So how did you get your nickname used here?

[Phydaux]

I was digging aroung one day looking at how metric time wold be implemented/used and came accross this excelent artical on why there are 24hrs in a day: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/58460.html

---

Back on topic I've used my nickname all over the place since I was about 14. I stick with it as I often run into people who know me. BTW it's pronounced Fido... if you didn't know.

[anarky]

I somehow doubt that had anything to do with it. An interesting read, however.

>anarky

[Moneo]

I don't care which is better. But I think that having the old one when the whole word uses metric is an obstacle. Changing isn't much of a hassle. The only thing against changing I could think about is the nostalgy factor.
......
It's not so difficult to change. It looks like it's difficult at first, but I guarantee you that in two years you'll know exactly how long is a kilometre or how heavy is a kilogram.

Having to change all the driving signs, for example... well, I don't think it's a very big problem.
......

I haven't  actually researched the issue of converting to a metric system. The excerpt of the article that I posted before, I found by chance a few months ago.

Nathan, you say that you don't care which is better. You're right. Which is better is not the issue. Both systems have their merits.

The big issue is CHANGE. You say that changing isn't much of hassle, and that it's not so difficult to change.  You're right regarding change on an individual basis. But what about on an industry-wide basis? The automotive industry in the USA is undergoing some bad times. What would happen to this industry if you now burdened it with a conversion to metric? And what about all the other major industries?

Frankly, I don't know how they sustained the change to metric in the UK. They must have really been eager to get into the European Common Market.
*****

[Phydaux]

I don't care which is better. But I think that having the old one when the whole word uses metric is an obstacle. Changing isn't much of a hassle. The only thing against changing I could think about is the nostalgy factor.
......
It's not so difficult to change. It looks like it's difficult at first, but I guarantee you that in two years you'll know exactly how long is a kilometre or how heavy is a kilogram.

Having to change all the driving signs, for example... well, I don't think it's a very big problem.
......

I haven't  actually researched the issue of converting to a metric system. The excerpt of the article that I posted before, I found by chance a few months ago.

Nathan, you say that you don't care which is better. You're right. Which is better is not the issue. Both systems have their merits.

The big issue is CHANGE. You say that changing isn't much of hassle, and that it's not so difficult to change.  You're right regarding change on an individual basis. But what about on an industry-wide basis? The automotive industry in the USA is undergoing some bad times. What would happen to this industry if you now burdened it with a conversion to metric? And what about all the other major industries?

Frankly, I don't know how they sustained the change to metric in the UK. They must have really been eager to get into the European Common Market.
*****

The UK is messed up and isn't really metric.
Schools only teach metric, but the UK public mostly runs on imperal.
Milk is still sold in pints with litres in small print. No one askes the milk-man for 0.568261485 litres, but thats the only size you can get it in.
Motoring is still miles and miles/hr. And if you speak to builders etc they work in feet/inches. (But have to order their goods in metric.)

Ireland did things properly. They converted to metric (road signs and all) in 2 days if I remember correctly.

[na_th_an]

The big issue is CHANGE. You say that changing isn't much of hassle, and that it's not so difficult to change.  You're right regarding change on an individual basis. But what about on an industry-wide basis? The automotive industry in the USA is undergoing some bad times. What would happen to this industry if you now burdened it with a conversion to metric? And what about all the other major industries?

Well, we changed our money. What can be more difficult than changing your mind about how many stuff costs? That's why I say that it's easy, 'cause I know what's changing your mind radically.

Imagine our change: 1€ is more than 166 pesetas (concretely, 166.386 pesetas). Suddenly, stuff that happened to cost 1,000 pesetas are now around 6€, so everything is like WHOAH, SO DAMN CHEAP 'cause there was some kind of "1€ = 100 pesetas" in our brains that messed everything up. But after 5 years of euro, I can guarantee to you that even the oldest people who at the beginning were in serious trouble with the conversions are now fine with it. With usage, you soon learn to measure in the new unit.

