Time is not with history's side. China made paper. India made Snakes and ladders. Japan used the first general anaesthesia. Russia won the space race. Germany? Gauss, Leibinz, Alzheimer, Fahrenheit, you name it they discovered it. Britain made the telephone and television. France made the aeroplane. Korea made movable type printing. Spain made the alltime bestselling book. Portugal discovered most of the world (with Spain covering the rest). Mali was the richest country in the world.

So don't even try any American achievements, every country could do 5 achievements for every North, Middle or South American country.

The american way is not logical Month/Day/Year, it is in time span the same as smaller, smallest, smal
A day has the shortest time span, so it should be first, then month and then year. that is far more logical

Also terms as pounds, stone, inches and fahrenheit should be abandoned! to confusing! just use kg, g (1/1000 of a kg, similar to bite which is 1/1000 of a kb). Temperature in degree Celsius which is the 1/100 scale between freezing and boiling water.
Why making it so difficult for the world to use these ridiculous measurements like stone (I throw a stone :S) or fahrenheit which maks totaly no sense!

> Russia won the space race.

Only if you count either going into space first, or sending a man into space first as winning the space first. America got to the moon first, so it could be said America beat Russia in the space race.

Edit:

As for the systems of units, they would be actually better to use if we had a base 12 number system instead of the current base 10 number system, and base 12 is superior because it has less repeating digits. (For example, 1/3 in base 12 is simply .4)

For Fahrenheit vs Celsius; Fahrenheit's zero is actually based off a number; its based off of what salt water freezes at. Most people in america knows what temperature in Fahrenheit pure water freezes at; do people elsewhere know what temperature salt water freezes at in Celsius?

Edited 6/2/2015 20:35:23

Damn never thought this would become an arguement about american shortcommings

Willem, why are you throwing the stone in as an American shortcoming? To my knowledge it is only used in the UK. It is not used anywhere in the USA.

Also ironic that you mention the simplicity of metric using 1 kilobyte being 1000 bytes when it can also be 1024 bytes depending on context.

Iamtaller you are soooo wrong

1. saltwater freezes on different temperatures due to different concentrations of Salt (for example Seawater at about -2°C or 28°F) so you can't mark this as a fixed point and that isn't the Fixing point for the Fahrenheit scale.
I quote the fixing points from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit (read the first column fully....)
and you can look up the freezing points of different Saltwater(Brine) Concetrations here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine

2. 10=2*5 and 12=2*2*3 so both have 2 prime divisors which gives both an equal probability do produce a periodic result when divided by a random number (I'd be willing to give you a full mathematical prove for that if you want since I can't find a good googlebookslink with it its called the "Satz von Steiner"....)
so in that aspect both are equally good base Numbers.
However the arguments for 10 as a base are obvious....
---Captain mode off-----

1kb is always 1024 bytes.

Willem: that's just cultural, if you had been raised in the US you would find celsius and the metric system just as confusing. We get teached fahrenheit and inches in Europe aswell, we just don't bother memorizing it since everyone around us uses something else.

Isn't there also Bits? It's really a confusing system, since bits and bytes are the same abbreviations. That's something that a lot more people would agree to standardizing.

Metric would be much better than customary, but the sad thing is most people don't know where customary came from, so they just continue and pretend it's logical. Qubits,anyone?

Celsius is based on the temperature water freezes, 0 Degrees Celsius. Both systems are confusing though. I find Fahrenheit exaggerates temperatures at a nice proportion though. 32 and 212 sound a lot more different than 0 and 100.

As far as American achievements go :

First billion dollar corporation (u.s. steel).

Oldest still inhabited city in North America. (St. Augustine i think).

Fastest tank blitz.

Telegraph.

Replaceable parts.

Assembly line process.

First steel bridge (not totally sure, never looked into it too far).

Richest man in history. (Rockefeller)

Largest financial center (stock exchange new York. Unless there's another larger one? Never read into it. )

I could go on, but i think I'm going to get tons of anti-American backlash as is.

My question is why do you care about America so much? Does it affect you? Do you see us enforcing Fahrenheit and American calendar times on your children every day, just to make them suffer? Is there any threat to your way of life?

Stop worrying about what we do in our nation if its not affecting you. If we like what we have, then dont try and change us. You'd be just as bad as what you say we are :L

in american. The times vary, colonel only got suspended for a day but I think HH is suspended permanently.

My question is why do you care about America so much? Does it affect you? Do you see us enforcing Fahrenheit and American calendar times on your children every day, just to make them suffer? Is there any threat to your way of life?

Stop worrying about what we do in our nation if its not affecting you. If we like what we have, then dont try and change us. You'd be just as bad as what you say we are :L

Most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say by a long shot.

Genghis, some of what you have put is right, and some is wrong. Mana Munsa was the richest man in history, the biggest financial hub is London, I'm pretty sure (though it was New York for a while). American dollars are meaningless, you can just devalue your currency and say you have a million billion zillion anything. See Zimbabwean Dollar (I have 50 trillion of them).

