Posted on 05/07/2026 5:51:42 PM PDT by DoodleBob
…Most other nations dutifully adopted SI, changing road signs and packaging and teaching the metric system in schools. Even the United Kingdom, which had lagged for years, mostly embraced the system in an effort to keep pace with other European Union nations. (Since the U.K. left the EU, metric opponents there have argued the nation should stop using metric units, a controversial proposition that has yet to be adopted.)
Despite international adoption and increasing federal policy encouraging the use of metric units, the U.S. continued to drag its feet. Resistance was fueled in part by industrialists who argued the system was too complicated and expensive to implement, legislators suspicious of “foreign” influence, and controversies over whether wide-scale federal adoption might infringe on states’ rights.
The end result was confusion. Though the U.S. officially declared SI the nation’s preferred system through the 1975 Metric Conversion Act, even federal agencies were slow to adopt metric in industry, education, commerce, and daily life. One example is road signs: Though federal officials attempted to turn a new interstate in Arizona into an SI poster child in the wake of the Metric Conversion Act, even giving it kilometer markers instead of mileposts, transportation officials never extended metric-only signage to the remainder of the federal highway system.
…
Nonetheless, Benham still believes voluntary metrification in the U.S. is possible—and encourages individuals to look for the metric measurements that already surround them…
Ultimately, says Benham, a full transition to the metric system won’t be possible until individuals take the plunge and decide to use it in their daily lives. That’s why she focuses on education at her job—and has switched to the metric system in her daily life, setting her smartphone to measure length in kilometers instead of miles and using degrees Celsius instead of Fahrenheit.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...
Well that and kilos for cocaine.
You are misinformed. You are equating “Western” with Anglophone. A good reference on the history of measurement is “Beyond Measure” by James Vincent. (2022)
“As the EU and the BRICS nations become more powerful….”
————————
Hahahahahahaha!
Europe is dying of a self-inflicted wound, and as for BRICS, Russia is a complete Turd World basket case, South Africa is worse, Brazil will always be a country with great potential, India is now understanding that allying itself with Russia and China is a huge mistake, and China has made itself the enemy of just about every country that matters.
The metric system may end up being the future, but not at all because of the (non-existent) success of Europe or the BRICS nations.
Arlo Guthrie was an early adopter:
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
But don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister Customs Man
I was there of course and remember it well It really wasn’t an untold reason we all knew we didn’t like it Except for some of us engineers who thought it would Be really nice Not to have to deal with fractions
Nice one!
My sister taught third grade back in the ‘70s. Her students found it easier to learn metric (SI) than U S Customary.
So, move there if it matters so much to you.
“Both systems have trouble with sevenths.”
That’s apparently why SMSG “Modern Math” had us learning Base7 math in 7th grade...
Liberty son, liberty 😂
My cousin’s husband bought a Volkswagen in Germany in the ‘60s. The.speedometer was in kilometres per hour. I thought we would get arrested for going 100.
Brazilians of people use it!
And formula based physics is easier to learn than calculus based physics. So what? I know which one i want designing my bridge.
Now Metric or SAE units are going to make a difference in the quality of the bridge, but I really don’t care - I care that they are looking for the “easy.”
My undergrad calculus professor was notorious for never giving partial credit. It was an engineering-centric college in Metro Detroit when we still made cars. Whenever anyone whined about not getting partial credit he would say, “and if the bridge falls down and people die you don’t get partial credit.”
A hogshead contains 5,376 jiggers.
This figure is derived from the English butt, which is defined as equal to two hogsheads and 10,752 jiggers. Consequently, a single hogshead holds half that volume.
Simple really.
Prime factors? 2, 3, 7
Joke I heard
My wife wants a divorce
Why
She says I am not patriotic enough, man I should have seen that coming a kilometer away 😂🇺🇸
I am all in favor of keeping something in use that defines us as separate from the rest of the mob. If someone wants to use metric then let them do so. 90% of the population including me have a hard time grasping large quantities that are metric. It requires doing math where it normally would not need to be done because our brains have been trained to see things in the old system. If I say 1000 gallons then I can picture a 1000 gallon tank. If someone says 1000 liters then what and the heck does that look like. Using the system our founders used is just plain patriotic.
how often do you change form mm to cm in real life? Or grams to kilograms? Depending on the situation you are using one or the other, not switching between them.
SI is an abbreviation for Systemé International des Unites. (International System of Units)
SI is an abbreviation for Systemé International des Unites. (International System of Units)
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