Why Didn't the USA Fully Adopt the Metric System?

in #science7 years ago (edited)

I Didn't Think About the Metric System Recently Until Memes Like This Popped Up

Learning the Metric System Wasn't a Waste of Time

When I was a gullible child in school, my sweet-faced teachers all enthusiastically assured us that we had a good reason for learning about the metric system. We learned because the USA would join almost all of the rest of the planet in switching from Imperial Units to the more modern system of measurement. Later, of course, science classes reinforced my use of this foreign system, so learning the metric system wasn't a waste of time.

Later, when I bought a European bicycle and traveled to metric countries, it was helpful to have some vague idea that a mm was much smaller than an inch and a km was somewhat shorter than a mile. Also, Coca-Cola must not have gotten the message because they sell their sodas in liter sizes.

Why Didn't the USA Adopt the Metric System

We Do Use the Metric System Sometimes

Look, I read some answers from patriots that contended that we're America, and we don't have to do what other countries do. After all, we sent people to the Moon and won WWII without the metric system. Would those wonderful accomplishments have been somewhat easier with the metric system? That's a question I was too timid to ask.

What's the Real Reason the USA Didn't Switch From Yards to Meters?

The only three countries that don't use the new system of measurement are Liberia, Myanmar, and of course, the United States. That isn't to say Americans never use the metric system. Obviously, scientists, engineers, and medical professionals rely heavily upon it.

For instance, the dosage of medicine is always in mg. and not ounces. On the other hand, instructions for liquid dosages are often stated in teaspoons or tablespoons or ounces. Technical professions use the metric system, but they still communicate to the public in the Imperial system mostly.

These are the two reasons that I think kept the USA from going metric:

Reason #1 : During the time when the issue enjoyed a lot of debate, U.S. manufacturers complained about the cost.

Reason #2: At this same time, HP introduced its first popular calculators, and they made conversions quite simple. These days, you can simply Google it.

Windows Has a Conversion App

It's sort of ironic that the first argument about converting insisted that the transition would be too expensive and complicated, and the second argument was that conversion was so simple and cheap that it wasn't worth the effort to change. The debate still continues. It was only about 10 years ago that NASA agreed to rely upon the metric system to make it easy to coordinate with other countries.

Is the Metric System Always Better?

Naturally, the metric system offers a uniform 10-based system of measurement that makes a lot of sense. However, it's not better for everything. For example, weight can be measured in grams or kilograms. There's a big difference between the content of a sugar packet and a bag of sugar. The same can be said about liters and kiloliters and milliliters.

The U.S. system offers more intermediate measures. Food can be measured in ounces, pounds, teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, pints, and so on.

It is true that it's easier to divide smaller measurements into thirds when using feet and yards. We might not have 12 fingers; however, a 12-based system can offer certain advantages over a 10-based system.

Do You Think the USA Should Convert to the Metric System?

What do you think about having the USA convert to the metric system? I upvote RELEVANT comments and am interested in learning more about the pros and cons of this change. I sort of doubt it will happen in the near future, but maybe it's an issue that we should revisit.

Oh yeah, here's some sources:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/198481
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/88126
http://www.anacreofpints.com/pros-cons-metric-system/

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Gathering from what you said and what I know, I should say our neighbors used it.
It seems it is a question of follow up and US tends to not follow up any countries to something that does not make a major change in how we live our lives. At least they tried, but never fully conceived.
Same thing about languagues.
Why few americans speak other languagues where most europeans may speak english ?
It has a lot to do with power in this world.

You have a point. I took a foreign language in school but don't practice it because I don't have to, so I'm the furthest thing from fluent it's possible to be. Maybe other countries needed to standardize more than the US did, so the country just took the path of least resistance. In the days when this decision was more hotly debated, I didn't pick up on the same sort of America-First attitude some parts of the country have today.

Randall Carlson has some really cool lectures that give insight as to why the US is still on the Imperial system. All of the numbers in the system are present in ancient monuments. Measurements that seem random actually beautifully come together to equal the distance to the sun, moon, pi, phi etc. etc.

To the masons, this was extremely important, part of their "sacred" knowledge passed on from the ancients. Randall is also a mason, so he has a pretty in depth understanding of it. If you use gematria, everything always adds up to 9 when you compress it to. It also perfectly links up to sacred geometry and interdimensional polygon stuff thats way over my head. Pretty neat...

Thus, I assume it hasn't changed from imperial because of Americas strong masonic roots since the get go. Check out the lecture in this comment, pretty mindblowin if you ask me. It all started to make much more sense to me after I watched his lectures.

Ugh, Busy is being weird. Final point:

Thus, I assume it hasn't changed from imperial because of Americas strong masonic roots since the get go. Check out the lecture in this comment, pretty mindblowin if you ask me. It all started to make much more sense to me after I watched his lectures.

OK, I watched it. That guy was interesting. Maybe "9" will be the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything. Still, he sort of overlooks the fact that the numbers add up precisely because the same system was used. Anyway, I'll try to catch some more of them later. Thanks for pointing the video out.

Agreed, it was interesting. But I'd need to see more to be totally convinced. I enjoyed the video and think it's great that people explore these kinds of topics to see if there are patterns that would indicate more is beneath the surface.

Thanks, I'll watch it and check back. mind blown

Wow, I didn't expect to get such an esoteric answer! That's really fascinating. Conversely, measurements like "feet" and "tablespoons" are easier for average people to relate to.

Yea if you watch the whole playlist that I linked to, the imperial system is just the beginning, he ties it into a bigger theory of cosmic phases and offers compelling evidence of a great flood - of the Noah's Ark kind of scale. Must remember that DC was also designed from scratch to include similar kind of measurements if seen from above, and the DC monuments also align with all of these ancient monuments. The first White House Cornerstone was laid in a Masonic Ceremony by George Washington.

Sorry didnt mean to double post!

I have to admit that when it comes to this, I'm grateful that I'm married to a European who can figure it all out for me.
#terminallylazy

I traveled to London a few decades ago, when people still used cash to pay for things. One thing I realized is that I must have judged US coins by the weight or size, and I couldn't do that with British coins, so it took me longer go buy my delicious Cadbury bards from the machine in the subway. :) I actually had to look at them.

I grew up in Europe so I am just better in metric then the Imperial system. Strangely enough however I find the Imperial system easier to use when baking and cooking. And metric better for building , crafts and engineering .

It would be difficult for me to cook using metric, but I'm pretty clumsy at it. The U.S. construction industry actually said they preferred feet and yards because they could divide multiples of 12 into fourths and thirds without using fractions or decimal points.

It really isn't that hard just time consuming because instead of using measuring cups you weigh everything out on a kitchen scale. And good for the construction industry I don't mind the decimal points it just flows easier for me :)

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