Are you still imperial?

[RichLockyer]

DrSteve once bubbled...
Just as a side...make sure you always fill up your metric tank in litres and your imperial tank in cubic feet. Same goes for your car - Euro cars should always be filled in litres, they just don't run so well on gallons (English or US size).

Ya know, you're right. I filled my truck with litres in Tijuana once and it ran like crap until I got home and put some gallons in it!
Makes me worry about visiting my friends in B.C. next summer... but I guess since Canadian gallons are closer to US gallons, it probably won't run quite so bad.

Now if I could just dig my way out of this metric buttload of BS

PS. Rankine is the farenheit equivalent of Kelvin from what I can make out.

Therefore, it would be more precise than Kelvin due to the smaller unit of measure.
Of course, metric throws everything out of whack by using those simple, easy to understand fractions.

 

[KrisB]

RichLockyer once bubbled...

Ya know, you're right. I filled my truck with litres in Tijuana once and it ran like crap until I got home and put some gallons in it!
Makes me worry about visiting my friends in B.C. next summer... but I guess since Canadian gallons are closer to US gallons, it probably won't run quite so bad.

Well, we pump our gas in litres up here... but rest assured that approximately four of our litres run at least as well as one of your gallons! Depending on what fuel you're using, perhaps better -- my understanding is that all our diesel meets a standard that the US is just trying to phase in now.

 

[Groundhog246]

KrisB once bubbled...
Depending on what fuel you're using, perhaps better -- my understanding is that all our diesel meets a standard that the US is just trying to phase in now.

Depends on what you mean by "better". All Canadian diesel is now low sulfur, but older diesel engines were designed with the lubricating characteristics of sulfurous diesel and will wear faster with low sulfur fuel. Fuel additives are available that will help reduce this wear. Low sulfur diesel is better for the environment. Canada has also banned some gas additives (cancer causing) that are still commonly used in the US.

 

[KrisB]

Groundhog246 once bubbled...


Depends on what you mean by "better". All Canadian diesel is now low sulfur, but older diesel engines were designed with the lubricating characteristics of sulfurous diesel and will wear faster with low sulfur fuel. Fuel additives are available that will help reduce this wear. Low sulfur diesel is better for the environment. Canada has also banned some gas additives (cancer causing) that are still commonly used in the US.

Without taking this too far off topic, let's just use "better" as a grade of quality. Typically, Canadian diesel has a higher cetane (the diesel equivalent to octane) rating, ensuring better combustion especially in high-performance diesel engines.

Additionally, our diesel burns more efficiently -- increased fuel economy as a result.

With the exception of the sulphur content, which may help some engines (though isn't the best for newer, high-performance engines) Canadian diesel is pretty decent. Not as good as the stuff in Europe, though much better than that available in the states.

 

[crazed_dolphin]

Arnaud once bubbled...
A lot of my American friends seem to have a problem understanding that the rest of the world has adopted the metric system.

Not quite. I have dived in the U.S., Costa Rica, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Micronesia and Japan.

I noticed as for diving I noticed that in Costa Rica a lot of the dive shops use imperial as opposed to metric. Is it because most of the foreign divers are American? In Micronesia the dive shops geared toward the Japanese use metric but I noticed that other dive shops tend to use imperial.

Outside of diving. I notice that a lot of the commonwealth nations use metric "officially" but if you ask them things like height and weight they use imperial.

 

[mleong]

I guess it is a metter of getting use to. If you are use to Metric to start with, then any other is kind of alien to you. I personally get use to Imperial. Ft and PSI. If for a person to switch between the 2(metric vs imp), might get it confused and might get into a out of air situation or a bend. When I see the depth gauge at 100 ft, I know that I have only around 10 mins bottom time to avoid being narc, at 15, i have to do a safety stop. Versus at 30 (meters) and 5(meters). BUt then again, it is just a metter of getting use to.

The same thing goes for MPG vs L/Km. How economy is a car if the concumption is 10km/L vs 18mpg? I myself have been in USA for 11 years and had got to use to the MPG thing. After coming back to Malaysia, have a hard time comprehenting the 10km/L thingy, until today.

Then again, it is a matter of just getting use to. Not that Imperial is more accurate than Metric or vice versa (with the exception of the medicine industry where it is down to the mg level)

Due to this, I have a difficult time getting a SPG/Depth gauge here in Malaysia which is Imperial.

mleong

 

[KrisB]

mleong once bubbled...
The same thing goes for MPG vs L/Km. How economy is a car if the concumption is 10km/L vs 18mpg? I myself have been in USA for 11 years and had got to use to the MPG thing. After coming back to Malaysia, have a hard time comprehenting the 10km/L thingy, until today.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'm Canadian, I pump my fuel in litres, drive my car kilometers, yet I still get 50mpg.

Then again, it is a matter of just getting use to. Not that Imperial is more accurate than Metric or vice versa (with the exception of the medicine industry where it is down to the mg level)

It's not necessarily that it is more accurate, it's just that precision is easier in metric.

For instance: precisely how many inches is 1.2 feet? It is 14.4 -- but when was the last time you had someone give you a decimal with regards to inches? It's always a fraction... i.e. 14 2/5" But that one isn't used. The closest (commonly used) would be 14 7/16" -- but that's not right, because we want *exactly* 14.4".

I can tell you that 1.200 metres is precisely 120.0cm, also 1200mm. (Yes, some will argue these are different measurements, but by definition of each unit, they are identical in size).

Precision, especially when displayed by a computer (which prefers decimal to fraction representation) is much easier in metric.

 

[Ezh]

For me it's rather - Are you still metric?!!

For 27 year I knew only metric, and for the last 5 years, I'm trying hard to get used to imperial Miles and feet are easy, as for the rest - ouch, still gives me a headache

khel

 

[weekender]

while i served in the us army we used metric. it was more accurate and easy to make calculations in your head. this is hard to dispute. but the US will not switch until someone can figure out a way to retool much of our industry. for example, Ford's economy is greater than many european countries . i dont think Ford motor co. is in a rush to spend a fortune retooling their factories so we can use our metric wrenches more. until the rest of the world can economically force them and the rest of the US, imperial is going to stay. i like metric better myself but dont see any chance of it changing in my lifetime. its changed in some industries like pharma because to financially compete they had to. we are a capitalist country, if you want change figure out a way to make it profitable for industry. then it will happen and quick!!

 

[Virgil]

growing up and still living in Britain i have fought a rearguard action against going metric but have had to admit defeat, well confusion anyway.

whilst the metric system is infinitely more logical it lacks the charm and eccentricity of the imperial system.

still, they'll grind us all down eventually. in the UK we now, by law, have to use metric weights in retail and some local market trader recently got prosecuted for refusing to move away from the imperial system.

progress eh?!?