Why is the U.S. still not using the metric system?

[Disgustipated]

Erm, I could be wrong here as I'm not US Military myself, but I'd heard that when deployed, US personnel use Metric for interoperability purposes with the rest of NATO? I've heard target indications from US pers on EX given in Metric?

I'm not sure as my job never involved targeting anything (I would have never joined the military if I had to kill something ) You may be correct, they may all use meters now days. I wonder what the AEGIS system uses for its calculations... In terms of manufactured parts, everything (I can't speak for jet aircraft, however) on a ship is put together with standard sized bolts and nuts.

 

[Uncle Anton]

I'm not sure as my job never involved targeting anything (I would have never joined the military if I had to kill something ) You may be correct, they may all use meters now days. I wonder what the AEGIS system uses for its calculations... In terms of manufactured parts, everything (I can't speak for jet aircraft, however) on a ship is put together with standard sized bolts and nuts.

*Nods*

Well, I'm only familiar with 'target indication' in the context of a Cav Scout or grunt yelling about the usual things... machine guns, enemy in open, nuns in schoolbuses etc.

*Shrug*

 

[dosed150]

we still havent even crossed over properly, weve ended up with a weird hybrid, like everythings in litres except milk and beer, which come in pints, road signs are in miles, but sometimes pedestrian signs are in metres, most of the food in shops is in grams and kilograms, but fresh meat counters in supermarkets and such use imperial and metric, people talk about height in feet and inches its all a bit confusing

 

[Chukchi Husky]

(I can't speak for jet aircraft, however)

This is something that I heard. Rolls Royce, who are a British jet engine company had to build some engines for an American aircraft company, I think it was Boeing, and when they built the engines they didn't fit. The reason was the engines were built using metric measurements and the aircraft were built with imperial measurements.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Erm, I could be wrong here as I'm not US Military myself, but I'd heard that when deployed, US personnel use Metric for interoperability purposes with the rest of NATO? I've heard target indications from US pers on EX given in Metric?

From the Wiki article I posted earlier:

The U.S. military uses metric measurements extensively to ensure interoperability with allied forces, particularly NATO STANAGs, "standardization agreements". Ground forces measure distances in "klicks", slang for kilometers. Most military firearms are measured in metric units, beginning with the M-14 which was introduced in 1957,[21] although a few legacy exceptions exist, such as .50-caliber guns. Aircraft ordnance is normally measured in pounds. Heavy weapon caliber is measured in millimeters. Military vehicles are generally built to metric standards. An exception is the U.S. Navy, whose guns are measured in inches and whose undersea fleet measures distances in terms of "kiloyards" (equivalent to 914.4 m), depth as "feet", and velocity, in some cases, as "feet per second". The Navy and Air Force continue to measure distance in nautical miles and speed in knots; these units are now accepted for use with SI by the BIPM.[25]

But the part about military vehicles being built to metric standards is rather disingenuous. Mil-spec fasteners are all still imperial units instead of metric.

 

[Godwynn]

^

Another reason to hate that monster of person, Reagen. Wish the assassination attempt on his life was successful back in the day.

Jesus Christ.

You are wishing that someone died because of the metric system.

Think about that for a moment. I'm sure there are all sorts of other underlying reasons, but you are wishing for someone's death. I'm fairly certain that if one of the more outspoken right-wingers on this forum wished for the death of Obama because of something trivial, there would be all sorts of big trouble in little CFCOT.

 

[JerichoHill]

transactions costs.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

We are talking about people who still believe the earth is 6000 years old and that evolution is a communist conspiracy.

 

[GhostWriter16]

Jesus Christ.

You are wishing that someone died because of the metric system.

Think about that for a moment. I'm sure there are all sorts of other underlying reasons, but you are wishing for someone's death. I'm fairly certain that if one of the more outspoken right-wingers on this forum wished for the death of Obama because of something trivial, there would be all sorts of big trouble in little CFCOT.

Well, Obama is the current President, and therefore his life is automatically so valuable that you can't even remotely threaten him and expect to get away with it. You'd probably get arrested for doing that (Which is ridiculous, but it would still be ridiculous to suggest that.)

On topic: I like Imperial Measurements since I'm used to them. Yes, I guess technically I know the Metric system, but its like a Second Language. Even if everyone in the US knew Spanish and English, we wouldn't ask people to switch to Spanish, because we still know English better and we automatically translate everything into English. When I see "100 KMH" I instantly wonder how many MPH it is. When I see "60 MPH" I don't wonder how manys KMH it is.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is terrible for the rest of the world to continue to try to inconvenience the handful of people who live in Burma, Liberia, and the US. If these countries want to continue to live in the past, they have every right to do so.

