So this question isn't so much about the movie. At a certain point you hear somebody say through the headset (when they are near the tunnel): 'It's only 13 meters ahead'. Now I'm from Europe, so the imperial system is quite foreign to me, but I was "shocked" to hear the metric system being used by American armed forces. Does anybody know if this is usual? And why should they deviate from the imperial system if it is the norm?
shareWhen I was a kid growing up running (in the USA) distances were in yards, e.g. 220 yard dash. Somewhere along the line everything became meters, e.g. 200 meter dash, 1500 meter run, 10,000 meter slog.
So maybe the military during those years have also transitioned to the metric system?
I know an officer in the Army, I'll text her and ask.
Edit: My question was, " Does the Army use feet and yards for distances, or meters usually? "
The reply was "Meters usually."
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Forgot to check this thread, this is a bit late, but thanks a bunch for your answer!
shareI have a feeling the military use the metric system as the standard because it's very precise, easy to convert, and it's pretty much used globally other than in the US.
shareit isn't more precise than imperial though. It's true that conversion factors are self defining, but also it is difficult to divide into smaller batches of units without ending up with 'nasty' numbers - divide a Kg by 8, and you get 125 grammes, but with a pound you get 2 ounces
shareCome on! Dividing a pound by 8 might be easy, but dividing a kilogram by 10 is easier.
The multipliers in the imperial system (16, 12 etc.) do have more small prime factors, so it sometimes seems like 'more' trivial calculations are easier, but metric is clearly easier to learn. When it comes to arithmetic, everyone on the planet can afford a calculator these days, and (in the first world) everyone with a phone already has a scientific calculator that is vastly more capable than most people ever need.
As far as I can see, the U.S, military uses metric so their equipment is compatible with NATO forces. In U.S. business, imperial measurements are a handy trade barrier for industry.
By the way, there's a reason why scientists and engineers prefer the metric system. If you doubt how complicated imperial conversion calculations can become, Google "NASA failure metric units" and tot up the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been wasted because of NASA's faith in the slug, the erg, the foot-pound and other absurd units!
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I would guess this is correct. You're also training and fighting along other NATO allies who almost without exception use the metric system. Even the chambering on army ammunition is given in metric -- 7.62 and 5.56 vs .223 and .306...
shareCan confirm. U.S. military uses the metric system when measuring distances.
shareWhen your watching those films set in Vietnam like Apocalypse Now, and they're talking about going "75 klicks up river", klicks = kilometres. So it's nothing new.
shareSo this question isn't so much about the movie. At a certain point you hear somebody say through the headset (when they are near the tunnel): 'It's only 13 meters ahead'. Now I'm from Europe, so the imperial system is quite foreign to me, but I was "shocked" to hear the metric system being used by American armed forces. Does anybody know if this is usual? And why should they deviate from the imperial system if it is the norm?
you hear films where US army say '5 clicks' from the river etc, it apparently refers to a kilometre, so it appears that they do like metric.
Both systems have their merits, but decide which one to use
I don't understand why the US won't just adopt metric as the official standard. The rest of the civilized and uncivilized world have adopted it.
shareSo we should all do what others do? India as no rape laws, should we do that to?
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ok and Europe created the Hadron Collider and sent a machine on top of a moving comet 300 million miles away. They use Metric. Yes, following in Europe's footsteps can't hurt. But if you insist on using India as the gold standard of innovation that's up to you.
shareNASA crashed a lander on Mars years ago because they confused feet with metres.
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share