Imperial Measurements - What's going on?

[Fox on the Run]

This is just an innocent question that has been bugging me for years and years and years. I'm an Australian, and down here we've used metric weights and measures for over 30 years; I'm 1.83 metres high, I weigh 95 kilogrammes and I'm drinking atm a 600 millilitre bottle of water.

Can anybody please explain to me why you Americans remain in the Dark Ages with all your feet, ounces, pounds, miles, quarts etc? It just has me very confused why the doyen of freedom in the world has to make day-to-day life so complicated for everyone else. After all, everybody else in the world has made the switch, why not the US?

[ibheath]

Can anybody please explain to me why you Americans remain in the Dark Ages with all your feet, ounces, pounds, miles, quarts etc? It just has me very confused why the doyen of freedom in the world has to make day-to-day life so complicated for everyone else. After all, everybody else in the world has made the switch, why not the US?

Can you explain to me why we should change to accomodate everyone else?

[Fox on the Run]

That's a hard one. Why change? Here are 2 reasons.

1) The metric system is alot easier to understand and follow than the old imperial. Everything in base 10 as opposed to the Licorice Allsorts that is imperial measure

2) It means that America's dealings with the outside world would be much more straightforward. The economic benefits would be immense. Remember Challenger! An Australian died (and several Americans) because NASA assumed the Europeans' research and calculations were in imperial measures.

But that's not my question: my question is why does the US stay as it is?

Simple question, hopefully a simple answer.

Fox on the Run
Sydney, Australia
11:41AM Thursday, 15/1/04 EDST

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Short answer: We like making others' lives a living hell. Long answer: In 1776...

[Fox on the Run]

Umm, I have no idea how much metric Americans know, so after some very rough conversions, my metric references work out about like this:

1.83m is about 6'1
My weight's about 15 stone, which is (I think) about 210lbs.
600mL is something like 2 or 3 fluid ounces

Hope that makes my post a bit clearer

[GovernmentShrinker]

We like our heritage. Deal with it.

[Fox on the Run]

Would that also explain your strange Month/Date/Year business? Which is why the US news says Wednesday, January 15, while ours says Wednesday, 15 January?

[NicknamedBob]

Sorry, I am at a loss to explain it myself. The subject came up in our household. My dear wife said that she was opposed to changing to the Metric system as she didn't see anything wrong with the system that we have.

"What system is that, Dear?"
"Our system."
"You mean the one with 12 inches to the foot, 5280 feet to the mile, and 16 ounces to the pound?"
"Yes, if that's really what the numbers are."

Logic cannot prevail against that.

[Fox on the Run]

Umm, I always thought the Imperial system was developed by the (historically hated by Americans) British.

I confess to not knowing US history well, but where's the heritage?

In any case, even the Brits went metric in 1971

[Tax Slave]

The french developed the meteric system, that in and of itself is reason enough to not use it.
I have it on good authority that the french done it just to make their manhood sound larger. (150mm vs 6 inches)

[WinOne4TheGipper]

It seems more logical to me. If I picked up a newspaper that had 14/01/04 as the date, I'd wonder what dimmension I slipped into. Welcome to FR.

[NicknamedBob]

"...where's the heritage?"

Not heritage. Tradition! (or laziness, take your pick.)

We buy our medicine in milligrams, our film in millimeters, and our drinks in two-liter bottles.

We'll get there, we're just stubborn about getting edumacated.

BTW, I hope your drink is bigger than that calculation. Aussi beer ain't that potent.

[NicknamedBob]

"...a newspaper that had 14/01/04..."

Everything in increasing order of size, an elegant and less confusing system. We are not confused on only twelve days out of the year.

Much easier to put things in order on a computer system that way, too.

[gcruse]

If God had meant us to use the metric system, Jesus would have only had ten disciples. ;)

[eleni121]

The metric system is alot easier to understand and follow than the old imperial.

A lot - 2 (imperial 2) words. Your spell checker is your friend.

[Wissa]

After all, everybody else in the world has made the switch, why not the US?

Because Jimmy Carter was in favor of switching to the metric system.

[luvbach1]

Because it makes day-to-day life less complicated for us.

[luvbach1]

We have partially converted. Scientists use metric system. And we do buy litre-sized bottles of water.

[luvbach1]

One obvious reason: in the main, we don't need it.

[Khurkris]

We do it our way. Good enough reason for us.

But I do agree with the day/month/year thing. Being raised in a military family, I have always put the date as - 14 Jan '04 or 2004. Always made more sense to me. And it jas always confused others until they actually looked at it.