In case anyone is unaware, A0 is 1m^2 in size, and each adjacent number is half the size (i.e. A1 = 500 000 mm^2, A2 = 250 000 mm^2, A3 = 125 000 mm^2, A4 = 62 500 mm^2).
This has the great advantage of allowing documents to be easily up and down-scaled on a photocopier - i.e. an A3 document can be printed at 50% scale on an A4 sheet.
I wonder if anyone ever tried to do something similar with imperial units (AKA English units to the US Americans) - i.e. create sheets of papers with side-length of sqrt(2) : 1, and the largest being 1 square yard or similar.
I've never heard an American complain that Coca Cola is sold by the liter. There's no moral component to Americans not wanting to switch to metric. It's simply a matter of the switch and retooling being more hassle than continuing to use American customary units. Frankly, the difference seems to bother Europeans a lot more than it bothers Americans.
The reason why the rest of the world cares more is because US is literally the only country that hasn't switched that "matters" (for engineering and business purposes). Until y'all do that, everybody else has to contend with two systems at least occasionally because of commerce, tourism etc. Once you do, it's just metric going forward, which makes things so much easier for everyone. Standards produce the most benefit when they're truly universal.
The metric vs imperial discussion reminds me of Android vs iPhone discussions: Android users tend to care a lot more that their text message bubbles are green than the iPhone users do.
* Imperial units are defined in terms of metric units.
* The cost of changing over is astronomical
* Domains where the metric system is actually better use the metric system
* Domains where it does not don't need it.
* You have a supercomputer on your wrist. Dividing by a number other than 10 is not such a challenge anymore.
* A4 paper is in no way superior to letter. It's just a choice.
Replacing American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism (usually because of someone's trip when they were in college) is not necessarily always an improvement.
> Replacing American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism (usually because of someone's trip when they were in college) is not necessarily always an improvement.
ISO 216 isn't specifically European. It's used in most of the world. The same is true of the metric system.
The world will indeed be incrementally better when people don't have to waste time converting measurements when operating between the US and elsewhere.
I am not an American, I was raised using the metric system for almost everything, but I hate using it for manual work like carpentry and plumbing. For a long time in my country, we used the imperial system for stuff like that, and the change to metric is incredibly annoying and non-intuitive in those domains.
as opposed to the cost of not changing over, which is much larger but paid in small increments over time so nobody is bothered enough to do anything about it
A/B/C paper series formats are based on metrics system and therefore, morally evil and unfit for the US consumption.
In case anyone is unaware, A0 is 1m^2 in size, and each adjacent number is half the size (i.e. A1 = 500 000 mm^2, A2 = 250 000 mm^2, A3 = 125 000 mm^2, A4 = 62 500 mm^2).
This has the great advantage of allowing documents to be easily up and down-scaled on a photocopier - i.e. an A3 document can be printed at 50% scale on an A4 sheet.
I wonder if anyone ever tried to do something similar with imperial units (AKA English units to the US Americans) - i.e. create sheets of papers with side-length of sqrt(2) : 1, and the largest being 1 square yard or similar.
You're correct, but also forgetting the best part. The ratio between width and length stays the same!!
This specifically is what allows easy up-/downscaling for an A* size.
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US paper sizes:
ANSI A == 8.5 x 11 inches (letter)
ANSI B == 11 x 17 inches
ANSI C == 17 x 22 inches
ANSI D == 22 x 34 inches
ANSI E == 34 x 44 inches
There are additional sizes frequently used in the US too: business card, legal, half letter, and specialized sizes for architecture.
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> metric [...] morally evil
I've never heard an American complain that Coca Cola is sold by the liter. There's no moral component to Americans not wanting to switch to metric. It's simply a matter of the switch and retooling being more hassle than continuing to use American customary units. Frankly, the difference seems to bother Europeans a lot more than it bothers Americans.
The reason why the rest of the world cares more is because US is literally the only country that hasn't switched that "matters" (for engineering and business purposes). Until y'all do that, everybody else has to contend with two systems at least occasionally because of commerce, tourism etc. Once you do, it's just metric going forward, which makes things so much easier for everyone. Standards produce the most benefit when they're truly universal.
Same observation here. We (Americans) just don’t care. Not like we’re sitting here huffing and puffing about metric.
Nobody. Cares.
At the end of the day, the one you’re used to is the one that makes more sense. There is no system that is objectively better “in all situations.”
Most people that strongly argue that one is better than the other are usually just saying “it’s better cuz I’m used to it”
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>I've never heard an American complain that Coca Cola is sold by the liter. There's no moral component to Americans not wanting to switch to metric.
There is, it's just that Americans are happy to overlook it here and there for completely arbitrary reasons.
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> Frankly, the difference seems to bother Europeans a lot more than it bothers Americans.
Probably because European consume a lot of content from the US which makes little sense to them
The American military uses metric.
The metric vs imperial discussion reminds me of Android vs iPhone discussions: Android users tend to care a lot more that their text message bubbles are green than the iPhone users do.
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The US military is no stranger to the metric system, it's the standard.
The metric standard was defined by law as the official measurement system of the us in the nineteenth century. But Americans are stubborn.
* Imperial units are defined in terms of metric units.
* The cost of changing over is astronomical
* Domains where the metric system is actually better use the metric system
* Domains where it does not don't need it.
* You have a supercomputer on your wrist. Dividing by a number other than 10 is not such a challenge anymore.
* A4 paper is in no way superior to letter. It's just a choice.
Replacing American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism (usually because of someone's trip when they were in college) is not necessarily always an improvement.
> Replacing American exceptionalism with European exceptionalism (usually because of someone's trip when they were in college) is not necessarily always an improvement.
ISO 216 isn't specifically European. It's used in most of the world. The same is true of the metric system.
The world will indeed be incrementally better when people don't have to waste time converting measurements when operating between the US and elsewhere.
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I am not an American, I was raised using the metric system for almost everything, but I hate using it for manual work like carpentry and plumbing. For a long time in my country, we used the imperial system for stuff like that, and the change to metric is incredibly annoying and non-intuitive in those domains.
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> The cost of changing over is astronomical
as opposed to the cost of not changing over, which is much larger but paid in small increments over time so nobody is bothered enough to do anything about it
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Why are you bringing up imperial units? The US doesn't use them. The US uses US customary units.
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