Metric versus Imperial System for Diving?

[agilis]

If your SPG indicates 30% or more than your estimate in that 10 min interval, then you're exerting more physically than expected or have a leak somewhere . . . you should simply thumb & abort the dive.

Depends on the kind of dive, I think. Thumb and abort? Maybe on a deep technical or overhead dive, but certainly not on an ordinary recreational dive. If you are paying attention to what you are doing and what is going on around you the increase in air consumption should be easily anticipated and expected, especially if you start checking at 2 to 3 minute intervals as conditions or activities change. You simply modify the dive plan to fit the increased air consumption by making it shorter and/or shallower, assuming the reasons for the increased consumption are obvious and not equipment related.

This is very easy to do, especially when diving solo. Diving partners who know each other's patterns well can do the same. Only if an individual's air reserve is unaccountably diminishing rapidly is an abort in order, at a rate reflecting the situation.

Diving here in the North Atlantic one experiences very different rates of air consumption as conditions or activities change during a single dive. It's very easy for a competent experienced diver to do instantaneous recalculations to adjust the nature and duration of the dive accordingly. No computer needed besides the one atop your neck. A good analog SPG and a wrist watch is really all that's required. No biggie. Been doing it for decades.

 

[DaleC]

It seems that pretty much everyone here agrees that metric is the better system and that it has benefits, even those who still use imperial. Yet nobody (save Kevrumbo perhaps) makes an effort to actually switch. This not only makes no sense, it also makes things more difficult for everybody else.

To say metric is easier is a relative term. Sort of like saying speaking English is easier than say French. To an English speaking person it is; to a French speaking person, it is not.
With that in mind it makes perfect sense as to why people would not switch. It requires an alteration for which there is no benefit. If I use metric values my diving will not change in any way. How that makes it difficult for everyone else is beyond me?

 

[TMHeimer]

To say metric is easier is a relative term. Sort of like saying speaking English is easier than say French. To an English speaking person it is; to a French speaking person, it is not.
With that in mind it makes perfect sense as to why people would not switch. It requires an alteration for which there is no benefit. If I use metric values my diving will not change in any way. How that makes it difficult for everyone else is beyond me?

"makes perfect sense as to why people would not switch". Yet Canada switched to metric. Hey, that was my post yesterday. I dived today and there are 5 more PAGES.

 

[Tigerman]

To say metric is easier is a relative term. Sort of like saying speaking English is easier than say French.
...

In the same way that (56+33) / 33 is easier math than (17/10) + 1 it is...

 

[dfx]

To say metric is easier is a relative term. Sort of like saying speaking English is easier than say French. To an English speaking person it is; to a French speaking person, it is not.

It's very possible to objectively quantify how easy or difficult a system is. Objectively speaking, SI is much easier and simpler. There's no argument about that.

With that in mind it makes perfect sense as to why people would not switch. It requires an alteration for which there is no benefit. If I use metric values my diving will not change in any way. How that makes it difficult for everyone else is beyond me?

That depends. Plenty of examples have been given. Not all may apply to you, maybe none of them apply to you. If so, good for you, stick to whatever units you fancy. But they do apply to other people and so it makes sense to try to achieve global standardization.

 

[lowviz]

...//... and so it makes sense to try to achieve global standardization.

Oh my.

Enter the "least common denominator".

 

[tomfcrist]

It's very possible to objectively quantify how easy or difficult a system is. Objectively speaking, SI is much easier and simpler. There's no argument about that.[\QUOTE]

On the contrary, if you opened your eyes you would see 37 pages of argument about that.

That depends. Plenty of examples have been given. Not all may apply to you, maybe none of them apply to you. If so, good for you, stick to whatever units you fancy. But they do apply to other people and so it makes sense to try to achieve global standardization.

It makes sense to YOU....not to everyone. You aren't going to convert anyone's opinion here pal.

 

[mrdre]

Yet, Liberia is on its way to metrication...

Yeah, but Liberia has only to change the signs on the roads. On both of them.

 

[dfx]

On the contrary, if you opened your eyes you would see 37 pages of argument about that.

There hasn't been a single good argument for imperial being easier, simpler or makes more sense than SI. I recall: 1) Celsius is less granular than Fahrenheit, which is a silly and moot point. 2) ...?

Other than that, it's all been ranting about how people don't care, because it's what they know, how they don't want to change, what a huge effort it would be, how it doesn't even matter to them, it works for me, and what do other people care anyway, and we do what we want, because America.

On the other hand, there's dozens of reasons why SI is the superior system. But you're free to deny the obvious.

 

[dmoore19]

Deny? I don't deny metric is better. Now you need to not deny the fact that your argument has little to no meaning to almost everyone but you. Peace Out.