Metric system

Glenn's Take

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May 20, 2012
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Can anyone give me any crazy reason (other than it would cost a lot to change the road signs) why the United States doesn't use it? I'm not sure if some of you have been introduced to numbers but it kind of repeats. 1-10 over and over...
 

AustinTXCat

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Jan 7, 2003
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Non-United States Customary System take, Glenn.

By the way, I concur. Aside from USA, Myanmar and Liberia, rest of world uses metric system. Personally speaking, I converted miles to km and pounds to kilograms for many years while in Europe. USA indeed seems like the odd fellow in this respect.

But who landed on the Moon first using miles and pounds to get there? :cool:
 

_ukcat

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On I-75 south going into Knowville the signs have distances to Knowville in both miles and kilometers. They were added when the World's Fair( aka Butcher's County Fair) was there back in the 80's. Odd seeing that.
 
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WildcatfaninOhio

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May 22, 2002
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They made us learn about the metric system back when I was in 5th grade. So, 1969. We were told then that the metric system would be put into place soon, so we had to learn it. It was left up to businesses to convert or not. The vast majority saw too much push-back from consumers so they never switched.

Somehow, 'Muricans can comprehend just fine when they buy their Mountain Dew by the 2-liter and their illicit drugs by the gram. But posting road sign distance markers in kilometers, or changing the 12oz can of Milwaukee's Best to .355L, would turn their world upside down.
 

vhcat70

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Booze & medical systems in USA use it exclusively. I think much science is conducted in it. Aren't car parts metric now?

But imo we're not using it is because trying to implement would result in the conspiracy nuts coming out further & so not worth it.

Germans I worked with said they use plumbing sizes in inches & I think in lumber also.
 

Deeeefense

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The problem with switching is so many things that are part of our environment were build around the empirical system of measurements that trying to convert would be problematic, in fact it has been tried but didn't get very far.
 

warrior-cat

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Somehow, 'Muricans can comprehend just fine when they buy their Mountain Dew by the 2-liter and their illicit drugs by the gram. But posting road sign distance markers in kilometers, or changing the 12oz can of Milwaukee's Best to .355L, would turn their world upside down.
Maybe some truth to that. 100 miles to Lexington on a sign sure looks better than 160.9 kilometers.
 

vhcat70

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Then you have all these metric countries using an 18 yard box in soccer. WTF?
 

TucsonCat

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My first job was redrawing metric schematics from Germany to have both metric and imperial dimensions. For some reason, could not convert our machine shop to use metric dimensions alone.

But seriously, you know if we tried, there would be members of congress who would campaign on putting a stop against the scourge of communist measurements.
 

Wildcats1st

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It’s the same reason the USA calls futbol soccer. Americans always have to put their spin on things
 
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Can anyone give me any crazy reason (other than it would cost a lot to change the road signs) why the United States doesn't use it? I'm not sure if some of you have been introduced to numbers but it kind of repeats. 1-10 over and over...
Science, medical/medicine, dental, military, energy, electronics, firearms, jewelry, manufacturing, narcotics, and auto industries (to name a few industries) switched over metric a long time ago or are very largely operating using the metric system. Anything pertaining to international affairs uses metric. The consumer goods industry is largely switching over to the metric system. Now some of this usage of metric system usage may not have translated over to the consumer-facing portion of the industries, but behind the scenes it's all done in metrics and then converted to whatever the appropriate imperial standard would be.

That's one of the reasons why many single-serve bottled beverages are often that weird 16.9 oz now, because 16.9 oz. is half a liter when rounded to two decimals places.

And the US monetary system is effectively based on the metric system because it's based on factors of 10.

So the USA effectively runs off the metric system for the most part, it just hasn't translated to the consumer-facing aspect.
 

WildcatfaninOhio

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It’s the same reason the USA calls futbol soccer. Americans always have to put their spin on things

Yeah, not the case at all.

The name soccer was started in Britain. When they established set rules and guidelines for soccer they had to differentiate from their other sport, Rubgy Football, and the US sport, Gridiron Football. They called it Association Football. Over the proceeding decades the name Association Football was bastardized into Assoccer, and then just Soccer. Somewhere along the line they stopped calling it soccer and went back to calling it football. The US was already calling Gridiron Football just Football. So we stuck with using the name Soccer.
 
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^"Assoccer."
It Hurts Belgian Football GIF by Univision Deportes
 

TortElvisII

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Yeah, not the case at all.

The name soccer was started in Britain. When they established set rules and guidelines for soccer they had to differentiate from their other sport, Rubgy Football, and the US sport, Gridiron Football. They called it Association Football. Over the proceeding decades the name Association Football was bastardized into Assoccer, and then just Soccer. Somewhere along the line they stopped calling it soccer and went back to calling it football. The US was already calling Gridiron Football just Football. So we stuck with using the name Soccer.
Impressed as I can be but you know way too damn much about this.
 
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