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With the rest of the world switching to the more logical metric system one wonders why America never made the switch
There are various reasons, but one that is not mentioned as often as it should be is that a "logical" measuring system (i.e. base 10) is overrated for daily life. It's much more important in scientific fields. But to the average person who has internalized pounds, inches, and miles, switching to a system in which 100 cm equals one meter, and 1000 meters equals one kilometer is going to be inconvenient and offer little of value.
The US DOES use the metric system in all sorts of ways. And we are not the only country who still hangs on to traditional measurements in some applications.
There are various reasons, but one that is not mentioned as often as it should be is that a "logical" measuring system (i.e. base 10) is overrated for daily life. It's much more important in scientific fields. But to the average person who has internalized pounds, inches, and miles, switching to a system in which 100 cm equals one meter, and 1000 meters equals one kilometer is going to be inconvenient and offer little of value.
The US DOES use the metric system in all sorts of ways. And we are not the only country who still hangs on to traditional measurements in some applications.
How is it overrated? People adapt, and once they get used to metric, they see how easy it is.
I grew up with Imperial measurements, which as you probably know are different than US measurements.
When we started going metric, we learned it at school and the more you use it, the easier it was.
One lesson that was valuable, was to NOT keep converting in your head. Stop thinking how many miles is that in K's etc.
It doesn't take long to know was 25C feels like, how much sliced meat etc is 250 grams.
It also makes travelling so much easier. Americans who don't know metric, always look a little embarrassed, according to a friend who works in a store, when asking how much is that in pounds etc. They are the only tourists who have to that.
Getting Americans to go metric is as hard as getting them to give up $1 bills and use the millions of $1 American coins in circulation instead. My high school took effort in educating about the system (my 7th grade science teacher only allowed the use of SI units in his class) but I bet a lot of Americans have not learned how many milliliters are there in a 12 ounce can of soda nor do they bother to read labels.
I mean I hate coins, so I am fine with us using $1 bills still.
With switching to metric, I would prefer that we used it, but considering how much money it would cost to switch over every transportation sign, I would rather that money be spent on actually repairing our infrastructure. Canadians still use imperial units too, ask any Canadian their height and weight and they'll use feet and pounds, many building sizes are giving in square feet over meters, and Canadian store ads give produce and meat prices per pound and give specifications in inches and pounds too.
Do others realize the UK still uses miles instead of km for driving distances and speed, right?
Last edited by bradjl2009; 09-01-2018 at 01:14 PM..
The question should be, why didn't the USA follow through? Canada went metric because the USA did, for obvious economic reasons....but the USA didn't finish the conversion, I guess. Now we're stuck using two systems.
I think a lot of it had to do with while the Carter admin began the early stages of getting the US to switch, once Reagan took over, they stopped efforts to convert and no one has really cared on a large scale about reviving the issue with everything else going on.
I mean I hate coins, so I am fine with us using $1 bills still.
With switching to metric, I would prefer that we used it, but considering how much money it would cost to switch over every transportation sign, I would rather that money be spent on actually repairing our infrastructure. Canadians still use imperial units too, ask any Canadian their height and weight and they'll use feet and pounds, many building sizes are giving in square feet over meters, and Canadian store ads give produce and meat prices per pound and give specifications in inches and pounds too.
Do others realize the UK still uses miles instead of km for driving distances and speed, right?
On the height and weight, it depends on the age. Younger people don't.
Not all stores use pounds in their ads, but the scales in the vegetable and fruit department that are self use, have both. The scales in the meat department or delis, are programmed for metric only. So asking for a pound of meat in a deli is most likely going to have someone convert what that is. A young person, most likely would have to look it up.
However you are correct, we aren't fully converted and sometimes it's kind of weird.
Look at the Flyer for August 31st. Notice the pork is given in grams, but the bigger price is in pounds. Probably because it makes it look cheaper? However on page 2, the sliced meat is ONLY given in grams.
How is it overrated? People adapt, and once they get used to metric, they see how easy it is.
Of course, people adapt. What I meant is that the ability to convert from one unit of measurement to another within the metric system is overrated, in daily life. After all, the big selling point of metric is that it's "so easy" to go from, say, centimeters to kilometers, while it's a pain in the neck to convert inches to miles. Well, that's certainly true. On the other hand, how often in daily life does anyone actually need to do either conversion? I'll say, virtually never. Inches and miles don't even fit into the same context, which is why Americans aren't inconvenienced in the least by the awkward fact that there are 63,360 inches in a mile. It absolutely never comes up.
However you are correct, we aren't fully converted and sometimes it's kind of weird.
This also has the effect of requiring people in Canada to have at least some knowledge of both systems, for measuring the same types of things. Not sure if this is good or bad.
Generally speaking the *newer* stuff in Canada tends to be metric, but this week I was cycling near my place and came across a sign on a brand-new parking structure in a renovated building that said "hauteur libre 9 pieds 6 pouces".
For these types of maximum headroom signs on private buildings you may anything from metric only, to imperial only (usually older ones) to both systems indicated. Public signage such as road signs is metric only though.
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