Why hasnt the US changed to the metric system?

Nothing personal, but I really enjoyed writing it at the time.When using multiple standards, there is always the chance for confusion.While the cost of conversion can be high, so can the cost of doing nothing. Maybe the world could function better without the occasional conversion.

for reals wrote:

What a pointless post. Either agree with me and present additional supporting points, or disagree with me and show me where I'm wrong. You've done neither.

Look, if we were implementing a measurement system from scratch I'd say go metric to be on the same page as the rest of the world - and yes, it makes more sense for everything to be based on a 1-10 and 1-100 scale. But at this point it doesn't matter, the world functions just fine with the occasional conversion. Again, where is the big benefit?

Forrestchild wrote:

Well, it takes some appreciation of skills, but that would also require to actually watch the game and not stand in queques for hot dogs, nachos and beer, while your "favorite" team plays (or not, if there are 12 commercial breaks meanwhile) half of the 4 hour game.

Then the occassional 0-0 tie done in 90 minutes would not seem as boring as 4h junk food stuffing parade.

If by "appreciating skills" you mean hooligans drinking way, way too much beer and starting brawls with the other club's fans, yeah, that's some appreciation you've got there.

Here in the US we appreciate offensive skills too. You should try it sometime

Yeah, I think $25 billion is way, way low.

I believe the only way this would ever happen is through a law, so the government would have little choice but to not use miles, mph, gallons, etc. Now we are stuck paying for the change to the roadway system.

There are 75,000 km of interstate in the U.S. That's 150,000 km markers to manufacture; 150,000 km marker locations to recalculate; 150,000 km markers to be replaced by hand, etc... Plus we have to recalculate, customize an d manufacture every single exit sign. All speed limit signs...replaced. And we have to take down and dispose of the old signs.

That's only transportation.

All that effort and cost makes me ask why.

Is it to match Europe? Then why isn't anyone pushing the adoption of the Euro? Lots of time, money and effort is spent converting currency.

Is it because the metric system is easier? That brings me back to time. Why isn't anyone pushing for a metric time system? We use time measurements a lot. I certainly refer to time more than distance in my daily life. Beyond the lack of a base 10 system in time units we use daily (just like the imperial units), time units are much more confusing than the conversions between inches and mm. How many days are there in 1 month? How many days are there in a year?

Reedin Ritein Figurin wrote:

People in the U.S. can't ever read, write, and do arithmetic. The U.S. is one of the dumbest countries in the world. How do you expect people in the U.S. to handle two systems.

Handle THIS! We do use two systems in the US. I have a 1 liter water bottle on my desk, right next to my 20oz soda bottle. The speedometer on my car has both MPH and KmPH. My thermometer has F and C. My ratchet wrench set has imperial amd metric sizes. My track is measured in meters.

The imperial system is a pain in the ass. I've got to remember/look up the conversions for BTUs, horsepower, ton, ounce, pint, gallon, and fahrenheit to Rankin. Why is 1 BTU equal to 778 ft lbf? Or 1 hp = 550 ftlbf/s? What an odd system.

I don't really see any compelling reason to make a change. As someone else said, if we were starting from scratch it would make sense to use metric, but as it stands now it just doesn't make sense to change.

Tens are easier to work with, but any reasonably intelligent adult should be capable of doing just about any calculation with imperial units. Dividing the number of inches by 12 to find the number of feet isn't that much more difficult than dividing the number of centimeters by 100 to find the number of meters. Either should be pretty quick mental math.

As far as speed limits go, the units posted are entirely unimportant as long as the drivers understand them. It is not as if "60mph" is any more difficult to understand than "100km/hr."

I generally agree that the imperial system is cumbersome, but it isn't difficult to use to the extent that would warrant a switch. The only negative impact of using the imperial system is that you might have to take 2 or 3 seconds to convert feet to miles whereas you can convert decimeters to kilometers in a tenth of a second. Not such a big deal.

wacka wacka wacka wrote:

Change now and we're Europe's bitch

Préférez être la chienne de la Grande-Bretagne ?

