In American universities, do they use the Imperial system or Metric system?

A lot of people from different nationalities go to the US to study and eventually start a career.

But for those in the Maths and Science departments, will they have to learn a whole new system?

Does NASA also use the Imperial system?

you always use metric in science, even in the US. as far as math is concerned, I am unsure

In science classes, you use SI units.

I'm currently a student majoring in mechanical engineering. Beyond the trivial unit conversion sections of freshman classes, (chem & physics) pretty much all of the units have been metric. Granted, this may or may not change in upper level courses.

A professor of mine used to be a systems engineer for NASA. I think that he mentioned that they used metric only.

Do you sometimes use Fahrenheit intead of Kelvin?

Do you sometimes use Fahrenheit intead of Kelvin?

svenus97

[QUOTE="svenus97"]

Do you sometimes use Fahrenheit intead of Kelvin?

entropyecho

Man I can't believe the US doesn't want to use the Metric system more. Who cares if the imperial system is already integrated in society? A little thing like that shouldn't stop people.

They use metric in ROTC. :)

I use both metric and imperial in my engineering classes. out in the real world its all imperial though.

American universities use a lot of both.

Only time I ever used Metric was in science elective (Business Major).

I'm in high school, but in my science courses we almost exclusively use metric/SI units. I know the metric system like the back of my hand. The imperial system, not so much. This explains why I can't cook anything. I'm too busying trying to figure out how many cups are in a gallon, what's a pint, etc.

I use both metric and imperial in my engineering classes. out in the real world its all imperial though.

IZoMBiEI

[QUOTE="IZoMBiEI"]

I use both metric and imperial in my engineering classes. out in the real world its all imperial though.

Osaka-06

They probably use metric and imperial in college, since that's what they use here in Canada. Jobs are mixed - some are in metric, some in imperial. In the US, probably more imperial than otherwise.

edit: in engineering

NASA uses the metric system. All science in universities uses the metric system. cd_rom

Since 1999 it's mandatory. In that year NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used US customary units for a calculation.

Talk about bad day :lol:

We usemetric in the United States, it's part of ourstandard, but we replaced many metric measurements with simplified alternitives. Technically we don't use the imperial systemsince our units of measurments are different.

Why wouldthe standard of our colleges be the metric system? It wouldn't even make sense. Particular courses may prefer metric or traditional imperial because they are the focus of the course.

For Math and Science they use metric.

Nasa I think is mixed now, they used to be all for metric, but conversion mistakes (the crashing kind) with US manufactures (imperial) ended that.

If you plan on coming to the US for education it would be wise to generally learn the Imperial system, heck to avoid traffic tickets alone would make it worth it.

Metric system... whatever, I saw some recorded courses in wich the teacher used imperial system.

[QUOTE="IZoMBiEI"]

I use both metric and imperial in my engineering classes. out in the real world its all imperial though.

Osaka-06

Metric is superior and is thus, the more used...by far.

I believe this to be relevant to this thread.

Why are you asking this question on these boards when you have the entire internet?

depends, not all schools follow the same practices. In sciences I've seen us use the metric system, and the imperial system seems to be fading. Kinda sad to see such an important part of history and culture go.

depends, not all schools follow the same practices. In sciences I've seen us use the metric system, and the imperial system seems to be fading. Kinda sad to see such an important part of history and culture go.

buldog300

Inferior systems go as better systems replace them. However, it's just too much work to replace all the infrastructure in the US.

Government agencies use metric.

With the exception of the NOAA which uses both. (Our weather service.) And the DoT, which uses Imperial. (Our transportation service.)

Contrary to popular to belief we backwards Americans know how to use metric.

We just prefer Fahrenheit for temperature and for non-scientific measurement, Imperial, because it makes sense to us.

I know this is OT because I'm Australian, but everything I've been taught in schooling is in metric. I think it would be easier learning technical stuff in metric as it is base off simple conversions:

1mm * 10 = 1cm; 1cm * 100 = 1m; 1m * 1000 = 1km

1 inch * 12 = 1 foot; 1 foot * 3 = 1 yard; 1 yard * 1760 = 1 mile

1 inch * 12 = 1 foot; 1 foot * 3 = 1 yard; 1 yard * 1760 = 1 mile daqua_99

Most of my physics classes used the metric system.