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 ...
anymore I give these posts 3 paragraphs to get to the crux. If I get to it then I will continue to read because I know its not click bait.
I’f the crux isnt seen then I dont waste anymore time on it...
That’s the nice thing about standards. There’s so many to choose from!
Mostly this never effected me so i didn’t care. but then i started to build and design and build small model sail boats, then move to RC cars and boats with arduino modules running things and a 3d printer, and stuff is just easier to design and scale in metric.
I abandoned the search for that answer after the sixth paragraph. Now I don’t really care.
Stop metrificastion NOW !!!!
“ The real problem with the metric system is that none of the measurements directly relate to real world object the way say a cup, a foot, and an inch do”.
Aren’t frozen water (0oC) or a boiling pot (100oC) being the most common things a man will encounter in his lifetime? And what natural phenomena do Fahrenheit or, hell, Reaumur scales are based on?
And i do all the same - for decades - and have literally never felt the urge to switch to Metric. Not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but have never blinked an eye about working in inches.
And to be clear - PhD Physical Chemist. If instructions call for mL, fine, mL. If they call for ounces, fine, ounces. But when *I’m* making the instructions (drafting, designing, etc.) inches.
Most of journalists are not, they have become mere salesmen.
Tell them, tell them what you told them then tell them again.
I am similar to you. I won’t read War and Peace to find out who hit John.
Seriously? When you boil water you get out a thermometer? Youbcheck your ice cubes with a thermometer? Sorry - you’re reaching.
For measurements for birds, metric is superior.
Measuring wind chord of a Barn Swallow for example is in mm. Much easier to read and compare data of wing chord in mm vs. inches.
I imagine that citizen of the world Obama thinks metrification is a no brainer. He’s probably right in the sense that people without brains will jump on the metric bandwagon to show their superiority.
You should consider drinking less.
Measuring wind chord of a Barn Swallow for example is in mm.
What about the air velocity of an Unladen Swallow?
The U.S has a good mix of metric and standard. Celsius makes no sense when describing atmospheric temps in human terms. Mostly all scientific measurements are in C. In the mechanical realm Metric has mostly been adopted. For construction the metric system absolutely makes no sense. As a contractor of over a half century the elegance of the traditional system cannot be replaced by metric. The golden ratio works best in standard.
Umm... I think you mean wing chord.
And the wing chord of an African Swallow is much more naturally measured in inches, anyway.
The United States legalized the use of the metric system in 1866. It signed the Treaty of the Metre in 1875. In 1893 all U S Customary units were redefined in terms of metric units (1 inch = 25.4 mm). In 1975, the metric system (SI) was made the preferred system. It was one of the last countries to adopt the metric system
For what reason? Just because?
Cause it’s gay
The Running Back gained 5. 7 Meters.
Maybe a clarification is needed . We design and engineer the vehicles using metric. Fasteners are also metric. However there was some crossover between metric and imperial.
Not anything I ever worked on.
Using tooling shops in the States you had better be sure you and they know what system is being used! Most over the decades this is no longer an issue.
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