Anybody have an 11/32nds socket? I seem to have misplaced mine.

 

[GhostWriter16]

It is terrible for the rest of the world to continue to try to inconvenience the handful of people who live in Burma, Liberia, and the US. If these countries want to continue to live in the past, they have every right to do so.

Anybody have an 11/32nds socket? I seem to have misplaced mine.

What exactly is wrong with Imperial Measurement? Isn't it like a personal preference?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

What exactly is wrong with Imperial Measurement? Isn't it like a personal preference?

I think the reason is that Imperial uses all sorts of different values between each measurement, like 12 inches to a foot, and 3 feet to a yard, while in metric everything is done in 10.

 

[Singularity]

No need really. The metric system is easy enough to learn. So if you need to know it, you pick it up in a heart beat. But yea, US schools' should start teaching the metric system.

But you all need to face facts that the Fahrenheit system is by far the best use for everyday use. Celsius piggy back on the wave of Metrication. What's dumb because Celsius isn't a real SI unit. 0-100 unit system, nah, lets use a -17 to 37 for everyday use. That would be so much better. The boiling and freezing point of water isn't even universal.

But I guess one day the world is just going to force us to use Celsius. Using Celsius is BAD, and you should feel BAD!

And to the poster who said That would be salt water. Kinda like Fahrenheit's ice/salt mixture, which is...wait for it... 0 Fahrenheit. Oh snap! I'm glad we both agree Celsius is fail.

Just too bad that the coldest mix of water and salt goes down to -6.02 F and not 0 F. But hey, it follows nicely to his hot wife's not so accurate calibration point for 100, which of course is 98 for a normal persons body temperature.

 

[pesgores]

Who seriously thinks it's easier to have that kind of system? 1 inch is 2,54 cm, and then 1 foot is 12 of that, and then people over there measure themselves in feet, which is so weird and random I can't have an idea of your height.

5,6? What the heck?

 

[NickyJ]

2. Overly concerned deficit hawks. "Just think of the cost of replacing all of those signs and re-doing all of those maps and everything else!"

They do have a point.

Why should we? Our system works just fine.

Agreed. Last time I checked, Americans haven't been tearing their hair out over what we have now. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

I can't believe all you barbarians still use that antiquated Celsius scale. FACE

ITT: losers and their inferior thermometric scales

PS: it's 279.15 here in Minneapolis.

Jesus Christ.

You are wishing that someone died because of the metric system.

Think about that for a moment. I'm sure there are all sorts of other underlying reasons, but you are wishing for someone's death. I'm fairly certain that if one of the more outspoken right-wingers on this forum wished for the death of Obama because of something trivial, there would be all sorts of big trouble in little CFCOT.

Exactly. Heck, people questioning where Obama was born is big trouble already. If you wished Obama were dead because of the metric system, you would be called a racist.

Well, Obama is the current President, and therefore his life is automatically so valuable that you can't even remotely threaten him and expect to get away with it. You'd probably get arrested for doing that (Which is ridiculous, but it would still be ridiculous to suggest that.)

On topic: I like Imperial Measurements since I'm used to them. Yes, I guess technically I know the Metric system, but its like a Second Language. Even if everyone in the US knew Spanish and English, we wouldn't ask people to switch to Spanish, because we still know English better and we automatically translate everything into English. When I see "100 KMH" I instantly wonder how many MPH it is. When I see "60 MPH" I don't wonder how manys KMH it is.

Exactly.

What exactly is wrong with Imperial Measurement? Isn't it like a personal preference?

OT was slowing down with nothing to complain about, so they needed to invent a problem.

 

[onedreamer]

To the OP
Maybe because the consequences of using the imperial system aren't as bad as you picture them.

The rest of the world must think we are horribly backwards.

The rest of the world doesn't really care, I'm afraid.

 

[Formaldehyde]

They do if they need to maintain military hardware, commercial planes, vehicles, or even most appliances purchased from US companies.

 

[warpus]

Canada's supposed to be using the metric system, but when when I go to the home reno. store I have to put up with converting feet to inches, furlongs to sugaroos, and iggypops to poodlecocks. It's annoying.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Listen to that howling mob of blockheads in the street! A trick or two with metrics, and the whole town's on its feet.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

Canada's supposed to be using the metric system, but when when I go to the home reno. store I have to put up with converting feet to inches, furlongs to sugaroos, and iggypops to poodlecocks. It's annoying.

I must second that. I Canadians are really slow with converting.