Why does the US not go Metric?

reply to post by virgom129


I forgot about the 16 ounces in a pound. I tip my hat to you! We don't do the whole stone thing in America. That's sort of silly.

I still maintain though that the imperial system is not confusing from the start. If you have a hard time putting things into groups I could see how it would be a problem. Otherwise, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I'm Aussie, and I hate to say this, but I like to swing both ways. Physics in school, volumes, measurements in metric are great for that. But I'll be damned if will call my 7'x2'x2' foot fish tank some poxy number in centimeters!

reply to post by Jazzyguy

The US military already has to use the metric system extensively, FYI.

And, at least where I'm from in Florida, we had to learn the metric system extensively in math and science class. Americans knowing the metric system isn't a big deal. We just don't want to use it.

reply to post by octotom


Metric is easier to learn....

American adults should help their kids to learn...
Damn being lazy americans... Learn to move with the world instead of expecting the world to move at your command...

reply to post by virgom129

Metric is easier to learn....

In your opinion it's easier to learn. I never said anything either way regarding the level of easiness. It all comes down to what you're use to. I personally don't find anything difficult with learning how to group numbers like is does with the imperial system.

American adults should help their kids to learn...

I think you missed the parts where I (and others) have said that in America we do learn the metric system. We just choose to use our more native measurements for day to day things. You many even be surprised to learn that sometimes, we use metric from time to time! [For example, I've seen instructions for various things saying to use x amount of centimeters!]

Damn being lazy americans... Learn to move with the world instead of expecting the world to move at your command...

I think I missed the part about America forcing the whole world to use imperial. Oh..wait. It's not like that is it?

American scientists do use metric like the rest of the world. America school kids learn the metric system and use it regularly. Americans just use something that you don't like.

For crying out loud, it's just a stinkin' set of standard measures, but since Americans don't want to use the metric system in day to day usage, we're lazy.

In the construction industry they use metric system as well as am standard,money is metric system,already incorporated,why should we change? to make a few brit's happy?

Originally posted by AlreadyGone
reply to post by virgom129

 

I understand what you are saying... and a part of me agrees. But old habits die hard.

Here, if I am talking to someone and tell them that an agricultural sprayer will cover 200 sq feet...they know what I am talking about. Otherwise, I'm just wasting time.

I work at a farm store and we sell power equipment...chain saws, lawn tractors, etc. Much of what we sell comes in CCs....like 120cc power water pump. Everybody wants to know how much HP or horse power it has... and they will not buy it if they don't know either.

Honda has a good name, but you get a Briggs and Stratton motor with 18.5 HP...it'll sell everytime.

Arent briggs and stratton made in china now?,

they lost there good rep over here a while back , poor manufacturing defects etc , holes blown in castings etc, ..haha sry strange topic even for ats ....lol

ps had the same 5.5 hp honda cement mixer for 27 years lol...honda outboard..33 years , still working great

The US military use metric....

[edit on 25-6-2010 by gambon]

[edit on 25-6-2010 by gambon]

Deleted by Author who should know when not to bite at dangled bait

[edit on 25/6/10 by thoughtsfull]

I did archaeology in college so I had to deal with metric measurements, but I have to confess that they don't "mean" anything to me. By that I mean I can't really visualize a meter and a half. I have to convert it to "oh that's roughly 5 feet, just a few inches shorter than I am". I can use metric, but, well, I grew up using feet and pounds and inches and ounces and so they mean something to me.

reply to post by virgom129


I have only read the opening post...
One of the reasons why the U.S. can't use the
metric system yet.You have to wait until all of
us old people die first.I don't have a clue about
the metric system and I'm not interested in learning
it either!

I have always been of the opinion that the reason America will never give up the Imperial System is due to this well known object:




Isn't the Imperial System based on the sacred units of measurement and mathematics of the Great Pyramid?

Pyramid Power!

The worst problem with the US not using the metric system fully is that it can totally mess up equations.

Many times I have searched for an equation that is shown on a US website without the units described. Usually these formula will have various units scattered everywhere like quarts for volume, feet for distance in the first formula, then gallons and inches in the next.

The rest of the world uses SI units to keep everything simple. Remember the Hubble mirror - the measurements were given to the Germans without units described?

Us Brits have a met-perial system as described by a another poster for general use but our science uses SI. There are more oddities, such as we use feet and inches to decribe our height but measure other things in metres. We also state our weight in stones but measure everything else in kg.

Also I don't know anyone that uses centimetres - we all use millimetres for small things and metres for big things but the mainland Europeans use cm and seem to not understand mm. Very strange

PS I think NASA recently announced they were going to stick to the imperial system for the foreseeable.

Why sir?
Because we are the most powerful symbiote being of corrupt political beings in the world.
That's why. We'll change it when we're damned good and ready, and todays not that day.

