Non-Metric Countries
“Three countries use non-metric measurement systems: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.” ..the rest of the world uses the metrics system. via Wikipedia
Hmm… makes you wonder.
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June 19th, 2007 at 6:37 am
Wikipedia’s almost, but not quite right - the official system of the UK is metric, but we’ve got an opt-out for specific purposes. Beer can still be sold in pints, and roadsigns still measure in miles and yards - although yards are slowly being replaced by metres…
June 19th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
thanks for the note tim…even so…I’m all for one system being in a field where we have to build/engineer objects in one format, but then transition it all easily when speaking to manufactures around the world…it’s easy at times, but can also be a pain in the butt many other times…
June 20th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Non-metric countries…
Three countries use non-metric measurement systems: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.” ..the rest of the world uses the metrics system. via designverb and wikipedia……
June 20th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Metric System not used by 3 countries…
Two minor countries and then, the US??
Man, we have issues!
……
June 20th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
This map is technically incorrect. The U.S. officially supports the metric system. But each state in the union has their right to enforce it and most don’t.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Hi Tim. You can always rely on the UK to be between the devil and the deep blue see!
July 1st, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hmmm, checking here in California…
Road signs - metric and standard
Tape measures - both systems are marked on mine
Bottles, gas pumps, etc - same liters and oz’s
Can you say the word “bilingual”?
I knew you could.
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:02 am
bilingual for sure…but as a designer, i’d like to make it all one universal language….icons
July 9th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Metric has obvious practical benefits, but like other legacies of the French Revolution, it’s not necessarily an across-the-board improvement on what it was brought in to replace. In the realm of spatial dimensioning, at least, it happens that feet-&-inches is a system surprisingly well adapted to modular & proportional thinking. It makes translating between proportional relations & arithmetic a more flexibly accessible operation than decimal units can. I’m sure metric method can be used in a way that’s more or less natural for building furniture & buildings & so on, but as a carpenter in residential remodeling, I’m glad I don’t have millimeters in place of my 3/32, 3/16, 3/8, 3/4, 1 1/2, 3 … or my 48″ & 96″ modules that divide nicely by 2’s (24″ centers) and 3’s (16″ centers) … and so on.
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Well Paul, if you had used the metric from the beginning you would notice how “proportional” and easy it is.
My height is 1,74 mtr, or 174 cm. Do you see how easy is the conversion?
How much is that on feet and inches? No idea… 45 feet 24 inches, for example doesn’t tell me anything. But let’s say 100mtrs? I know it’s a block. I know 10 mtrs is ten times one meter. But how many inches make 24 feet? What is 3/8 ? = 0.375 what? You need a calculator to do it; but again: My height is 1,74 mtr, or 174 cm, easy.
January 9th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Someone always comes to the defence of the Imperial ’system’, even though its rubbish.
This phenomenon can be relied on, like the seasons.
Nobody knows why they do it, but they do it.
February 26th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
dudes, let’s just switch and get over it! Duh
February 26th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
does it really matter anyway? everything’s still the same height!
February 26th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
oh and Sandy, measuring cups too!
look at it sideways :p
it’s sticking its tounge out @ u!
May 31st, 2008 at 8:11 pm
There’s actually a bill in the U.S saying that the metric system is the preferred system of measurement for the country, but does anyone care? No.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:27 am
Well, I live in Belize and all the measurements here are imperial. Not sure if we officially support it though…
June 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I’m in the UK and I prefer the imperial system. It’s just more natural. If you’re estimating someone’s height it’s easier to guess in feet than in centimetres or metres. I’m 6′ exactly or 183 centimetres. I know which one would be easier to give as a description if I were a suspect in a robbery!
Also, the 12 inches in a foot (and the general binary nature of imperial measurements) make division easier. For example, 12 divides nicely by 2, 3, 4 and 6. 10 centimetres only divides by 2 and 5.
Likewise with weights, 16 ounces in a pound divides by 2, 4 and 8 with no fractions.
If you need small, precise measurements (or even large precise measurements) then clearly the metric system is superior, but for average day to day stuff the imperial system is much more useful. That is, afterall, how it came about: measurements like feet, inches, cubits, spans and acres all have anthropomorphic roots; they are the sizes of actual body parts making estimation easy (with the exception of the acre which, IIRC, is the area a man and two oxen can plough in one day).
Plus I’m still annoyed that Bombardier have switched from selling beer in pint bottles to using 500ml for the same cost, despite losing 68mls from the volume.
June 8th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
the country coloured on the map is not myanmar bt thailand. myanmar is to the left of that
June 8th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Being Canadian, I’m metric by nature, and not surprised that the only backwards country left is our neighbor to the south, after all, they produced the ‘Hummer’ just in time for peak oil, sold out GM workers in Oshawa Canada for their excellent award winning services, can’t get the ‘Volt’ up and running in spite of the ‘Tesla’, have trouble knowing when to pull out. Have one in four of their under 16 year old daughters sick with STDs, can’t write a fair mortgage, don’t have health care, burn food for fuel, and paid over a billion dollars for a jet fighterplane that can’t beat some philosopher in a toga and a turban hiding in the desert. Metric doesn’t suit their mentality. Its too simple, smooth quick scientific and mostly smart!
P.S. Heard a rumor that they still use Microsoft Vista instead of Ubuntu, the free one that works!
June 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Uncle B, you are aware that the one in four is a bullshit statistic thrown out, right?
June 11th, 2008 at 3:11 am
“Heard a rumor that they still use Microsoft Vista instead of Ubuntu, the free one that works!”
Hey, at least we don’t use Macs. You Canuks have been trying to force that on us for years with your dirt-oil-fueled mind-control devices crafted from old broken hockey sticks, ice, french to english dictionaries and mooses
June 12th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Ubuntu is for retards that don’t know how to use a real computer.
Like mentioned before the US does use the metric system. Dumb asses like yourself find any excuse to start ranting anti-America BS.
Damn, we can’t find that “philosopher in a toga and a turban” because he out foxed us with the all mighty metric system.
June 14th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
there have been a great deal of different systems of measure that have come and gone.however, the imperial system, as said before, has some intrinsic characteristic that makes it optimal for proportional and modular thinking. it is simply easier to use in a number of situations due to the curious nature of its proportions. metric may be easier mathematically, but apparently it lacks that indefinable imperial quality.
June 16th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Well, after working on cars for several years i find that i use both systems. For example, the diameter of car wheels are measured in inches, the bolt circle in millimeters, and the bolt size in inches. Although the rest of the car with the exception of tolerances in the engine are metric on new cars. The Imperial system is better suited for tolerances in engines(0.030, 0.036, 0.026 are some common measurements).
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
Like someone previously said, both systems have their uses. Imperial is good for every day, casual measurements, while metric is much better for things that require precise amounts, such as cooking or chemistry.