
Why the US never fully adopted the metric system - miraj
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/06/why-the-metric-system-hasnt-failed-in-the-us/487040/
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matchagaucho
The base 12 numbering system is far more practical for trades that transact in
halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths.

12 inches, dozen eggs, 24 hours, 360 degree circle is 30 sets of 12...

If it weren't for the human justification of having 10 fingers on our hands,
the base 10 metric system may not have gained traction at all.

~~~
nickserv
The US system isn't bad because it's not base 10, it's bad because it's
horribly inconsistent. Quick - how many inches in 1.25 miles?

~~~
sverige
79,200. Why would you need to know that?

Edit: This made me think about the scale of things you're measuring. Roads are
generally best measured in miles, not yards, feet, or inches. Some things are
better measured in yards (like football fields or concrete (cubic yards)).
Some things are best measured in feet, and some things in inches.

The avoirdupois system is human sized. The metric system is based on some
inaccurate 18th century French calculation of the circumference of the earth,
IIRC. Why would you care what your height is in relationship to the
circumference of the earth? That never made sense to me.

Rarely does it matter if you can convert from one unit to the other. The only
exception I can think of is when doubling or halving a recipe - going from
teaspoons to tablespoons or liquid ounces can be a pain.

~~~
Veratyr
Maybe I have to cover a road with 11 inch long bricks and I need to know how
many to buy?

The problem is that although perhaps certain units may be good for measuring
certain things, the things you use those measurements for will frequently
involve things that use different units.

To take your road example again, what if I want to find out how many
revolutions it takes a wheel with a 4 foot circumference to travel a mile?
What if I want to find out how many yard long strides it takes to go down a
road?

The metric units are interoperable. That's their big advantage.

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barney54
I used to think the US would go metric, but more recently I'm not sure. The
biggest question is what is the advantage for every day purposes? For example,
a foot is a more useful measurement than the meter. Fahrenheit is more useful
than Celsius (I know Celisus is not technically metric). Pounds are more
useful than kilos (a best it's a wash). I don't see why grams beat ounces.

I just don't see the value of metric for everyday purposes. For science, yes,
but not for everyday measurement.

~~~
barney54
I see I have been downvoted a few times. What's your argument? Where do you
disagree? I'd like to hear an alternative viewpoint.

~~~
bajsejohannes
I'm guessing it's because you didn't back up your arguments. Why is a foot
more useful than a meter? Why is Fahrenheit is more useful than Celsius? Why
are pounds more useful than kilos?

So let me kick it back to you: What's _your_ argument?

Metric and imperial are both pretty arbitrary; one strong argument for metric
is just to get an international standard.

~~~
wolfgke
> one strong argument for metric is just to get an international standard.

And that they are easy to convert among each other (simply powers of 10). And
that there is a complete system of units (SI) that is based on it (what is the
imperial unit of force, power, voltage, current,...? etc.).

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thaumasiotes
> what is the imperial unit of force

The little-known "pound". :p

~~~
shabble
The Stormtrooper, obviously

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tuna-piano
Whenever a non-American brings this up to me as a negative point about
America, I love saying the following:

"There are two types of countries in the world: Those that use the metric
system and those that have been to the Moon.(1)"

(1)I purposely leave Liberia out of it. Unfortunately, I think it still might
be a few years before the LSA gets to the moon.

~~~
dalke
Oh, I can play this game!

"There are two types of countries in the world; those who have some sort of
national paid law for new parent(s), and those that have been to the Moon (1)"

(1) and Lesotho. I don't think any country starting with an "L" has gotten to
the moon.

"There are two types of countries in the world: those that use the metric
system and those that have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (2)"

(2) And Somalia.

For some more cherry-picking: "Only Communist countries have managed to put
rovers on the Moon or land probes on Venus."

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adventured
Cherry picking you say? In fact the US put a rover on the moon nearly half a
century ago. A human driven rover at that:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_rover](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_rover)

Here's a beautiful photo of it:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Ap...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Apollo15LunarRover.jpg/1024px-
Apollo15LunarRover.jpg)

~~~
dalke
Absolutely right. My apologies. I was thinking robots only.

So, what about "more communist countries have succeeded in [said missions]
than non-communist ones"?

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hugs
One fascinating thing I discovered a few years ago: Lego Technic is a
combination of both metric and imperial units. Hole centers are 8mm apart from
each other. But hole diameters are 4.85mm, perfectly sized for a 10-32 (size
based on inches) screw.

~~~
kalleboo
Well now I spent WAY too much time reading about LEGO dimensions.
[http://www.robertcailliau.eu/Alphabetical/L/Lego/Dimensions/...](http://www.robertcailliau.eu/Alphabetical/L/Lego/Dimensions/General%20Considerations/)

Looks like Technic hole diameters are set between between letting the poles
spin and having brick pegs stick.

