Why did'nt the USA go metric ?.....

fuck you, thats when we sunbath in this country!

Hahaha.

-N

google "inertia" - that's why. Period.

The metric system obviously is better, but both re-teaching (possible) and re-doing EVERYTHING in the country is obviously quite damned expensive. Then you have to deal with a generation or two of Americans who don't truly "think" in metric. Hell, I probably deal with metric length measurements more than 99% of Americans, and I still can't really "think" in that form. When I'm trying to envision how long 10 meters is, I have to do the "well, 1 meter is about 3 feet long.. sooo..." sort of calculation.

So basically to switch you need to start by teaching a new generation to think in the metric system first so it's pretty natural. This gets the initial "wtf!" resistance down quite a bit.

Then you need to come up with a way to force industry to switch over, while not overly burdening it. E.g. some form of attrition - (new highway sign needed? it's now in metric! - vs. "hey, let's switch all 5 million signs in the state overnight").

While the person posting about F vs. C had a point, it was lost in the retarded telling of it. I do believe F is actually much more "natural" of a tempature scale for humans that are not doing scientific calculations. F (like I could spell it scales more naturally in the ranges we use day to day e.g. the difference between "it's hot out and you're going to want to wear shorts" and "it's a normal warm day and pants are fine" is much more pronouced. A 20 degree difference vs. a 5 degree difference shows the actual effects on humans a bit better, in my opinion. I could simply just be so used to F that C seems patently absurd to me in comparison. I'm sure the vise-versa is true!

All in all, it comes down to money. If we could *poof* one day wake up and everything was now in metric, I think people would in general bitch a lot but learn the new stuff pretty quick. However, due to the expense of such an undertaking the question is more "why would we?". If I'm a business, why do I want to spend the money (no matter how small or large) on re-tooling for a new measurement system, just for some common esoteric good down the road?

As in all things in this world, it comes down to money in the end.

Exactly, my point, and economically the real reason.
At the time conversion was on the table, it came down to, what would cost less.... educating, and changing the entire infrastructure of the country and it's industries, or converting on the fly.
It came out to be the latter.
Until there is some concrete , economical proof, that American Industry and trade loose money , by not converting...we never will.





..and I will still take my gas in gallons

Americans are idiots

Bingo! We have a winner. Thank you for your honesty sir!

Sucks to be you!

I guess I take Australia for granted.

So the excuses we've heard from Americans about not changing to the metric system is:

1) They couldn't afford it.
2) They don't understand something as complex as dividing by 10 or 100.

This thread is a laugh a minute.

It would have taken centuries before the Americans would have grasped the metric system

Personaly I don't buy either of the two main reasons given in this thread for the US's reluctance to swap from Imperial to Metric. In truth America has to some degree allways acted in a somewhat superior, isolationist manner and I wonder whether their reluctance to change is a result of jingoistic pride mixed with a touch of arrogance.

If the US changed now would it be seen as weakness and a need to fit in with their global "competitors" who are begging to overtake them economicaly ?

because they have twelve fingers .....

You forgot one...We Don't Give a Fuck! And quite frankly, nobody has brought it up since the 80's.
We got way more pressing shit to worry about, and it really doesn't matter to us.
Our Jets can still bomb, our ships can still patrol the Persian Gulf so the world can have oil, and 100yard dash is now the 100meter dash, and we still kick ass at the Olympics....what's the problem?
What's next, we have to start using Euros, or GBP's ? (Although I'll take a few of those right now)
It's on the cars, everything with numbers and measurements has both conversions, we have the tools at our disposal, we can convert it when we need to in about 3 seconds. Why do we have to change all the highway signs?
What's the big deal?

No seriously. It really is true about the timing, and the main concern was industry, in a bad economy. After that, we just didn't care. It's not imperialistic, why do we have to change because everyone else wanted to?

It was the idea of a few countries in the world, not ours. The metric system has, and will have nothing to do with anyones economy.

And of course we are isolationists, that's how the country was founded. To get away from imperialistic rule.
As far as taking us economically, as they say at the big dogs poker table, "If you got the cards, play 'em."

People don't seem to realize that the whole world hasn't gone fully metric/SI just yet. How big are the rims on your cars? How big are your monitors? The fact that sheets of steel world wide come in 8 foot x 4 foot size sheets by standard. All piping around the world is measured in inches and welded with a 3.2mm (or 1/8 inch) weld.

The imperial system is well and truly alive world wide, not just in the USA.

But yes, i do hate having to convert whenever the situation comes up. Bastards. ;)

To god damn funny.


I think it is because we want to fuck with the rest of the world and have a fucked up old english system, known as the standard system. Hell even England got away from their own system WTF!

I would prefer the metric system myself much easier.

Metric System ... will NOT happen for the majority of Americans.

In the UK we fight the metric system. Government adopted it as our standard, but we still go to the pub and ask for a pint of beer, we go to the butcher and ask for a pound of meat. Our on-road speed limit signs are set up in miles per hour and my dick is still only five fucking inches! Bugger!
Blum