

ruveyn


Tell me about it, whenever someone tells me not to let the "cold" out of something I always think "wait a sec, it doesn't work that way"...