Fahrenheit usage around the world

Well, what I find funny in the picture is the fact that actually the US is the _only_ country still hanging onto Fahrenheit... I actually expected a lot more places would still use it since its still around.

I personally (as an engineer) have never bothered with any of those pesky non-divisible-by-ten imperial measuments... they are just a total waste of brain capacity in my opinion... [poke]
Who in their right mind wants to measure something in fractions when you can use straight whole numbers instead [doh] 
 
Reiska said:
Well, what I find funny in the picture is the fact that actually the US is the _only_ country still hanging onto Fahrenheit... I actually expected a lot more places would still use it since its still around.

I personally (as an engineer) have never bothered with any of those pesky non-divisible-by-ten imperial measuments... they are just a total waste of brain capacity in my opinion... [poke]
Who in their right mind wants to measure something in fractions when you can use straight whole numbers instead [doh] 

I suppose we should at least be grateful that Fahrenheit isn't broken down by 64ths or 128ths of a degree... 

 
Do you recon that one could set the desired outdoor temperature with it ultimately and repeatably every time and it comes both in metric and imperial versions with micro-adjusters?
Wonder how they would handle neighbors having a difference in temperature preference  [tongue]
 
Peter Halle said:
I go outside and my hands get cold - its cold.  I sweat - its hot.  How hot is rated in the number of shirts I change. Hottest days might be 5 shirt days.  Today was not cold and not hot - it was ok.  It was a 0 shirt change day.   [big grin]

Peter

[thumbs up] 
 
leer said:
mike68au said:
I also find it funny..... and I also can't really understand why they are so resistant and stubborn to change.  

Just because it's familiar doesn't mean it's the better way, it's just the familiar way.  The sooner you go the better way the more familiar it will become.

Oops -- I guess I treaded into a "USA not welcome" thread.

Funny, all the USA-bashing here, and yet it is under the "General Friendly Chat" forum ...

Some of you ought to realize that back 40-50 years ago, when we tried to start the move to metric, we had a population of about a 1/4 billion people.  It is pretty tough and expensive to take a huge country in a completely new direction.  I am an engineer and everything I did in college was metric-oriented.  But you do not change a country's general population overnight.  It will take generations to do that, if at all.  And regarding the switch to Celsius -- give me a break!  There is nothing inherently more accurate, smarter, or better about one temperature unit of measure over another.

But enough complaining -- I think I go saw some 2X4s and build something -- or for the rest of you - 50x100s ...

I do not think anyone here is USA bashing, we just cannot believe that a large industrial/technological economy sticks with archaic measuring systems. That is probably why this theme just keeps coming up. I think this is around the fifth time since I joined back in May last year.

As for 4x2 being 100x50, I think you mean't to say 90x45 which is its metric equivalent sold in most metric countries.

[smile]

Edit. It's 11am here, C35 rising to C42; now that is hot no matter what system you use!  [eek]

 
leer said:
But enough complaining -- I think I go saw some 2X4s and build something -- or for the rest of you - 50x100s ...

Which is neither 2" nor 4"!  [wink]
 
Ouch! That is hot m8... I'm enjoying a 2am or 02:00 moment of -11C and snow currently... Wanna swap?
 
Reiska said:
Ouch! That is hot m8... I'm enjoying a 2am or 02:00 moment of -11C and snow currently... Wanna swap?

[size=10pt]

No not really or though your country and Northern Norway are on my 'bucket list'.

Now 1247hrs, temp C40.8 at a weather station 5 km Nth of our property. Just left the shed/shop (not air conditioned) and about to have lunch in front of AC and then continue the 'fun' with IKEA from yesterday inside a nicely air conditioned house.

 
I like many others North of the 49th. learnt on the now archaic Imperial system just as we changed to the Metric system. I do most of my measurements in mm,  temp in C, mileage in Km, but it still takes 10 yards for a first down.  I can't get my head around the Millilitre thing, but it takes 80l of fuel to fill my Ridgeline. Metric is by far easier, based on 10's rather than 16th, and yes there us an equal to .1000 in metric. My vote goes metric!!!
 
Reiska said:
I found this quite funny:

[attachimg=#]

Funny how that same country is still the worlds #1 economy. I'm fine leaving the inch (and) the F alone.
 
All I know is that at 44.6C at 16-30 you can convert it to what ever you like it still works out to be bloody hot. At least the pool is cool and the beer cold  [smile]
Stewy
 
I have almost completely switched over in my own shop. All my DRO's and tapes read both but all my my hard rules and squares are now metric. It's so much simpler.

As for the rest of the country - I think we're just staying with imperial now to bugger everyone else. I can't fathom any other reason...

Gregor
 
Paul G said:
Reiska said:
I found this quite funny:

[attachimg=#]

Funny how that same country is still the worlds #1 economy. I'm fine leaving the inch (and) the F alone.

You'll be fine ... everything you buy will be manufactured in growing economies that embrace metric ... but you'll be fine [wink]
 
I'm in the UK and I'm happy with Fahrenheit and Celsius.  If I'm honest, I generally use Fahrenheit for room and outside temperatures, and Celsius for cooking. It's probably a function of age; I suspect younger Britons use Celsius exclusively.

But don't get me started on the Metric system.  The Imperial had useful roots - an inch (length between two finger joints), foot (self explanatory) and yard (a pace).  What possible use is a measure which is one ten thousandth of the distance between the North Pole and the Equator going through Paris?

Here, before decimal currency, we had pence and shillings.  If something was 6 pence, then it was 6 shillings a dozen.  Now of course if it's six pence then it's 60 pence for ten.  BUT almost nothing is packed in tens - they're packed in dozens!

I vote for a global change to base 12.  [wink]

Andrew
 
Roseland said:
BUT almost nothing is packed in tens

Err, I think they are...

List of things packed in base 10 multiples:

Festool sanding disks;
Light bulbs;
Hot dog sausages;
Handy packs of tissues;
Eggs (yes, now in packs of 10!);
Screws;
Rewriteable DVD's;
Bin bags;
Chocolate bars;
Small bottles of water;
pretty much everything else!

List of things packed in base 12 multiples:

Eggs (pack of 6);
Hot dog buns (packed in 6's (despite the sausages being in 10's [mad] ));
Wine - OK, that's something I'd rather have 12 of than 10!  [big grin]

That's about it. Having said that though, I think a lot of household stuff has (very recently) gone from packs of 6 or 12 to packs of 5 or 10, just so the manufacturers can tell us they haven't put prices up!

Oh, and I'm 38, and wouldn't have a clue whether to put a coat on or not if it was 78F outside...
 
I can understand perfectly it's what many are just used to because it's the only thing they know and learned. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be open to improvement or standards.
The United States is a huge continent, but sometimes I get the impression many of its inhabitants just ignore that there's a whole lot of other people in the world besides them as well.

My take on the whole matter is that nobody likes the one stubborn kid that just insists to do it their own way and doesn't want to play nice with all the others.
It's simply annoying for all involved. Standards are a good thing. The USA would be wise to get on board and preferably sooner rather than later.
In the end though, whatever floats your boat.
 
Hey, at the end of the day we each have the opportunity to look at our thermometers, out tapes, our rules and decide if we want to use a different one with different units or measurement.  Let's not get this topic too emotional nor political.

Thanks.

Peter
 
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