Americans aren’t taught the metric system in school in a way that would force them to understand why it’s better. American education rarely teaches life skills, and in my case, almost none at all even though I was a full honors student at a top high school.
Because my car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I like it!
USA uses both, just like the UK and Canada. It’s standard in the states for…medicine, the military, science, and… two-liter beverage bottles.
Soft drinks in general. A can is 255ml, a bottle is 500ml, a big bottle is 2L
Convenience store wise, a can of Coke is 12 ounces and a bottle is 20 ounces in the states. They have the volume in ml on the bottle though.
Grocery stores have 1l, 16.9oz, 12oz bottles, and 7.5oz cans.
It’s all over the map.
Nation of proud morons. Most of them do unofficially anyway
We use both
What I always found funny is the drug trade. No, not medicine I mean the illegal drugs. They typically start at grams(metric) go up to ounces (imperial) then pounds(imperial) then back to kilograms(metric).
I don’t care which we use(I prefer metric but won’t die on that hill) but wish we would all just agree on one. Like hex keys, you need 2 sets one metric one imperial, same with socket sets. Or go to a machinist and ask them to “take a mil off” of some part, do you mean millimeter or millionth of an inch? Same thing with measurement gear, do you measure pressure in bar, psi, inHg, torr and for more fun are you measuring them positively or negatively… Yes that’s a thing. I had a sensor to measure humidity, the output was in ppm(parts per million) but the calibration was done in degrees Celsius dew point but our specificion was in ppm. Those measurements are not linearly related. So let’s say the sensor came back out of calibration as arrived(typically it would be adjusted and sent back to us within calibration). Now we had to find the closest measurement we had to the limit in ppm, convert that to degrees Celsius dew point, add in the percentage of reading outside of calibration, add in a extra safety factor, convert that back to ppm, compare to specified limit, determine if any product was made outside specifications and then write a report about if it actually mattered…
I’m old enough to remember when they tried to convert us to metric. I can tell you why.
People tried to force it on us and we don’t need the metric system for daily use. Trying to force people to use it isn’t going to work. Now, personally, I’d prefer if measurements on rulers and in cars were still given in both systems.
Metric advocates tend to be smug and insulting towards anyone not using the metric system. I have seen this myself more than once. Calling a whole nation stupid because they use a different but functional system of measurement is hardly a good strategy for converting them to your system.
I learned the metric system in school. I understand that the metric system is superior in many sciences. I have strong interests in anthropology. And here I am at 55 and I have never, not once, needed to use metric. Bone measurements are often given in metric but it’s not such a big issue that I need to wholly convert to metric.
My question is, what’s the big deal? Is the metric system a religion? I’ve seen evangelical Christians less intent on converting people. Why?
Kinda seems like you answered your own question…
The main reason it annoys me is because a lot of English-language recipes online are written by USAmericans and therefore use imperial units that I have to convert. I’ve also noticed that they seem to measure everything in cups even for things where it makes no sense to use volume (flour is a common one—isn’t baking supposed to be precise? Flours can have different densities, air pockets, etc). I find ounces really confusing because they can be volume or mass.
Also, imperial is not standardised, so different countries have different amounts for a cup, an ounce, a pint, etc. I guess I can check the recipe author’s country and then convert to metric. But I just find it confusing. Can’t we just all use the same units that are nice and easy to use together since they’re powers of 10?
We’re a stupid country rules by assholes and morons.
You just know if someone tried to make a serious push for it, all the fox news types would go into a frenzy. It’d be an easy way to whip up their idiot base.
Originally it was because the ship carrying the official metric measures from France to the US in 1793 was captured by pirates. More recently it’s because there was a near-revolt when Jimmy Carter tried to reintroduce it in the 1970s in an attempt to make the US even slightly less regressive.
Yeah. The attempt was made to convert everything to metric for official government documents, but that just meant most businesses paid people to convert it back for their use.
That reminds me of a road in AZ that had signage in KM when I was a kid. I guess it was a part of this program and it never got changed back? It was always a mindfuck suddenly seeing kms instead of miles on road trips through the area.