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zhte415
Ask anyone form the UK their height, weight, or for a glass of beer.
Feet/inches, stone (America never really adopted that) and some scale of pint
would be the reply.

Yet ask them to do a calculation in these measurements would result in looks
of scorn, "THAT'S INSANE' in the words of Moss from IT Crowd.

Because we calculate in metric, and that's because all textbooks post late 70s
were in metric and 'new pence' [1].

Fahrenheit is largely dead as a common measurement in day-to-day conversation,
pint the least likely to disappear, as it's treated as a countable unit, nor
an interval scale; on that matter, probably stone too.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(British_pre-
decimal_coi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_\(British_pre-
decimal_coin\))

~~~
anotherevan
In an Australian pub you can ask for a pint, or a pot, or a schooner, but ask
any bartender how big that is and they'll tell you in millilitres.

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massysett
The EU takes pride in multilingualism. Bilingualism is said to be a core part
of Canadian identity. Children are encouraged to learn multiple languages. Yet
for some reason diversity in measurement systems is bad?

The US uses two measurement systems. As a practical matter, those who need to
use metric do so. Many sporting events are metric. Much commerce is metric.
Food labels are metric.

I have never seen why this is a problem. Most other folks don't either, which
is why we haven't chosen to do stupid stuff like run around and change road
signs or insist that people use particular measurements.

Oh, and the story about how the spacecraft crashed does not make a convincing
case. Any aerospace contractor worth its salt would check all its units of
measure. Being entirely metric does nothing to alleviate this burden.
Reporting a measure in centimeters rather than meters will get you the same
problem. Units of measure must be labeled, period.

~~~
dalke
Some people learn a new language or learn about a different culture to get
some understanding of a different perspective on life.

There is very little interesting or informative about learning diverse unit
systems.

Now, _history_ of unit systems is interesting, but that's more like learning
an aspect of other cultures than about measurement systems.

~~~
mordant
I speak two languages in addition to English, and can (mostly) read and write
a third.

English is far more expressive than the other languages with which I'm
familiar.

~~~
dalke
What is your point? Consider two color models. One can be "more expressive",
that is, have a large gamut, than the second, but be unable to reproduce all
of the colors in the second.

Or, certainly Lisp is "more expressive" than APL, and both are Turning
computable and thus equivalent, but some trivial constructs in APL require
much more Lisp to express.

How do you express Japanese honorific speech in English?

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anotherevan
Rather than reiterating a lot of what I've said previously, I'm reposting my
greatest hits from previous discussions on this topic: hope that is okay.

§

The US rarely uses metric in it's popular culture. Weather reports are in
Fahrenheit, movies almost always use miles and pounds. By any measure of
cultural output that you export that I've seen (and Australia is a huge
consumer of your popular culture) you do not use metric.

§

In Australia we started metrication in 1971[1] with 1974 being the effective
tipping point when all road signs were changed.

Being born in the early 70's, I have a rough understanding of imperial
measurement units. I can roughly understand if something is a few inches or a
few feet, but can never remember how many inches in a foot, and have no
concept of relation between feet and miles. Miles I understand as a bit over
1.5kms. The only length measurements we tend to still give in imperial is a
person's height in feet and inches. The concept that over six foot is tall,
and under five is getting to be short (for men at least) has such utility that
it's stuck. Official documents will use metric though, usually centimetres.

Weight is similar. Kilograms rule, except when talking about the weight of
newborns which will still often be given in pounds and ounces informally. But
give me anything else in pounds and I have no idea (very frustrating when that
happens in movies.)

Similarly Celsius rules. I know 100°F is a hot day, but wont boil an egg, and
0°F is colder than a mother-in-law's kiss, but those are rough approximations,
and anything between those two I have to convert.

Gallons is a foreign language.

However all the colloquialisms such as giving an inch and taking a mile are
still common.

And yet somehow despite all this, the world continued to spin.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia)

§

Just an interesting aside, measurements in construction are almost always
given in either metres or millimetres, never centimetres (at least in
Australia.)

So that would be 914.4mm and 1219.2mm respectively (or 1.2192m I guess).

The wisdom of this was explained to me by my builder father that metres and
millimetres are orders of magnitude far enough apart that you can usually
figure out which is which without too much difficulty in a specification even
if they are not annotated properly. Centimetres fall close enough to in
between that it can be confusing. Plus only using two standard units of
measure (one for small stuff, another for large) is less potential confusion
then using three.

§

Now if we could only stop anybody using m/d/y date formats...

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-doesnt-use-
metric-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-doesnt-use-
metric-2016-6), which points to this.

