America And The Metric System

[ranskaldan]

One thing I have never understood is America's continued insistence on using its own intricate system of feet, pounds, gallons, and degrees Fahrenheit, which no one in the rest of the world understands. Why is America the only major country not to have went metric? What reasons are there for this absolute bizarreness?

Can someone, preferrably an American, explain?

[SlowwHand]

Why would we want to be like you?

[Inverse Icarus]

if i remember correctly, america wanted to distance itself from Europe in every way possible early on. Washington spoke of isolation and everything

anyway, they picked the English system for some stupid reason and now on my physics tests i have to remember how to convert miles to kilometers. stupid english system.

other people say "america does it because it can".

i'll be waiting to see who says that

[mordhiem]

Lol, I know going to America was so confusing.

Err, so it's gonna be 78 degrees today, is that hot?
Right, do I want a 30 oz. (correct me if i'm wrong here, I think that's the standard size) can of coke or do I want something larger?
Hmmm, petrol costs $xxx to the gallon, so it'll cost how much to fill my car?

[Chowlett]

Didn't we have an almost identical thread a week or two ago?

[DarthVeda]

Hey if we go Metric, will the rest of Europe give something back and go English?

[Sarxis]

We do use the metric system for specific tasks, of course. And our Texas Instruments scientific calculators can convert between the two systems quite sufficiently for us.

Besides, when you do 120 on a US highway, you really feel the speed!

posted by the Chowmeister

Didn't we have an almost identical thread a week or two ago?

The Apolyton motto. Sticky it!!

[Zkribbler]

IIRC, metric was officially introduced by Napolean. The U.S. was on the other side of an ocean, so our isolation kept us from seeing its advantages. It wasn't until after WWII that we began bumping up against it.

The reason we haven't switced over is that, in order to go metric, we would have to completely retool and recalculate--new tool boxes, replacement parts that don't fit the English-sized machines and buildings, new, recipes, and how far is it now to San Francisco?

What was it, 10-20 years ago, we tried easing over, i.e. having everything labelled in both metric and English. What we should have done is to say, as of ___ date, everything is metic. Doing a slow switchover is like trying to climb into a swimming pool of ice water one millimeter at a time. It can't be done. People were frustrated and raged at their Congressmen. So much for going metric.

[Lincoln]

Almost all houses etc. are based upon 4x8 ft. pieces of material. It is too late to change now. We are not going to start calling plywood 1.2648x 2.5296's now.

[Paul Hanson]

At least America is consistent in it's use of the imperial system (the British name for the English system). Britain itself is a mish-mash of the imperial and metric systems: I'm 6 feet tall, weigh 12 stone and live 3 miles from the nearest town, but my driveway is about 12 metres long and it's 8 degrees celsius outside. And this is how the British measure all these things.

[rah]

Yep, they tried, didn't work.
People are always more comfortable with what they're familiar with.

What I find amusing, is the iritation it causes some poeple. It's worth keeping it for that alone.

Get over it.

RAH

[Apocalypse]

I remember this being debated about three years ago here.

One of the better arguements was that the foot is a really nice unit of measurement and that the decimeters and meters are either too small or too large for many things. Someone fired back saying that we all could just have a unit called "30 Centimeters," which would defeat the whole purpose of the metric system.

Another is that you are far more likely to go about a mile a minute than a kilometer a minute for extended periods of time.

[Garth Vader]

Yeah but it's no problem to go 2 km a minute

[General Ludd]

Americans are just mule-headed.

Canada used the imperial system not long ago. We have been able to change.

My grandparents still think in terms of feet, miles, fahrenheit, ect... but everything works in metric now, and it's what is tought at schools.

[Goingonit]

It's easier for America not to convert. When China surpasses America as the world's economic superpower, America will not have the power to stay imperial. The switch will just happen.