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When will the U.S. go completely "metric"?

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mktmaker

All-Conference
Jun 5, 2001
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(I am having a bout of basketball withdrawal.)



When I was a kid, I wondered why a bottle of whiskey was called "a fifth."

The spirits and wine industry quietly moved to the metric system. I never heard one objection.



Then Riverfront Stadium opened in mid-1970 with metric distance designations on the outfield wall. It seemed just a curiosity.



I know that the medical profession primarily uses the metric system now.



But we still use miles, Fahrenheit, "a gallon of milk" etc. Two plates on a barbell are 225 pounds. Freshmen college students are expected to gain the "Freshman Fifteen."



The first nation to adopt the metric system (a process called metrication) was France, in the 1790s. In subsequent decades and centuries, most other nations adopted it in part or in full, with notable holdouts being Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States (which primarily uses U.S. customary units).
 
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WildcatfaninOhio

WildcatfaninOhio

Heisman
May 22, 2002
18,252
15,522
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My elementary school began teaching us metric measurements when I was in 5th grade. That was in 1969. I figured we’d be all metric within a few years. 50 years later and still....not much. We’ve had 2 liter pop bottles since the 70s. But it kinda stopped there.
 
C

Crushgroove

Heisman
Oct 11, 2014
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mktmaker said:
(I am having a bout of basketball withdrawal.)



When I was a kid, I wondered why a bottle of whiskey was called "a fifth."

The spirits and wine industry quietly moved to the metric system. I never heard one objection.



Then Riverfront Stadium opened in mid-1970 with metric distance designations on the outfield wall. It seemed just a curiosity.



I know that the medical profession primarily uses the metric system now.



But we still use miles, Fahrenheit, "a gallon of milk" etc. Two plates on a barbell are 225 pounds. Freshmen college students are expected to gain the "Freshman Fifteen."



The first nation to adopt the metric system (a process called metrication) was France, in the 1790s. In subsequent decades and centuries, most other nations adopted it in part or in full, with notable holdouts being Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States (which primarily uses U.S. customary units).
Click to expand...

Never. B/c it makes more sense to say, "the temp dropped a degree in here" instead of saying, "wow, it was like 29.4 in here and now it's like 28.9!"

Besides, I refuse to denounce the Imperial system while the Brits have it both ways with their goofy "stones" value for weight. 14 random pounds... they couldn't even make it a number divisible by 5.

Also, spent way too many years memorizing decimal conversion values to 64ths.
 
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RacerX.ksr

Hall of Famer
Sep 17, 2004
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I use metric when I'm baking because accurate weights are more important and they're easier to calculate. For other cooking I just eyeball it. I know as much about the metric system as I need to.
 
AustinTXCat

AustinTXCat

Hall of Famer
Jan 7, 2003
52,127
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I used metric temperature, mass and distance measurements extensively during my *.mil career. Not so much these days.
 
G

Glenn's Take

Heisman
May 20, 2012
12,473
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So you're saying that something based on a base unit of 10 for everything is better than just some arbitrary numbers that someone came up with centuries ago? That's crazy.

The only thing I've ever heard as any kind of excuse is the expense to change every highway sign in the country. It's BS but at least it's true.
 
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mktmaker

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Jun 5, 2001
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BoulderCat_rivals187983

All-Conference
May 22, 2002
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mktmaker said:
(I am having a bout of basketball withdrawal.)



When I was a kid, I wondered why a bottle of whiskey was called "a fifth."

The spirits and wine industry quietly moved to the metric system. I never heard one objection.



Then Riverfront Stadium opened in mid-1970 with metric distance designations on the outfield wall. It seemed just a curiosity.



I know that the medical profession primarily uses the metric system now.



But we still use miles, Fahrenheit, "a gallon of milk" etc. Two plates on a barbell are 225 pounds. Freshmen college students are expected to gain the "Freshman Fifteen."



The first nation to adopt the metric system (a process called metrication) was France, in the 1790s. In subsequent decades and centuries, most other nations adopted it in part or in full, with notable holdouts being Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States (which primarily uses U.S. customary units).
Click to expand...
As you may remember there was once a big push for it back in the 70’s. America soundly rejected it. A system where everything is divisible by 10. Nah, makes too much sense. I did though and gradually came to think in terms of meters and kilometers, grams and kilograms instead of feet and miles, and ounces and pounds. Science and engineering around the world are based in it.
 
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vhcat70

Heisman
Feb 5, 2003
57,418
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Main floor of our house is 175 m2. Our lot is 0.09 hectare. I weigh 18 stone.
 
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