It’s still there
There was a stretch of the Florida coast that had metric in the late 90s and early 2000s, but people kept stealing the speed limit signs. They also had a problem with people misunderstanding 100kph (about 60mph) and doing 100mph instead.
I’m assuming 2L soda bottles are also a remnant of this era.
Technically they do. The US units are defined by the metric system, and they are full members of the Metre Convention since 1878.
Because the entire country has a foot fetish.
It is even worse as there are two feet.
Fact Check: TRUE ✅
Not the only country Liberia uses the imperial system too.
I think its more odd that many countries use a mix (e.g. the UK with units like stones and some lengths in imperial while others are not)
I only know this because of Archer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIWDVuHDpq0
Officially, we’re the only ones still using imperial units. But, the British use a mash-up of units in their daily lives, as does Liberia and Myanmar.
Reagan pulled the plug on our attempted conversion in 1980.
We’ll convert someday, probably after our imperial reign is over, somewhat fittingly.
Except it’s not imperial units, it’s US customary. Similar names, different actual quantities.
Bass ackwards
The actual answer is it’s too expensive to convert everything at this point. If it takes months to get a pothole filled, good luck with changing all the sighs even as a start. A lot of people use metric anyway. SAE tools can go where the sun don’t shine. Fuck your fractions. Give me a 10 or a 12 or a 17 (mm, stay away Jeffrey) makes more sense than 13/32" … just why, it’s so dumb.
SAE tools for SAE hardware. I agree, saying something like “gimme a 7/16 wrench for this 1/4-20 by 3/8 bolt” is probably like speaking a foreign language to someone accustomed to metric. But you get used to it if you see it every day.
Now metric measurements of wire are fucking ridiculous in my eye. AWG (American wire gauge) all day. The metric equivalent measures the diameter of the wire and calls it like 1 mm2 for 18 awg, 1.5 for 16, 2.5 for 14, 4 for 12 awg etc. AWG keeps it nice and easy, every other even number starting at like 32 down to 2.
It does get a little fucky from there tho lol. Like then it goes 1 and 0 AWG, then 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 (pronounced like 1 awwt), then 250, 500, 750, 1000 MCM. But I’ve also heard those sizes of 250-1000 called KCMIL instead for… reasons…
It’s like most of our measurements. It’s what “feels” right if that makes any sense. Fahrenheit is more accurate to what changes are noticeable to the human body, a foot or a yard just paints a way better picture than half a meter etc. I’m sure most of it is based off like farmers or something rather than scientific measurements.
Yeah you make a proper point; most of the stuff the hardware I work with is metric, the wiring is awg, and the temps are Fahrenheit. Honestly other than a 1/4" and 3/8" spark plug socket, I don’t remember the last time I used any of my anything out of my box wrench sets. They basically are wall ornaments that collect dust. Same with range, I would just use meters since they’re close enough. You know like, target out 300 meters leading left.
We bend raw copper and aluminum busbars at work for manufacturing industrial electrical systems. All standard hardware. Plus whatever else goes into it like insulated supports, polyballs, mounting hardware of components on panels, etc. So I’m probably one of the rare exceptions that use SAE more than metric, especially how pretty much every car (even American made ones) use metric now. Other than maybe changing an old bolt for an old lawnmower or something, yeah I get why it’s not really used much anymore.
Yeah I think an old Briggs and Stratton engine was the only time time I remember using SAE. I mean I still use SAE [Tap] die sets but the irony is the nut outer is metric.
It’s funny how often I have to repeat myself; as in you need 3/8 brass pipe or 1/2 brass pipe, no not 3/8 compression or flared. I work on high end espresso machines these days, like 20-40k ones.
3/8 is such a cursed measurement lol. Like this 3/8 wrench fits a #10 hex head screw. No it doesn’t fit 3/8 hardware. You want 9/16 for that. Oh 9/16 hardware? You can use either 7/8 or 13/16. Or just grab a metric wrench that’s close enough like a 7/16 is the same thing as an 11mm or 3/4 is the same as 19mm. Not gonna lie at certain point it’s just memorizing shit and pattern recognition
3/8 is such a cursed measurement lol yes. lol.
And yeah, I think it’s easier to remember not fractions. I can’t say that I don’t have some shims…
