why is the United States Not Metric?

Discovered this morning that my Google chrome notifications was being display for the weather temps in my city here in Canada of Fahrenheit .. Then I discovered I could only change the default from Fahrenheit to Celsius by using my mobile Phoenix for the settings of which I accomplished ..,, which then lead me on a crusade thru the internet to figure out why after ALL these 40 years that USA is still in imperial .. which then lead me to site that showed me that the USA was 99.8% behind the rest of the free world .. LOL I would laugh if President Obama in his waning days to really piss off the american people and introduce a bill to get this changed now .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States

 

I learned with standard measurements, I am sixty now and do not want to learn metric, when there is an app to convert!

==

 

To be, or not to be - metric

Hello BillyGates,

Metric or Imperial - US gallons or Imperial gallons. One world standard perhaps. Measure things by cubits (not really but valid thousands of years ago). USA holding on to Imperial measurement systems probably shows independence from the rest of the world along with the United Kingdom. Australia changed to metric in 1974 but old habits still cling on for some of us, "oldies". I still think in feet and inches and sometimes miles per hour and most certainly miles per gallon. The Imperial system of measurements ties itself in knots when dealing with anything to do with nuts and bolts, screws, anything mechanical. The Whitworth thread for nuts and bolts totally different to SAE. In lots of ways metric is a better proposition for anything mechanical. Back a few decades ago America bought the English Electric Canberra bomber from Britain to to be then manufactured by Martin as the B-57. Hoo what a surprise. Every Imperial nut, bolt, screw and fitting did not match the USA Imperial system. Martin Aircraft had a massive task in converting everything to the USA Imperial measurement system. Millions of dollars.

America's decision to remain with the Imperial system probably does make sense when considering that the population is ? near 400 million and the sheer cost of converting everything to metric would cost billions over at least twenty years. Every factory, every manufacturer, and the long process of learning.

Browsers usually give a choice of Metric or Imperial. Some web sites do also. Even in the 40 years since Australia converted to Metric we still have some issues with the simplest things. Older classic cars are an example, all built to Imperial measurements, every nut and bolt. I still keep some Imperial measurement spanners and sockets.

Still, all this is just my opinion and probably way off track with your original question.

Cheers,

Aunty Jack.

 

I find in Canada that we tend to talk kilometres (as in per hour) when it comes to speed, only because signs are posted on the highway that match up with our speedometers. I am comfortable with celcius temperatures too, and only because TV and radio hammers it home.

However, if I were looking for dance music on vinyl, I wouldn't ask for a 30-centimetre single. No, I'd ask for a 12" single...lol. A woofer is 8", 10" or 15". Most handymen still measure in feet and inches here. We take our temperature in Fahrenheit, but I know doctors and nurses are using metric (I don't even know what 98.6 F is in celcius). I don't what my mass is in kilograms, but I do know that I weigh too many pounds.

 

US became separated from UK colony. The spirit of the USA has always been to "revolt" against Europe. As such, adopting the metric system would collide with their independence spirit.

 

The US only give a toss about Europe if we have something they want.

It's weird how we use metric now for most things except motors, where we use miles as opposed to kilometres (unlike the rest of Europe).

 

I've heard they plan on going metric, and that they are just slowly "inching" towards it.

 

Hello Jody,

I love a good pun and your pun above is certainly one of the best.