I can visualize metric and imperial, but rarely use metric. Metric makes more sense to me in some things than others, but that probably has to do with the way some metric is implemented in the US. In a nutshell, I CAN use metric, I just don't want to...

Both systems are used where appropriate.

For example, where height is concerned it's more efficient to use the Engloish system. It's easier to say sixty feet than 1827.5 centimeters.

Hey, I'm used to the system.
Not to say I don't know the metric system (having taken courses in Automotive repair)

But,having used the metric system extensively, I have to say it's a lot simpler than our system

Originally posted by virgom129
reply to post by AlreadyGone

 

Yeah but thats just old ideas.. The US has had 40 years to change the education system but chooses not to...

I just wonder why.. Americans are as smart as us here in Australia so why not change to a universally accepted better system?

Someone earlier posted an answer I would tend to agree with. It is probably a result of American nationalistic exceptionalism. "We are too good to adopt something used by the rest of the world." I. e., a feeling of unmerited (except in football) superiority.
Whatever the reason, it is a royal (Imperial?) pain in the butt. I teach physics and chemistry at a state university and I have to waste at least a week teaching the S.I. and cgs systems and the need for using significant figures in calculations. There is some resistance to the idea of using meters, grams, liters, etc. Every semester I'm asked, "Isn't feet, gallons, pounds good enough?" My response is, "Sure it's good enough if you want to spend a large part of your life that you'll never get back doing conversions."

There are some fun facts involving the meter. There actually is a bar of metal, 90% platinum and 10%irridium, measuring a meter at 0 deg. C. Actually, they screwed up and made it, in 1875, about a fifth of a millimeter too short. So the meter bar isn't. And it's getting more 'isn't'. The damn thing seems to be evaporating. Yup, metal evaporates. The bar is kept behind many locked doors at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM: Bureau International des Poids et Mesures) located in Sèvres, France. Every so often it is brought out for a viewing with all the pomp and circumstance afforded Puxatawny Phil on Feb. 2nd. After all the assemblage has gravely examined what's left of the bar, it is ceremoniously replaced in its sepulchre, lying in state next to the gram weight.
Since the meter bar is slowly disappearing, a new definition was needed. So a mter is now defined as the distance traveled by a photon in 1/299 792 458 of a second in a vacuum.
anyone want to know the basis for the joule. OK - It's The work required to move an electric charge of one coulomb through an electrical potential difference of one volt; or one coulomb volt. That's all you're getting today, although there are some great stories about Joule, Watt and Farraday and their favorite bar.

American adults, namely Fox viewers, are too stupid to learn something new, especially since old age is setting in.

Originally posted by LightFantastic
Us Brits have a met-perial system as described by a another poster for general use but our science uses SI. There are more oddities, such as we use feet and inches to decribe our height but measure other things in metres. We also state our weight in stones but measure everything else in kg.

And don't forget we buy our milk, petrol, even our wine in litres but our beer in pints.

I think that was perhaps a little victory for the poor old geezer in George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' who complained ...

‘I arst you civil enough, didn't I?’ said the old man, straightening his shoulders pugnaciously. ‘You telling me you ain't got a pint mug in the 'ole bleeding boozer?’
‘And what in hell's name is a pint?’ said the barman, leaning forward with the tips of his fingers on the counter.
‘Ark at 'im! Calls 'isself a barman and don't know what a pint is! Why, a pint's the 'alf of a quart, and there's four quarts to the gallon. 'Ave to teach you the A, B, C next.’
‘Never heard of 'em,’ said the barman shortly. ‘Litre and half litre — that's all we serve. There's the glasses on the shelf in front of you.’
‘I likes a pint,’ persisted the old man. ‘You could 'a drawed me off a pint easy enough. We didn't 'ave these bleeding litres when I was a young man.’

As an old geezer myself I grew up with £.s.d. money and Imperial weights and measures. Then worked a lifetime in laboratories with everything in SI metric units. I can still do most conversions in my head but still remember, with horror, working in food laboratories in the early 70's and having to scale up lab recipes to production scale - grams to cwts, st, lb oz and millilitres to gallons, pints and fluid ounces. In the days before calculators, let alone computers And discovering along the way that US fluid ounces are not the same as UK ones

It is a good question really because I am sure many Americans couldn't exactly tell you, how many feet are in a mile? Without Googling it

A) 2,580 ft.

B) 2,850 ft.

C) 5,820 ft.

D) 5,280 ft.

Good Luck!

That is why the Metric system is good because the conversation between sizes is based on multiples of 10s and 100s. The reason we Americans haven't completely embraced it is because we like being able to say, "I'm 6'4" and 200lbs," instead of sayin "I'm 193cm and 90.5kg." That just feels werid, the cm make me feel short, while the kg make me feel skinny. Ugh, had to shake that off. Them metric numbers are scary!



[edit on 25-6-2010 by tooo many pills]