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You need to ask? Well, of course our European cousins have always been our betters, so it follows that we should bend over backward to emulate everything they do.
If you hadn't noticed, you'll almost never hear a university trained egghead using anything but the metric system when describing dimensions, distances, or volumes.
It's become something of a liberal flag. Americans who use the metric system in conversation are almost assuredly pompous libs.

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard here on FR. The scientific community uses the metric system because it gives them a measuring system consistent with what scientists use around the world, and because, well, it's just superior in every way. It's consistent and based on 10's (a kilometer is 1000 meters, a centimeter is 1/100 of a meter, a millimeter is 1/10 of a centimeter, etc.) as opposed to the absurd system we use here (how many feet in a mile again?).

And if it is really a liberal plot, then perhaps you'd care to explain why our military uses it.

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard here on FR.

Registered since 2000, and my sarcastic little post is "the most absurd thing" you've ever heard here? LOL

No, it's not.

I understand that the metric system is a base ten system, which of course is quite sensible, logical, etc. The problem is that we civilians never learned it in school, so people that insist on speaking metric to us are simply speaking Greek to our ears.

It's annoying, and fails to communicate to most Americans. "How big is a meter, honey?" "Dunno, hon. "Bout a yard, I think?" "The news just said that the tsunami will be 63 centimeters! Should we pack up the kids and head for the mountains?"

Sheeesh...

Speak to me in a language I understand, or don't speak at all. I wouldn't think of imposing English measurements on European civilians if I were creating a program specifically for broadcast to them.

It's not that the US hasn't tried to move toward adopting the metric system. I went to military schools as a child, and we had instruction in the metric system for the better part of a year around the 6th grade. Guess what? It didn't stick, so they dropped it.

At the time, everything outside the school house was in English measurements, so we couldn't actually apply it to the real world. It's unbelievable how fast I forgot everything we'd studied by the start of the next school year.

Americans who use the metric system in conversation are almost assuredly pompous libs.

No FReekin DUH Windflier. We sure wouldn't want any university trained egggead engineers over here.

Somebody wanna remind me just what the hell a click is again?

Hey, Squantos, you EOD guys use that metric stuff dontcha? Are you guys "assuredly pompous libs?" Or do you just not talk about it? I'm sure our snipers and engineers use "meters" just to be cool among the left, eh?

I'm gonna go eat some metric bacon and eggs (64g each). Thanks. They're so much more tasty when measured in "lib" terms. Also, note, I only target shoot in meters, just to piss off, um, conservatives.

Sheesh.

The metric system absolutely STINKS for carpentry. Because everything in the English system is divisible by any factor of 12 instead of just 10, it's much more flexible when you're measuring floor area, calculating joist spaces, etc.

The English system evolved for practical, not scientific use. I say let the scientists use whatever makes them happy, but when I'm calculating rafter pitch, I want my English system.