Are you still imperial?

[donacheson]

Arnaud once bubbled...
This topic often comes back and I thought I would post a poll to add to the "debate". I was "metric born" but as I'm living in the States, I dive imperial (and hate it) in the US and dive metric in the rest of the world.system: Liberia and Burma, two countries with a stellar record regarding human rights, but that's a whole different debate...

So, are you still Imperial?

The U.S. is largely metric - just try and do anything mechanical on an automobile with only a set of "imperial" wrenches. However, the everyday measures - one's weight, height, highway sppeds and distances, etc. - are still in English units. There's also a few other areas that haven't converted, such as the building trades, but metric measures are becoming increasingly common. It'll happen eventually. The supply of metric nuts and bolts at Home Depot is approaching that of the old standbys.

 

[Arnaud]

Well, this is very encouraging, Donacheson. I'm actually very impressed that many US divers, here on the board, seem to be favorable, or at least open, to metric.

I guess another argument in favor of a base 10 system comes from the computer world. First came the octet, then the kilo octet, then the mega, etc... Rings a bell? Can you imagine if they had to use a different and unrelated unit, each time that they were expanding? Apparently, no one came up with the concept of a pond octet, or a mile octet...

 

[Pez de Diablo]

An interesting topic. I go with both, though I am not good with temperature in F or distance and speed in miles and mph. In caving I use metric for distance and depth, climbing I use feet for altitude and km's for distance. I found it interesting that American Cavers survey using an imperial tape measure broken into tenths.

When diving I use both, I have a Mares (Uwatec) bottom timer in metric and an oceanic in feet. I own 3 metric (bar) SPG's and 2 imperial. But primarily plan a dive in imperial.

Canada is a "metric" country but I find the use of imperial measure is the norm outside of velocity and distance. Except in the workplace.

Pez

 

[runvus4]

If people could only be taught that a "kilobyte" isn't 1000 bytes and a "megabyte" isn't 1000000 bytes... Also get on the vendors for a "21" monitor" only displaying 19.7 inches.'

The fact of the matter is that the US like any other country in the world is filled with idiots, and you can't safely get idiots to change measuring systems, be it to or from Imperial/Metric.

You can't even get smart people to safely change measuring systems. In addition to the NASA probe failing due to Imperial/Metic conversions, when Canada was converting, it caused one of the new Air Canada planes to almost crash. Actually it ran out of fuel because the required fuel amounts was listed in imperial gallons and it was filled to the same numeric value for metric liters, not a conversion.

 

[Groundhog246]

ERP once bubbled...
since I know that 1 Litre of water weighs more or less 1 Kg, but I have no Idea what 1cuft of water weighs.

Salt water at approx. 64 lbs. per cu ft or fresh at about 62.5 lbs. per cu ft? I can and do use either, but prefer Imperial.
I see so much stuff out there that is supposedly Metric that is Imperial units converted. I live in a country that is officially Metric (Canada) but I've never seen plywood in 1M X 2M sheets still comes 4'X8' with measurements given in cm. My butter comes in a 454gm block (or exactly 1LB) as do many other items.
I learned to dive in Imperial and have tables, computers, etc in feet.

 

[etowndiver]

As a science major in college, I was exposed to metric every day for 4 years. I'm fully aware that metric conversions are easier, but as an American I use imperial every day. If I were king for a day, I'd require the entire world to use metric for everything. In regards to diving when critical decisions must be made quickly (under some conditions) wouldn't you rather do a simple conversion by a factor of 10 than a factor of 3.3 (for feet to meeters) or 2.2 (from pounds to kilograms).

just my opinion,

joe

 

[MikeFerrara]

Certainly the math is easier with metric. However, when I hear a speed given in kilometer/hour I can't picture how fast that is unless I first convert to mile. The same goes for weight, I know what a pound feels like. I suppose I could get used to something else but why go through the trouble?

 

[Arnaud]

MikeFerrara once bubbled...
Certainly the math is easier with metric. However, when I hear a speed given in kilometer/hour I can't picture how fast that is unless I first convert to mile. The same goes for weight, I know what a pound feels like. I suppose I could get used to something else but why go through the trouble?

It takes time! When I moved to the States, I initially tried to convert everything back to metric. At some point, I got tired of it and decided that I had to acquire a "feel" for it. For some units, I'm able to do it, for others, I'm still trying, 10 years later...

 

[Lead_carrier]

It doesn't matter which you use.
Just ignore the numbers on your spg, when the needle hits the cute little red zone toward the bottom, start to the surface. Or when you can't get air, tug the handle on your J-valve. They both work great most of time. If it doesn't work THEN you will have to figure whether you will be planted 6ft or 1.84 metres in a 105 liter box.

 

[JeffAustin]

Metric is logical, the whole base 10 thing. No calculator needed to figure things out. In the darkroom, I measure metric, in the kitchen it's imperial. Diving is easier in metric, when it comes to math. I have tried diving with my gauge set to meters, but I keep trying to convert to imperial in my head...Duh, how deep is 23m? instead of just thinking "I'm 23m deep." and knowing what that is without converting. The nut and bolt thing in America is bad, you need both metric and standard wrenches to work on most anything, and you have to love Detroit's effort to change, both metric and standard fasteners on one car!