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?

[cyborg]

LOL!

[cyborg]

oh dear I hope you're wearing a flame suit...

[cyborg]

More importantly why aren't Americans interested in rugby and cricket???? That's what I want to know...

[Chewbacca]

I once watched an English cooking show and they were using the stupid metric system to measure all the ingrediante.

They actually had to weigh out the flour they used. Using the English system is easier. You measure the flour by a cup.

Cooking is easier. It is all based on fours. To get to the next higher measurement you multiply by four.

Milk is sold by the gallon, quart, pint.
1 gal = 4 quarts = 8 pints
1 pint = = 16 oz = 32 tablespoons = 96 teaspoons.



You can't take a stick and reliably split it into smaller halves using the metric system based on 10's.
Just try it.

Take a 10cm piece of paper and fold it in half. You get 5cm. Divide it in half again and you get 2.5cm. Divide it again you get 1.25cm. Again is 0.625cm.
Now tell me...can you create a system of measurement reliably using a system that can be devided into whole numbers.

English system is based on whole numbers.
1 ft divided in half = 6 inches. 6 in half is 3. You now have a foot reliably divided into four parts. You can then split the 3 inches by folding into three equal lengths and there you have a 1 foot length with all the inches marked off.

Can you do that with a meter stick?


Now try and make a song or poem using the metric system.
You can't rhyme the following "Miles and miles of little brouwn piles," into "meters and meters of little brown ?????".


If the USA switched to metric all the land would have to be remeasured. An acre which is 640ft^2 would change. There are 640 acres per square mile. All the maps would have to be changed. So would all the

Besides, the USA uses both systems when selling goods. The bottle in front of my says NET Wt 16 oz (454 g).

[Chewbacca]

Sorry for the bad spelling and lost train of thought, I was typing and watching TV at the same time and didn't proof read.

[NicknamedBob]

"...Jesus would have only had ten disciples..."

The joke was:
The young priest was about to give his first sermon, and he was very nervous. He asked for advice.
"Do what I do, lad. Instead of water, put some sacramental wine in your glass."
So he followed the advice. Afterward, he asked, 'How did I do?'

"Well, ahem. Jesus had twelve disciples, not ten. And there were ten commandments, not twelve. And ... Samson slew the Phillistines, he didn't beat the H*ll out of them!"

[gcruse]

What would Jesus brew?

[NicknamedBob]

Good point about the cooking, but most measuring cups have both. I don't quite get the point about the sticks, but if you like whole number systems, consider angular measurement. 360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in a degree. Time is measured in a similar fashion. It's based on the number twelve, and we're going to be stuck with it forever. It's lots of fun teaching kids about half hours and such, isn't it?

The United States led the world with the development of a Decimal currency system, one hundred pennies to the dollar, et cetera. Why not use it for other systems of measurement? My point above was that half the people who defend our system don't really know it. With the metric system, if you can give change properly, you can convert units. (So don't ask questions like this at McD*nalds, they don't even know what Small is.)

[NicknamedBob]

What would Jesus brew?

Irish coffee?

[Chewbacca]

Small is 64 oz. to me and I like it that way!!!!!

[chaosagent]

"Remember Challenger! An Australian died (and several Americans) because NASA assumed the Europeans' research and calculations were in imperial measures."

Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about?

Dick Scobee - born in Washington state
Mike Smith - born in North Carolina
Judy Resnick - born in Ohio
Ron McNair = born in South Carolina
Ellison Onizuka - born in Hawaii
Greg Jarvis - born in Michigan
Christa McAuliffe - born in Massachusetts

Not an Australian among them.

And the metric system had nothing to do with the Challenger explosion.

If anything, you're thinking about the Mars Orbiter that was lost awhile back supposedly due to a mistake converting between metric and decimal units.

[Fox on the Run]

You're absolutely correct. I apologise, I got it wrong. I do know that one of the crew taught in Australia for a while.

Apologies for the furphy

[lentulusgracchus]

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

The impulse came during the Ford Administration, when Chamber of Commerce types ran to the Administration looking for help because Eurocrats were trying to use metric measure as an excuse to exclude U.S. goods. Their snottiness about wine in particular caused the American wine and spirits industry to change to metric <barf, hurl>, and to seek a U.S. law "requiring" them to do exactly what they wanted to do. And oh, btw, they used the changeover to raise prices on wines about 20%.

[Prodigal Son]

Can anybody please explain to me why you Americans remain in the Dark Ages

Why is it the Dark Ages? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. A thing is the same length no matter what system you use to measure it.

A system of measurement just needs to be uniform- nothing else.

Why not complain about the Brits? They use both the English system and the Metric. At least Americans are still using one.

[Prodigal Son]

In any case, even the Brits went metric in 1971

Uh, no. I live in Scotland. We never drive 10 kilometers down the road. We drive 16 miles. I order a pint of lager in the pub, not a half liter or whatever. People measure their weight in stone.

If you had said, the Brits went to a mixed system, this would be true.

[freedumb2003]

This is not the first vanity FOTR has posted, basically attacking us in a wide-eyed "no insult meant" way.

Look Runny -- Australia is meaningless on the world stage. Nice place, and we like you guys, but your job is to provide comic relief for the world. Get over it and stick with what you do best.

[Prodigal Son]

Hey, I tell you what. Since we're in to the Q and A-

Why do Australians have a monarch for their head of state?

[ibheath]

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?

1)metric is easier if you grew up with it. You think in metric. I think in pounds, oz, ft and inches. You say 195 kilos, means nothing to me, until I convert to pounds. I can understand 1-2 liters since that is how soda comes in bottles. I understand mL and cc's since that is (half the time) how I give my kids meds.

2)The economic cost of converting strictly to metric is staggering. Imagine every worker having to rework every order by hand, from imperial to metric, then back again to make sure they did it right. Imagine consumers completely baffled by the new measurements as they grocery shop.

This has been tried, and in this democracy the public said NO!

[ibheath]

LOL

[americanbychoice]

You HAVE been gone for a while. We use both here. :-)
Medicine, drinks, etc.