Were the Lunar Rovers faked?

[ka9q]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

[Echnaton]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

But we got it from you!

Sort of like we use the Arabic numeral system when the Arabs don't. 

[Allan F]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

Le Système international d'unités

[ka9q]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

Le Système international d'unités

It was a joke...

[Echnaton]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

To make matters worse, imperial units were not always the same as domestic U.S units.  An imperial gallon in Canada was about one fifth more volume than  U.S. gallon.

Now if the U.S. could just convert to SI and be done with it.  I know it would not be easy for people of my generation, but it would make life easier for our posterity.  My kids have had a good grounding in SI from their education and it would be much easier for them. 

[Allan F]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

Le Système international d'unités

It was a joke...

It was funny...

[ka9q]

Now if the U.S. could just convert to SI and be done with it.  I know it would not be easy for people of my generation, but it would make life easier for our posterity.  My kids have had a good grounding in SI from their education and it would be much easier for them.

Yeah, I remember my high school physics teacher insisting that we do everything in SI because it was going to be a matter of law in the US in just a few years.

That was about 1973.

[Andromeda]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

Nope.  The only time you see imperial units these days is on road signs and some people insist on using it to measure things like vegetables (although that has got people in trouble!) or rooms in houses.  SI has been used in science and academia for years and years!

[Al Johnston]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Système Impérial?

Seriously I thought you still used some Imperial units even though you're far closer to SI than the US.

Nope.  The only time you see imperial units these days is on road signs and some people insist on using it to measure things like vegetables (although that has got people in trouble!) or rooms in houses.  SI has been used in science and academia for years and years!

And those imperial units we do use are legally defined in terms of their equivalent SI units, not by any independent standards.

[JayUtah]

Please don't call it the "English system".  We use SI!

Its offiicial name is EES, for English Engineering System.  Sorry.  As with SI, it is a subset of (previously) English units according to which a consistent system of measurement is derived.  The problem with EES is not that it is unwieldy or inconsistent, but rather that the wrong units of mass are commonly used.  EES requires g₀ to equate its unit of mass with its unit of force, as does SI.  g₀ has a different value in each system, but is required in both systems in order to render them "consistent."  ("Consistent" has special meaning in engineering measurement systems.)

[gwiz]

Nope.  The only time you see imperial units these days is on road signs and some people insist on using it to measure things like vegetables (although that has got people in trouble!) or rooms in houses.  SI has been used in science and academia for years and years!

Don't forget that there are still legacy imperial-unit aircraft and other vehicles in use in the UK, and any engineering support they require is still in those units.  I was effectively bi-lingual in SI and imperial for my entire professional life.

[RAF]

Its offiicial name is EES, for English Engineering System.

Haven't finished my 2nd cup of coffee, and already I've learned something I did not previously know.

That's why I like "hanging out" with you, Jay...because I'm always going to learn something new.

[JayUtah]

SI and "the metric system" are not equivalent, just as EES and "those bass-ackwards Americans" are not equivalent.  SI is a subset of available metric units -- or more specifically, magnitude prefixes.  EES, for example, does not use gallons for a measurement of volume, but rather cubic feet.  SI does not use hectograms, which is a common and convenient way to sell meats and vegatables on the Continent -- SI uses grams or kilograms or milligrams.  One goes from millimeters to meters to kilometers.  Centimeters are convenient for common metric measurements, but strictly speaking are not allowed in SI.

[JayUtah]

Don't forget that there are still legacy imperial-unit aircraft and other vehicles in use in the UK, and any engineering support they require is still in those units.  I was effectively bi-lingual in SI and imperial for my entire professional life.

This is why the U.S. will require EES proficiency for the foreseeable future.  As the chief engineering officer for my organization I can stamp my feet all I want and require SI.  But the fact is that I still have to order cable by the foot.  If my engineers habitually have to design in SI and then convert to EES for ordering, that adds time and effort and incurs a greater risk of error.

My city is laid out according to the City of God design devised by Mormon founder Joseph Smith and implemented throughout the intermountain West by Brigham Young and the Mormon settlers.  Blocks are exactly 660 feet square (1/8 mile) and enclose exactly 10 acres.  A mere half block from my executive offices, buried in a vault under the sidewalk near the courthouse, is the standard "rod" for the city.  That was, is, and likely forever will be the standard for anything done in downtown Salt Lake City.  Yes, 660 feet is agonizingly close to -- but just shy enough to be engineeringly significant, of -- 200 meters.

As long as life remains non-pretty, measurement will remain annoying.

[Glom]

I don't see what any of that has to so with us not switching to km/h speed limits. It's not a European integrationist thing because not just Europe uses it, but the entire world except the UK and USA.

The Commonwealth uses it. The Eastern tigers use it. Ireland uses it. There's a motorway junction in the Republic where part of a sliproad crosses the border into Northern Ireland. For the distance of a few hundred metres, you have to switch to a speed limit in mph before returning to the Republic if you're heading South.