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America will never change. For one, most people in America do not know the metric system. Second, we are too stubborn to change something we do to match other countries. We believe that other countries should change their systems to match what we do.
People should be fluent in the metric system because it is so widely used everywhere.
People in the United States should be fluent in the imperial system because it is still used widely here for a variety of dumb reasons - general laziness, a phobic reaction to anything 'foreign', and so forth.
More broadly, people should gravitate towards the metric system because in the long run it offers greater efficiency. Short-sighted and selfish people drag their feet because they are principally opposed to lifting a finger toward the greater good or just because they're too self-absorbed to do something not offering an immediate payoff.
Of course, there are good reasons that in the sciences the metric system is used almost exclusively, and in the United States military it is widely used. Really, the onus needs to be on people to self-motivate in this regard. But again, for reasons noted above, there will be plenty who dig their feet in and resist for no reason other than habitual obstinance.
I really don't care which system we use but we should really choose between one or the other. The current mish-mash where half is metric and the other half standard is confusing and inefficient.
A complete switch cannot be done, it's simply not practical. The most glaring example is the construction industry. You have 100's of millions of structures using sytem that relies on 16 inch centers. You can take a full sheet of plywood and attach it to your floor, ceiling or wall. The ends no matter what direction it's placed is going to fall on the center of the stud or joist.
Too switch to metric you could:
A)Provide standard material for older construction and metric for new construction. This would be very expensive because of the handling and other issues. Since the old material is still available contractors are going to opt for it anyway.
B)Provide just regular metric dimensions, this would be extremely wasteful and very, very expensive. Each piece would have to be cut to fit resulting in huge workload even for small things and there is going to be huge amount of wasted material.
C)Take standard dimensions and give them odd metric dimensions. This somehwhat defeats the purpose of switching to metric which is simplification. You can call this metric if you want but it's still a 2*4.
It's not just the construction industry, these issues will crop up in just about any industry like transportation. It's not by accident that a 4*8 piece of plywood fits perfectly into the back of any full size pickup...
A complete switch cannot be done, it's simply not practical. The most glaring example is the construction industry. You have 100's of millions of structures using sytem that relies on 16 inch centers. You can take a full sheet of plywood and attach it to your floor, ceiling or wall. The ends no matter what direction it's placed is going to fall on the center of the stud or joist.
Too switch to metric you could:
A)Provide standard material for older construction and metric for new construction. This would be very expensive because of the handling and other issues. Since the old material is still available contractors are going to opt for it anyway.
B)Provide just regular metric dimensions, this would be extremely wasteful and very, very expensive. Each piece would have to be cut to fit resulting in huge workload even for small things and there is going to be huge amount of wasted material.
C)Take standard dimensions and give them odd metric dimensions. This somehwhat defeats the purpose of switching to metric which is simplification. You can call this metric if you want but it's still a 2*4.
It's not just the construction industry, these issues will crop up in just about any industry like transportation. It's not by accident that a 4*8 piece of plywood fits perfectly into the back of any full size pickup...
Makes you wonder how the Uk or Canada managed to switch over.
Makes you wonder how the Uk or Canada managed to switch over.
I believe Canada simply uses standard sized material that is labeled in metric sizes. It's still standard dimensions. That is the only practical way but seems pointless IMO.
What I can tell you is anything other than that solution is not some trivial problem or expense.
Been there, done that, metric was pushed before but wasn't accepted, it's not going to change.
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