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

[Quackers]

I don't know what your talking about Adiica. I PREFER THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM TO METRIC.

 

[mangxema]

It not just laziness guys, there's just a lot of momentum in many areas that wouldn't benefit at all from going metric. Example: soda machines. The 12 oz. can is pretty much the perfect beverage size. We can label that in however many milliliters that is, but why? 12 is a nice whole number, and it's short. It's not going away.

(And I say this as an engineer. I love the metric system.)

 

[Rashiminos]

We could switch to 350/400 mL cans.

 

[uppi]

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

In my lab I have two sets of screwdrivers as some American companies prefer to sell their stuff with silly measurements. One with the labels 0.05", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32", 7/64", 1/8", 9/64", 5/32", and 3/16" and one with the labels 1.5 mm, 2 mm, 2.5 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm.

Does anyone want to argue that the metric set is not easier and more practical?

I mean 7/64??? How the hell do people come up with such a standard?

 

[Rashiminos]

You want something halfway in between 3/32" and 4/32"

It's easier to divide by just 2 geometrically instead of 2 and then 5.

 

[Lillefix]

The 12 oz. can is pretty much the perfect beverage size.

Well I think half a liter is much more perfect beverage size.

Spoiler :

Translation: I don't think that's not a good argument at all.

 

[Formaldehyde]

How the hell do people come up with such a standard?

How do they come up with USA #1 other than as a sarcastic joke? Burma, Liberia, and the US...

 

[Arakhor]

A far better example for the superiority of Imperial over Metric is that the Imperial using Americans got an empire while the brits lost their empire when they switched to Metric.

I measure my height in feet, my weight in stones and the distance to my parents in miles. Those are about the only Imperial things we still do, even if they are the most frequent measurements we make!

 

[Luckymoose]

Because we don't need it for day to day use.

 

[GhostWriter16]

In my lab I have two sets of screwdrivers as some American companies prefer to sell their stuff with silly measurements. One with the labels 0.05", 1/16", 5/64", 3/32", 7/64", 1/8", 9/64", 5/32", and 3/16" and one with the labels 1.5 mm, 2 mm, 2.5 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm.

Does anyone want to argue that the metric set is not easier and more practical?

I mean 7/64??? How the hell do people come up with such a standard?

I wholeheartedly agree. The metric system is easier if you don't know either, much like Spanish is considered much easier than English if you don't know either, Spanish is easier to learn. The problem is, we know English, and we know Imperial measurements.

I don't like Kilometers, Meters, or such measurements since I'm not used to them. But I don't mind liters or mililiters. I don't know why. Personal preference.

I prefer Imperial since I'm used to it. However, its a personal preference. I get that metric is "Easier" and so is Spanish, but I prefer Imperial and English since I know them.

Oh.. and I almost forgot...

A far better example for the superiority of Imperial over Metric is that the Imperial using Americans got an empire while the brits lost their empire when they switched to Metric.
However, being a patriotic englishman, I'm not sure if you can bring yourself to use that argument.

Yet another reason!

 

[Quackers]

I will be buried under 6 feet of English Earth not two metres!

 

[uppi]

You want something halfway in between 3/32" and 4/32"

It's easier to divide by just 2 geometrically instead of 2 and then 5.

So the insistence on using multiples of 1/64 inch is an admission that they really would like to have a unit like the millimeter, but because they do not have such a unit and refuse to use sensible units they have to use weird fractions.

And then they go ahead and make up 0.05" (1/20") next?

I would have no problem if there was a unit system which followed a different philosophy than the metric system, if there was any semblance of consistency to it. As a physicist I use all kinds of strange units if they are useful. But those American units are neither consistent nor useful (Except for maybe the speed of light being roughly 1ft/ns, but then nanosecond is from SI).

 

[Rashiminos]

So the insistence on using multiples of 1/64 inch is an admission that they really would like to have a unit like the millimeter, but because they do not have such a unit and refuse to use sensible units they have to use weird fractions.

Powers of 2 are not weird fractions at all. Fold a piece of paper in half. Do it again. And again. And...

Get another piece of paper. Fold it in five equal sections without using a ruler.

This is the computer age. Long live the binary king.

Spoiler :

The metric system is only convenient because we work in base ten, except where the metric system uses other bases.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Cultural reasons, I suppose. It's not like imperial is horribly crippling to the American public. If this were the case, one would have to argue that the stubborn refusal of the Japanese to abandon clumsy Kanji writing also contributes to stupidity, which clearly isn't the case.

Just do what the Chinese did: have "simplified chinese" and "traditional chinese"
(Chinese should just merge all there dialects (sp?) as well.)

 

[Zack]

much like Spanish is considered much easier than English if you don't know either, Spanish is easier to learn.

You haven't tried to learn Spanish, then?

 

[Lillefix]

You haven't tried to learn Spanish, then?

Spelling is easier. But it stops there. I wonder where this idea that Spanish is easy comes from?

 

[Arakhor]

You don't speak English, do you, Zack?

 

[GhostWriter16]

You haven't tried to learn Spanish, then?

I've learned a little, but not very much. But I've heard its easier.

HOWEVER, you are not qualified to say, since you know English.

 

[Dachs]

there is no such thing as a language that is intrinsically easy to learn

 

[Zack]

I've learned a little, but not very much. But I've heard its easier.

HOWEVER, you are not qualified to say, since you know English.

But you're qualified...?