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 ...
I remember that, and the Metric Week.
Seems not to actually say what “the real reason” was.
I remember in 6th grade we were told the US was going to switch to the metric system.
Glad we didn’t.
SI is great, but it’s used for a purpose.
I hate driving in Canada, having to multiply by .6 in my head all the time.
The Brits still use miles for distance.
You can work in fractions of 299792458 in your head? I can’t tell of you’re trying to be sarcastic or you think we but that.
No, the meter is *now* defined that way but requires doubts have the equipment to measure the transition of a cesium atom. But it was originally 1/10,000,000 of the distance from the equator to the north pole through Paris and was HORRIBLY in error for decades.
If you don’t know what your talking about, don’t be so confident about it.
Common measurements in cooking are 1/3 cup and 2/3 cup. Both are infinite decimals. Look hard enough, you can find all sorts of these examples.
Funny thing, they call it a 'fifth of alcohol' because it approximates 1/5 of a gallon. It's exact measurement is 750ml or 3/4 of a liter.
“...Here’s the real reason ...”
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Did they ever get around to telling us “the real reason”?
When I was in school, in the 70s, they tried forcing that. For some reason it just went away.
Virtually every car made for decades has both mph and kph on the speedometer.
Metric measurements are deficient since dividing 10 evenly only works with 1, 2, or 5. It works passably with fixed measurements that will never change such as bolt diameters, and some fixed distances, but it's a disadvantage with any measurement that involves changes.
Metric System proponents don't care that their system is missing useful standards such as "A Third of a Meter" which is more intuitive than 33.334 centimeters. I'm not working with 33 1/3 over 100 of something, I'm working with a third of it.
Dividing things by half, thirds, fourths, or sixths works evenly.
Base twelve, sixteen and sixty have their advantages. No sense in handcuffing them with base 10.
Celsius is complicated. I know zero Celsius is 32 degrees. And anything over 25 Celsius is hot.
Makes you go hmmm?
Wrong - they have integer equivalents in tsp and tbsp. Stop showing your lacknof knowledge.
I lost my old slide rules (and pretty much everything else) in a flood in 2018.
We tried to look at it as an opportunity to declutter. Many people my age are upset that their kids don’t want any of their family heirlooms. We don’t have that problem.
No, it’s 750mL now - was a 1/5 before “metricization”. And L bottles used to he quarts. Are you not old enough to know that?
“doubts have the equipment to measure the transition of a cesium atom.”
Their equipment sucks. I have to to check the standard in Paris twice a year. It is always wrong.
And Aviation and shipping
All planes use feet for altitude and knots for speed.
Kph doesn't mean much when going around curved surfaces like the Earth, so they use knots
And 1000 Foot intervals make perfect lane sizes for planes. Planes generally go east - west, planes going east use odd thousands lanes (29,000, 31,000, 33,000, 35,000....) while west bound planes use even (28,000, 30,000....). The practicality of the Imperial system wins again.
Interesting only China and North Korea are the only holdouts.
Myself, I prefer C to F because then I don't have to use the black keys.
Actually, Gerald Ford was the President who signed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975.
The future will be metric (SI). Every immigrant, whether legal or illegal, comes to the United States with a knowledge of the metric system (SI), NOT US Customary.
The units used for measuring electricity (volt, ohm, ampere, farad, watt, etc.) are all SI.
As the EU and the BRICS nations become more powerful, the SI will replace US Customary. What if Canada joins the EU!
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