Source for fastest tank blitzkrieg? Because I don't think anyone beats Germany on that. Telegraph? British. Replaceable parts? Hasn't that been around since earlier than the Holocene time?

Anyhow, China got rid of li, now it's time for America to get rid of something which isn't even really American culturally.

(Guys, the America stuff I said was tongue-in-cheek.)

As for the American system and why it's actually not so bad:

Celsius makes a ton of sense in a laboratory- where the boiling and freezing points of water are good reference points, especially in biology. However, as a person, I'm probably never going to experience both 0 degrees C and 100 degrees C in my lifetime, unless I'm an astronaut or die a horrible death in some extreme environment. In contrast, 0 degrees F and 100 degrees F is a pretty useful range- I've experienced both temperatures, and 0 to 100 here is a great scale from "cold as fuck" to "hot as fuck" that's easy for me to personally contextualize. 0/3 of the way is terribly cold (Boston in a cold January), ~1/3 of the way (32 F) is freezing, 2/3 is California (67 F), and 3/3 is hot (July in Texas). In contrast, really only 60 degrees on the Celsius scale are useful in describing the weather (about -15 C to 45 C) for an average person- corresponding to 0 F to 115 F- or 115 meaningful degrees. That's a pretty solid range, relatively.

Similarly, the customary/imperial system is pretty nice- pounds aren't any better than kilograms, but we all know how much a "cup" is and basing volume on that is nice. Similarly, inches are on your fingers, feet are generally comparable to actual feet, etc. These are all measurements you can contextualize in terms of everyday things.

I think American measurement systems aren't bad at all for everday usage but as far as scientific/professional settings go, yeah the metric system makes more sense.

As for calendar dates- it's not any more complicated. We're just counting within the month.

Have you ever seen ice? Are you Malaysian?

However, as a person, I'm probably never going to experience both 0 degrees C and 100 degrees C in my lifetime

Really? I mean you get 100 C every time you boil something (most people have been burnt by the hot water too), and 0 when you touch frozen water.

Similarly, the customary/imperial system is pretty nice- pounds aren't any better than kilograms, but we all know how much a "cup" is and basing volume on that is nice. Similarly, inches are on your fingers, feet are generally comparable to actual feet, etc. These are all measurements you can contextualize in terms of everyday things.

In Europe a door is 2m tall, 1 kg is 1 l, which is two bottles of water. I mean, whatever system you use you will find everyday objects in that size, but the fact remains that the 10's are way easier to calculate in your head. A cup is the same as a glass aka 200 ml in EU, while it is 240 in the US. (Also I could make a point about how feet, and fingers vary greatly in size, but I am not.)

My question is why do you care about America so much? Does it affect you? Do you see us enforcing Fahrenheit and American calendar times on your children every day, just to make them suffer? Is there any threat to your way of life?

Yes, all those american company's, and TV's series, movies etc. They are pretty big worldwide, and since English is the current international language this affects most users of the internet for sure. Not sure if I would have preferred the British replacement of all measurements etc. through.

Edited 6/3/2015 00:25:17

Nice try Knyte, so according to you, the entire rest of the world is wrong? and the lone remaining country still using the old temperature scale is right. Think about that for a moment, and you start to see that it seems a bit smug to think that you know better than everyone else. The reason we have such things as standard time, and the metric system is because it’s important that everyone agrees on the same form of measurement.

And about which system makes more sense, well I do not think that Celsius is worse than Farhenheit. Here is an easy example about how you can "contextualise" better with Celsius degrees: Strange things happen on our planet when the temperature reaches the freezing point of water at standard pressure. Lakes freeze, roads sometimes get very icy and Moscow or Montreal get buried in ice crystals, so a case can be made that freezing is by far the MOST important temperature in our planet (as water is the most essential element). Let’s make it an easy number to remember, like say ZERO! (here 0 degree Celsius) If the temperature is below zero, watch out for bad things to happen. Above zero, your OK. So then, tell me what’s so special about 32 degrees Fahrenheit...

To conclude, all of the objections I hear to Celsius can be traced back to the fact that people are not used to it. Someone used to Celsius would have the same objections to Fahrenheit (and Europeans do indeed say exactly the same about the old scale used in America). In this age of anti science where U.S. Senators think a snowfall disproves basic physics, converting to metric might just be what this country needs to get your education system back on track.

Yes, all those american company's, and TV's series, movies etc.

Maybe it's just me, but I dont exactly see Fahrenheit brainwashing in the latest transformers movies.

They are pretty big worldwide, and since English is the current international language this affects most users of the internet for sure.

So you think that because there are American companies that went overseas, and we all speak english, that we impose all our measurements on you? I call bullshit on that, because most people are just going to use what they know best or are more comfortable with. All my brit friends talk to me in celsius when they mention the cold/heat and what not. I don't assume theyre forcing anything on me.

Not sure if I would have preferred the British replacement of all measurements etc. through.

Not sure I would prefer anyone's replacement. Whyis there an assumption that change is needed?

I don't think anyone's mentioned this, yet:

America is not the only country that uses the old system.

burma does.