eclayne said:Perhaps we could discuss appropriate equivalents as I've noticed centimeters are usually rounded to the nearest multiple of 5. Is this correct?

Yes, that is correct Eclayne!

zuzu said:Myriam, your breakdown wouldn't work because we don't think in terms of inches after the first 24 or so.

Ok Zuzu I understand your arguments!

Thank you Jonna, for giving the approximate value conversions! I don't think a more accurate one is needed concerning height and width of a plant, they vary anyway according to growing conditions.

So maybe if an automatic conversion is impossible, then its probably better to keep things like they are.
in fact I do know the approximate conversion values of inches and feet into cm, I only need two in this case; inches and feet...( one foot is about 30cm I think..)

There a loads of free conversion tools as mentioned previously. I've used Josh Madison Convert for years.

Unfortunately, many people don't even think of using a conversion tool, some people like things made easy for them or they go elsewhere.

It would be wonderful to have our very own conversion widget. I know when I have to do a conversion I have to go and use one I find on google.

I searched and read through this thread, as almost all of the resources I access use the metric system. I have diligently been converting to imperial measures, which seems backward to me (even though I live in the US). Any new thoughts on this? Perhaps we could offer both imperial and metric boxes and let folks fill out whichever one they are comfortable with and/or make appropriate conversions?

I am still amazed that in the US we cannot manage to convert to the metric system. I am seventy years old and still remember when I thought that was actually going to happen. But If I want to convert either way, there are plenty of conversion apps available.

I've heard that the U.S. is reluctant to convert to the metric system even though most of the rest of the world uses metric. It seems that when I do a data search for plants, I'm constantly having to open another window to convert cm to inches, etc. I love the idea of our database showing Imperial with the Metric equivalent in parentheses ... and maybe my almost 70 year old brain would retain some of those conversions.

We don't even use the Imperial system we roll our own so to speak!

I agree with you Larry. This spring I purposely bought myself an outdoor centrigrade thermometer that does NOT have a conversion to fahrenheit. My thought is to try to teach myself how centrigrade FEELS rather than comparing it to fahrenheit. I am slowly 'getting' that 10 is nippy, 15 is mild, 20 is warm, 25 is hot, and 30 is blazing (to me). I put this thermometer right where I pass it when going out to feed animals, so I'm getting a daily lesson. Re-thinking in terms of meters v. inches is easier but still a struggle. I too wish the US would do as Canada did and just switch over. As someone above noted, it would be painful for the initial generation, but after that smooth sailing.

I would love to see both, one in parentheses.

Or perhaps two boxes kind of side by side? One labeled Metric and the other US Standard. I'd encourage metric to be the preferred measurement as that seems more scientific, but either way would work.

Metric is the standard in science:

https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/U...
https://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/u...

That said, I understand the US is still on Imperial (sigh) and so the rest of the world has to deal with that. My preference would be to make metric the preferred unit with Imperial as an optional conversion, but as Dave pointed out earlier in this thread, most of the fields are text boxes and that section would need to be restructured (a lot of work to go through all the existing data) to make it possible to automatically convert all the values.

If you work in a U. S. national lab everything is done in metric. It was something I got used to using. I usually didn't have to convert anything as work was simply done in metric from the beginning. All research publications used metric. So in an official sense, the U. S. uses metric.

I do remember that 40 C was about 104 F though (I was curious and looked it up because it was temperature of a water bath).

Seedfork said:I am still amazed that in the US we cannot manage to convert to the metric system.

I'm almost 62 and I don't ever want to convert to metric and the hope the US doesn't either.

I think most Americans agree with you, Marilyn.

Karen

Most people should realize they can ask Google to "convert 5cm to inches" and a widget will show up with the answer. You can convert all sorts of strange units that way without having to exercise your brain too much.

To the extent many Americans don't like the metric system, most of the rest of the world especially dislikes the inches and gallons, because the different units of distance or volume or whatever don't go in powers of 10. It's 12 or 4 or 1760. That is an incredibly cumbersome system to do science in. Fortunately a yard is close to a meter, and an inch is about the distance of the last joint on your thumb. (Spanish vocabulary here: pulgada = inch; pulgar = thumb.)

People here in Mexico use metric and American units for different things. For example, you would normally buy a gallon of paint, but your gasoline comes in liters). Metric is clearly preferred, but there's still enough American commercial influence here that most people can convert.

I disagree with Karen and Marilyn (cross posted with Baja, with whom I don't disagree). I am 64 and most of my contemporaries agree we should join the rest of the planet. I think it is sheer laziness that we have not been more proactive in implementing this logical change, and agree with whomever noted it would only take one generation to actually make the change (kids introduced to the metric system without conversions would simply accept it). Our current wishy-washy half-baked attempt to somehow combine both systems has been a miserable failure. The only success I can think of off-hand is we all now know what a 1 liter bottle of soda is. Yabba dabba do.

I have no idea what a 1-liter bottle of soda is.

Bonehead said:I am 64 and most of my contemporaries agree we should join the rest of the planet.

Nope!

Yeah, me neither actually, I've always been averse to soda. I am, however, quite familiar with a 750 ml of wine or spirits! Perhaps that would have been a better example - ha ha.