The importance of reading in creating an author

[Kelliezgirl]

NASA went metric finally in 2007. Should make life on the ISS easier.

I predict that in the next 50 years, the US (or at least the majority of states) will adopt metric for all official usage except speed limit signs, with drinks and other items permitted to be retailed in US customary units.

NASA isn't the only game in town.

And people were making that same prediction with every bit as much confidence 50 years ago.

There really is zero benefit to converting society as a whole over.

People use the units that are appropriate to the task at hand.

 

[VallesMarineris]

NASA isn't the only game in town.

And people were making that same prediction with every bit as much confidence 50 years ago.

There really is zero benefit to converting society as a whole over.

People use the units that are appropriate to the task at hand.

Agreed. Keep in mind that we still have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle because the Babylonians used base 60.

The French, as part of the revolution, tried decimalize time and the calendar. It was a good idea, but didn't stick. Luckily the metric system did.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Agreed. Keep in mind that we still have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 360 degrees in a circle because the Babylonians used base 60.

The French, as part of the revolution, tried decimalize time and the calendar. It was a good idea, but didn't stick. Luckily the metric system did.

If we were going to go completely crazy, at one point there was a movement to go to 13 months with 28 days each and them New Years Day would be an "extra" day each year.
No more keeping track of 28, 30 or 31 days...

 

[Kumquatqueen]

True, but having lived 50 years and seen the changes in the other main non-metric country (UK), I think it's changing, albeit at glacial pace.

Vending machines switched to 500ml and 330ml cans years ago. Part of international supply chains. Hospitals started using cm for height and kg for weight - in the last 20 years, as default - generally popular as people felt less overweight in kg rather than knowing it in stone. The one holdout is babies being born, where the official notation is in g or kg but they tell the parents pounds and oz.

I just checked and a can of Coke in America really is bigger (or fuller?) 355ml (12 floz) rather than 330. A prime target for shrinkflation.

When I was a kid we'd recently decimalised money but textbooks still had questions in £sd. Useful for the smartarse who finished all their work early. Expensive things were often priced in guineas (a pound and a shilling), especially at auction, but now I think only racehorses and possibly a few niche auctions do (if the auction house was paid in guineas then they could pass the pounds to the seller and keep the commission).

For distance, driving is in miles, but hiking or running is in km to fit the maps and apps, and short distances are in metres. Even America joins the world for the 100m dash and 1500m race now, not yards or half-mile. Fuel efficiency switched from mpg to l/100km, about 15 years ago, which results in a number round 6. Easy. Speed is still mph for driving but increasingly TV will give animal speeds in km/h and their length and weights in metric.

Many rulers and tape measures no longer have inches on, probably because they're from one job lot sold across Europe. Clothes are increasingly labeled in cm for height of children, and cm for waists, hips and bust, which tend to be more accurate than the random dress sizes and inch numbers which have become random sizes. H&M and Uniqlo have pushed a lot of that.

Cookbooks responded to food packaging changes so while they used to say 8oz/450g, they now go for 500g and don't bother with the Imperial version. That's definitely a change in the last 10-20 years. The liquids will be in ml.

Even in pubs, you'll get rid of our pints only with a war, but those bottled beers and all are often 330 or 500ml...

Give the US another few decades of Couch to 5k, more international booze, etc, and wait for a generation of engineers and construction types to die off, and there will be more metric sneaking in. PNAS and Nature agreed to use SI units in the 70s, so most of science is there already - it's only the engineers who are the main holdouts. They can get used to using 2.54cm planks and 30.48cm tiles and all just like I did as a student. And then enjoy buying cheap Japanese tools and parts.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

True, but having lived 50 years and seen the changes in the other main non-metric country (UK), I think it's changing, albeit at glacial pace.

Vending machines switched to 500ml and 330ml cans years ago. Part of international supply chains. Hospitals started using cm for height and kg for weight - in the last 20 years, as default - generally popular as people felt less overweight in kg rather than knowing it in stone. The one holdout is babies being born, where the official notation is in g or kg but they tell the parents pounds and oz.

I just checked and a can of Coke in America really is bigger (or fuller?) 355ml (12 floz) rather than 330. A prime target for shrinkflation.

When I was a kid we'd recently decimalised money but textbooks still had questions in £sd. Useful for the smartarse who finished all their work early. Expensive things were often priced in guineas (a pound and a shilling), especially at auction, but now I think only racehorses and possibly a few niche auctions do (if the auction house was paid in guineas then they could pass the pounds to the seller and keep the commission).

For distance, driving is in miles, but hiking or running is in km to fit the maps and apps, and short distances are in metres. Even America joins the world for the 100m dash and 1500m race now, not yards or half-mile. Fuel efficiency switched from mpg to l/100km, about 15 years ago, which results in a number round 6. Easy. Speed is still mph for driving but increasingly TV will give animal speeds in km/h and their length and weights in metric.

Many rulers and tape measures no longer have inches on, probably because they're from one job lot sold across Europe. Clothes are increasingly labeled in cm for height of children, and cm for waists, hips and bust, which tend to be more accurate than the random dress sizes and inch numbers which have become random sizes. H&M and Uniqlo have pushed a lot of that.

Cookbooks responded to food packaging changes so while they used to say 8oz/450g, they now go for 500g and don't bother with the Imperial version. That's definitely a change in the last 10-20 years. The liquids will be in ml.

Even in pubs, you'll get rid of our pints only with a war, but those bottled beers and all are often 330 or 500ml...

Give the US another few decades of Couch to 5k, more international booze, etc, and wait for a generation of engineers and construction types to die off, and there will be more metric sneaking in. PNAS and Nature agreed to use SI units in the 70s, so most of science is there already - it's only the engineers who are the main holdouts. They can get used to using 2.54cm planks and 30.48cm tiles and all just like I did as a student. And then enjoy buying cheap Japanese tools and parts.

We already buy cheap Japanese tools and parts.
We do 5k and 10k races, but we also do 10miles, half marathons (13.1 miles) , marathons (26.2 miles) and Ultra marathons (50 miles, 100 miles or more).
What's the advantage to switching from dimensional lumber like 2x4s to metric? Absolutely none.
In the US industries that benefit from Metric use it, those that don't...well they don't. There isn't any incentive to change. Metric isn't somehow inherently better.

 

[SimonDoom]

NASA went metric finally in 2007. Should make life on the ISS easier.

I predict that in the next 50 years, the US (or at least the majority of states) will adopt metric for all official usage except speed limit signs, with drinks and other items permitted to be retailed in US customary units.

I do enjoy John Buchan. The film is very different from the book, which is more down to earth but as exciting (and fascinating nationalistic and other stereotypes, and other social history, in 39 Steps and his other books. I rather like the sequel Greenmantle, which has more explicit spying. The Isle of Sheep is a good title but less interesting.

I doubt it. I don't see any reason to believe things will change.

 

[StillStunned]

The Isle of Sheep is a good title but less interesting.

My Welsh blood just surged. (It's only a quarter, so the surge doesn't get in the way of anything.)

 

[Lumiere_Amie]

As I shared with a reader who contacted me using the Feedback function, there's a little bit of me in every one of my stories. If my story is set in a specific location, I've either been there or researched it extensively. I've used my taste in music, my fantasies, and people I know (though the names and places have been changed). I read a lot of other authors, both on and off Lit, to find inspiration for characters and situations. One thing I like to do is throw in an uncommon word so that if readers want to understand the sentence they'll need to look up the word. I don't know that they do, but still, it's an attempt to educate, not just entertain.