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I spent my formative years at a French immersion school, so naturally I grew up in metric.
The most confusing thing about the Imperial system to me is that the same word, "ounce," can be used to refer to volume or weight, so that "fluid" has to be added whenever it needs to be made clear what kind of ounces are being talked about.
In metric, of course, a liter is a liter and a gram is a gram, and never the twain shall meet.
The U.S. uses metric more often than people realize. But I imagine it would take at least two generations to convert, and that is if we can persuade people it is an effective use of government spending. There are signs to replace, food packages and recipes to redesign; we'll have to make the KPH numbers on the cars larger, of course. The biggest obstacles among common Americans would be temperature and buying gasoline. People are picky about temperature. They know 80-100 degrees (F) is hot, and 20-35 (F) is cold. Upon conversion, 27-38 (C) is hot. The average American's head would explode if they saw a Canadian gas station sign. You're trying to change many, many generations of common thoughts and observations. I would support the switch, but I suspect most people don't want to be a part of the "growing pains" generation.
The U.S. uses metric more often than people realize. But I imagine it would take at least two generations to convert, and that is if we can persuade people it is an effective use of government spending. There are signs to replace, food packages and recipes to redesign; we'll have to make the KPH numbers on the cars larger, of course. The biggest obstacles among common Americans would be temperature and buying gasoline. People are picky about temperature. They know 80-100 degrees (F) is hot, and 20-35 (F) is cold. Upon conversion, 27-38 (C) is hot. The average American's head would explode if they saw a Canadian gas station sign. You're trying to change many, many generations of common thoughts and observations. I would support the switch, but I suspect most people don't want to be a part of the "growing pains" generation.
The real problem is political. People deal with money and unit changes every time they travel and adapt very very fast. It's just that the US has so few people who travel and know that you adapt within days or weeks. I think the change will happen when they realise how much time they waste teaching children their complicated sytem, and how that time could be used instead for test prep. Maybe they'll also start including values on coins then, too.
Everything packaged in the US already is metric. Bulk things like petrol, meat and vegetables are the only imperial, so the packaging is really signage. Road signs would be very expensive.
The UK had a metrication policy and only went half way. It should be carried out to the full. We buy petrol by the litre but petrol consumption is rated in miles per gallon. We still use miles not km's. We buy kitchen units in mm. We buy beer by the pint and wine by the 750ml bottle and in gasses of 175ml. We weight ourselves in stones and our height is in feet and inches. A joke. We need 100% metrication as it confuses.
The UK had a metrication policy and only went half way. It should be carried out to the full. We buy petrol by the litre but petrol consumption is rated in miles per gallon. We still use miles not km's. We buy kitchen units in mm. We buy beer by the pint and wine by the 750ml bottle and in gasses of 175ml. We weight ourselves in stones and our height is in feet and inches. A joke. We need 100% metrication as it confuses.
Ireland is the same although our speed limits are now all in KM , despite this people informally refer to a distance as being so far away in miles rather than KM
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