Do you think the US will ever change to the metric/deci system, letting go of imperial? Not poking, just curious. Do they teach the decimal system in schools there.? Just been looking at some boards’ dimensions and I see a lot are adding decimals to feet and inches, which I notice some software programs are also doing. Seems kinda mental, to me anyhow.
Decimals are more prevalent in boards done by shapers using CNC machines. Its easier to write what the machine says vs using a conversion chart.
I put three decimals before and after my
name when i sign out on this forum.
I only recently learned that the archaic system america clings to
is called the imperial system…
…ambrose…
I plead guilty.
I mix feet and inches for length measurement with millimeters for the fine stuff, like fin toe-in, concaves, rail bands etc.
Most folk can visualise a 6’6"x19.5" 13"nose 14.25"Tail,
but a 1981x495mm 330mm nose 362mm tail might challenge!
It is odd that here in th UK we have been metric for 43 years but kids just out of school still only know their height in feet and inches, and their weight in stone (14lb).
Dunno what their excuse is, I have been out of school since 1983, but I know (only too well) my weight in kilos.
No we will never change!!! Tell europe to change!!!
…hello Ambrose, “the archaic …that US…” most countries in America use the other system; so Mako224, the world is bigger than US and a few Euro countries…to name one case: Clark foam shut down…did not happened anything “bad” due that in the rest of the world; its like “living in a cocoon” that Huie mentioned few years ago.
When I was in sixth grade we were taught the metric system and told by the time we finished high school the whole country would be using it. That was 45 years ago! Used it in college and it is much easier. Funny annecdote I was told is Americans are the only country to use the ‘Imperial system’(don’t know where that comes from…) and are the worst in the world at actually using fractions. Mike
Imperial are the units we think in – pretty sure the Brits brought Imperial units over with them. Why are there so many different languages in Europe when they use common units of measure?
We have one standard national language among 50 different states. All of these states were settled by English, Irish, Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish (et. al.) settlers. And yet, we still have one standard language**…**
I have to use metrics for almost everything I do professionally. But I think in Imperial units.
Imperial/English units have become a yank cultural thing. We have been thinking in Imperial units for more than a century. Too easy not to change (and less expensive) among our states. We are all taught how to convert to metrics in school. Like Rooster said, we were told in school the US would be using metrics within a decade. That was at least 5 decades ago. But they told us we would have fusion power by the 80s too.
Never thought of an elipsis as three decimal points – LOL**…**
They tried that in the 70’s. If you remenber they changed road signs to both standard and metric IE: 55mph/ 25kph. It didn’t work. It never will. The US thinks it knows everything.
They tried that in the 70’s. If you remenber they changed road signs to both standard and metric IE: 55mph/ 25kph. It didn’t work. It never will. The US thinks it knows everything.
Perhaps metric units took hold internationally to facilitate commerce/communication among nations/countries that speak so many “different” languages. Why do many European nations still use their own currencies even though the Euro was created?
Most common daily transactions/commerce occurs among our own citizens. As such, there “was” no critical need to adopt metrics in the US.
An old friend of mine had an ever-growing list of “clues that someone is a communist.”
One of them was “if they ever say the metric system makes sense.”
Needless to say, math was’t his strength.