Why haven't we gone metric yet? (gallon, school, states, world)

[70Ford]

Effective July 1, 1959, the United States and countries of the British Commonwealth defined the length of the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metres.[1] Consequently, the international inch is defined to be equal to exactly 25.4 millimetres.

Inch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yep. It's an inch. It's defined by the metric system. That's hilarious.
The U.S.A is one of three countries in the world that don't use the metric system. The other two are Burma and Liberia.

Mars Climate Orbiter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The MCO MIB has determined that the root cause for the loss of the MCO spacecraft was the failure to use metric units in the coding of a ground software file, “Small Forces,” used in trajectory models. Specifically, thruster performance data in English units instead of metric units was used in the software application code...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/NATO_7.62x51.jpg/300px-NATO_7.62x51. (broken link)
7.62 mm.



3 and 1/4 in shell.


2 liters. Makes sense, right?



Just like a gallon of milk makes sense, right?

[skoro]

Simple:

Because the lawmakers who would have to mandate such a move never learned the metric system. It terrifies them.

[Jaggy001]

In many respects we are metric. Much of industry works with metric specifications and a lot of product labels are metric. Just look at the "nutrition facts" on the back of any food product package. All in metric.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by Jaggy001

In many respects we are metric. Much of industry works with metric specifications and a lot of product labels are metric. Just look at the "nutrition facts" on the back of any food product package. All in metric.

When I worked for Catterpillar, everything I made was in microns.
http://www.jus-rite.com/images/micron.gif

[JRTurner]

Great Britain actually uses a mixture of metric and Imperial.

The foot was first defined by the British.

Their cars still have speedometers that read MPH and their distances are measured in miles.

[meson]

Originally Posted by 70Ford

<snip>The U.S.A is one of three countries in the world that don't use the metric system. The other two are Burma and Liberia.

Didn't know there were two other countries still using the antiquated systems of measure, I
thought only the USA was behind in the times, thanks for the info.

[Jaggy001]

Originally Posted by JRTurner

Great Britain actually uses a mixture of metric and Imperial.

The foot was first defined by the British.

Their cars still have speedometers that read MPH and their distances are measured in miles.

The Brits use miles and pints (in the pub) but thats about it. They actually started converting to the metric system in the 1960s.

And the UK pint is not the same as the US pint.

[desertdetroiter]

I don't know, but i wish like hell that we would. Having to get a 9/16ths wrench gives me a headache. Not to mention how stupid it sounds.

[Booya]

Originally Posted by Jaggy001

In many respects we are metric. Much of industry works with metric specifications and a lot of product labels are metric. Just look at the "nutrition facts" on the back of any food product package. All in metric.

I agree. I use metrics every day at work and in much of every day life. As I believe most people do.

[Jerseyt719]

I remember being in elementary school and being told that we will become all metric one day.

My kids came home and told me their teachers said the same thing......