The metric system doesn't have the tradition of the Imperial or Spanish systems (yeah we do have one, and it's still used but not in official products - that also means that we changed systems a while ago and we survived), in fact it was somewhat created to make things easier in science. It's ugly and doesn't have any charm, but heck, it's useful as hell, and easy to deal with.

And change is good. Otherwise you grow spiderwebs

[Moneo]

The big issue is CHANGE. You say that changing isn't much of hassle, and that it's not so difficult to change.  You're right regarding change on an individual basis. But what about on an industry-wide basis? The automotive industry in the USA is undergoing some bad times. What would happen to this industry if you now burdened it with a conversion to metric? And what about all the other major industries?

Well, we changed our money. What can be more difficult than changing your mind about how many stuff costs? That's why I say that it's easy, 'cause I know what's changing your mind radically......

I'll admit that changing the currency is a major issue, involving the government, the banking industry, and many facets of business systems, as well as having an impact on every individual.

However, changing the currency does not compare in magnitud to a change to the metric system for every manufacturing industry. Can you imagine, just the planning of such a transition for an industry like the automotive industry, gives me a headache.

Such a change involves redesigning and reengineering the entire automobile. All the vendors that used to supply the industry with parts may not be able to now provide similar metric parts. Do we wait for the vendors to tool-up, or do we open additional factories to make the metric parts needed? And what about the tools and robots used in the manufacture? Where do I obtain the alternate metric tools and robots? What about the service departments of the dealerships for these automobiles? They'll need new tools also.
Personnel that work on the shopfloor of the manufacturing sites, will need new training.

I could go on and on. I thing you can appreciate all that is involved.

Change is good when you're selling it, but it's a real bear when you have to buy it.
*****

[NecrosIhsan]

Moneo is very correct...and that's just one industry, there are hundreds upon hundreds of industries that would have to make such a huge shift.

Nice way to steer this thread off-topic though, guys...

[anarky]

So how did you get your name?

>anarky -

[na_th_an]

Well, the metric system didn't just grow up in our countries. We had our own system to measure stuff, as every country/region had. We just shifted. Most of the developed countries shifted, and I don't remember any huge troubles or falling economies for that matter.

Metric system makes your life easier, allows for more accurate results, minimizes the relative and accumulated errors, makes calculations easier (care to tell me, from the top of your head, how many inches are in 2.76 miles? )...

I don't think that change has to be all at once. You don't need to say "hey, we are metric now, throw all those machinery to the dustbin and buy metric one". First step is using it. Use it. If you know that an inch is 2.54 centimeters you have a start. You don't need to change your soldering machine works in steps of two inches. You just have to know that "now", that machine just works in steps of 5.08 centimeters. When the factory has to change the machinery, the new ones come measured in centimeters. Changing takes time, but it's feasible.

Now, with two major measurement systems out there (imperial and metric), things are somewhat more expensive for the only reason of having to build, for example, cars which measure speed in two different systems. Imagine any American car brand name - they have to build cars which measure in mph and then cars which measure in kph for export. The amount of money they would save building just one kind of cars would be huge.

I consider a waste of time and money all those conversions needed by your country when dealing with others.

[Moneo]

......

Nice way to steer this thread off-topic though, guys...

You're right Nec, and I apologize to Anarky for taking part in the off-topic discussion about metric conversions.

Nathan, I yield to your superior knowledge on the subject.
*****

[anarky]

Now, with two major measurement systems out there (imperial and metric), things are somewhat more expensive for the only reason of having to build, for example, cars which measure speed in two different systems. Imagine any American car brand name - they have to build cars which measure in mph and then cars which measure in kph for export. The amount of money they would save building just one kind of cars would be huge.

How? It's a peice of plastic with different stamps on it...

>anarky

[na_th_an]

It was an example, kiddo.

[axipher]

My name is a product or a random string generator made from letters.  I made it as a screensaver and axipher came up so I used it.


::EDIT::

Changed sued to used as it should be

[seph]

My name is a product or a random string generator made from letters.  I made it as a screensaver and axipher came up so I sued it.

Didja get a good settlement?

Btw cool name. I likey.

[NovaProgramming]

Ax'i'pher-- Latin for "Digger of Old Posts"