Talk:Metric system in the United States
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This page needs some work to make it encyclopedic in tone and NPOV. It looks as though it is a wikified advocacy document. "Our involvement", "the government", "our customary measurements" and similar US-centrisms need fixing. Some acknowledgement of the costs of and opposition to metrication would be useful too. Gdr 15:24, 2004 May 5 (UTC)
- I worked on the NPOV a little. Did I miss any? Rmhermen 16:54, May 5, 2004 (UTC)
I have never seen a doctor use standard measurements for weight, on many occassions I have had doctors have to do the math on a scratch pad to convert weight from metric to pounds because they assumed I could not understand pounds. Those I know who work in the medical profession always use kilograms for weight, maybe the statement that doctors use pounds is incorrect, or no longer true? I did not want to edit the page based on my sole experiences.
- Are you talking about doctors in the U.S. using metric? If so, where? It is certainly possible that it occurs in some area. I have never seen a scale in a doctor's office that measured in metric (except baby scales - which read both but only pounds were recorded on the chart). Rmhermen 00:53, Jan 12, 2005 (UTC)
lumber sizes
The article ends with the following statement: "The construction industry has been the slowest to adopt metric units where lumber still comes in standard 8- and 16-foot lengths and inch widths (which are not actual sizes)." I removed the part (which are not actual sizes). Maybe for the width and depth of lumber, the nominal size differs from the actual size, but for the length, it does not. You actually can get 2x4s in 8 foot and 16 foot lengths, and those will be the actual lengths. -Lethe | Talk 19:26, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
- The phrase modifies the inch width statement not the earlier length statement or both statements together. Perhaps you have a better way of phrasing it? Rmhermen 23:52, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
Momentum
The article currently reads: "The United States has been gradually increasing its use of metric units for many years, but much of the momentum has been lost since the 1980s, except in schools and science."
I am not satisfied with this but not entirely certain how to improve it. While it is true that the mass media metric campaigns and the random metric roadsigns and simultaneous use of Celsius and Fahrenheit by television weatherman has mostly disappeared since the 1980s, other "public" uses of metric are vastly increased. No one thinks twice about buying a 2L of soda or a 1L or 250mL. The home mechanic doesn't bother to take out his English wrenches when work on his car. And on the flip side, I understand the metric push in school math programs is much lessened since the 80s, not increased as the sentence says now. Rmhermen 02:14, Jun 13, 2005 (UTC)