Bear of Bad News wrote:

I generally agree that the imperial system is cumbersome, but it isn't difficult to use to the extent that would warrant a switch. The only negative impact of using the imperial system is that you might have to take 2 or 3 seconds to convert feet to miles whereas you can convert decimeters to kilometers in a tenth of a second. Not such a big deal.

Rather than taking a little time to convert in perpetuity, why don't we take a few minutes to just learn it and move over.

People freak out like it has to be instantaneous. It doesn't. Just say this:

In 2015 we will start fining people who haven't switched over. In the meantime, when gov't has to change signs for whatever reasons, they put the new ones up in km, etc. Where I live, most exit signs have km on them anyway. It's really not that hard to add some letters. Mile markers would take longer. Private industry changes labels and containers all the time. Simple really, next time they change, put it into metric.

For the person who said metric time, I really hope you're kidding. If there were a logical time switch to make, we could consider it, but why would we with no alternative?

As for the Euro, another idiot. We're not considering a switch because Europe uses the metric system but because NEARLY EVERYONE uses it.

But hey, keep griping about how the US isn't keeping up with the rest of the US in everything instead of doing anything about it. Typical of the thinking of an American, unfortunately.

It takes the kids I coach a whopping week to understand their events in metric (field events) when they go off to college. Is it so hard? Are you telling me a country that can switch cell phones in a day can't figure out how to measure in different units? We're lazy, not retarded.

Wanda Sykes is racist.

Wanda Sykes is totally not funny.

Wanda Sykes is a living example as to why the U.S. couldn't ever make the change - morons like her could not handle it.

1 min = 100 sec. is correct.

The re-calibration of entire industries here in the US- including their factories and all of the equipment they use would be time consuming and expensive in both time and productivity lost as well as material waste loss and therefore lead to immediate short term profit losses, and probably longer term losses and therefore not worth the effort.

I am an architect and know it would be especially hard for the construction industry- so many materials and structural systems are calibrated on English units- the thought of switching is daunting to say the least.

rekrunner wrote:

Regarding European clocks, I don't know what you mean. Every European clock I've ever seen looks like every ordinary American clock, except for the convention of using a 24 hour time format.

Haha. It was funny watching Vinny Jones unsuccessfully trying to explain to Steven Baldwin how to read a digital 24 hour clock. What a retard.

While we are changing to the metric system, why don't we ALL switch to Mandarin? Communication is the ultimate goal is it not?

Why doesn't the rest of the world switch to English already? It's the language of the internet. Certainly the first language of international business.

biggus dickus wrote:

I ran a 5K this weekend in the USA. What do you want, wicker?

Yes but they probably gave splits at the mile and 2 mile mark, not at each k.

Comic Critic wrote:

Wanda Sykes is racist.

Wanda Sykes is totally not funny.

Wanda Sykes is a living example as to why the U.S. couldn't ever make the change - morons like her could not handle it.

Obviously, you are the kid with the cheezy musatache.

Comic Critic wrote:

Wanda Sykes is racist.

Wanda Sykes is totally not funny.

Wanda Sykes is a living example as to why the U.S. couldn't ever make the change - morons like her could not handle it.

Wanda is very funny. Check out her latest cable special.

She has a white wife and she is racist? That makes sense.

Also, why dont we go back to running the 220, 440 and 880? Everyone knows our system is far superior than the rest of the world.

ilgore wrote:

Other "improvements" the American public has rejected:

-Esperanto

-Dvorak keyboard

-Mac OS

-35 hour workweek

-Socialized medicine

-Soccer

-Mayo on french fries

Out.

May I add Beta video tapes.

I thought we changed to metrics in 1980!

Because our country is much bigger than any Euro country and we don't have to to do commerce with our neighbors.