Isn't it about time the US joined the world's metric system?

Admit it, most of us understand the difference between a gram and an ounce or a kilo and a pound. ;)
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When the metric system was tried in the U.S. some years ago, people still did math with pencil and paper or in their heads. Today, your phone will do instant conversions for you. People, today, can't count back change or convert feet to inches. They use a digital cash register or their phone to do almost all math. So... I doubt the change would be earthshattering in the U.S.

Spending much of my career in water treatment, all our chemical dosing, contamination lab results, etc. were done in mg/l (milligrams per liter). Once we understood mg/l was simply ppm (parts per million) it made more sense. But, we got used to dealing with minimal metric calculations.

At 75 years old, the only place a change would bother me is in my golf game. I hit my 7-iron "x" number of yards. If I have to recalculate how many meters I need to find the middle of the green................... :>)
 
hollydolly said:
..but despite liquid being sold in metric measure here in the stores. In the pub..everyone gets sold drinks in imperial..still the good old Pint.. not a litre..or half litre
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1 imperial pint = .5682 litres. It’s in the pub’s favour to only pour you a pint. 😉
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Isn't it about time the US joined the world's metric system?
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Long past. As an engineer I had to work in both, no question the metric is easier and more efficient.

When I started engineering school I told my father we'd be converting to metric soon, all of my classes were in metric, it was what we were learning. He just laughed and said his college classes were also in metric and 25 years earlier he thought the same thing... Guess nothing changes.

I had to learn a lot of the English system on the job where most clients wanted things in feet, pounds and the like...

I know changing would be a bit of a shock to a lot of folks, the transition would take at least a generation, but it would be well worthwhile.

My favorite unit of measure is the beard-second, neither English nor metric.
 
In my lifetime, I have had to change my currency, from L.S.D.
to L.P. my buying petrol from Gallons to Litres, then working
back to see how many gallons I bought, the measurements
from imperial to metric, while most references to size might
be in inches and feet, somebody, decided that all screws are
now metric, we used to have, British Standard Whitworth, BSW,
British Standard Fine, BSF and British Association, BA, which is
still used, 12BA is the size of the screw on spectacles.

Many years ago, I was told that the only Americans who knew
metric weights, were Drug dealers, because they dealt in Kilos
and Grams.

Mike.
 
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I think it would be easier to change than it at first appears, when I lived overseas I discovered I didn't really need to convert anything (except the darn celcius, figured out 30 was hot but that was about it, if I'd had a thermostat I suppose I'd have learned was a comfy number was). The milk and chocolate bars were the size they were, just like buying a 2 liter bottle of soda pop doesn't require converting it to understand it, it just is the size it is.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
In another thread, we are discussing gas prices. But gallons vs liters. Converting is a pain. The planet uses the metric system, with the exception of the US and two tiny nations. NASA lost a rocket due to converting errors. US products don't fit in a metric world. The US isn't the mega-market it used to be; if you want big bucks, you have to go global. Isn't it about time the US joined the world's metric system? The planet endured mass extinctions, so I think we could live through the trauma of asking for a kilo, rather than a pound, but just barely.
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NO! I had a family clothing store...we sold fabric.

We had a Fabric Measuring Machine, A Measuregraph. About 1975 (yes Iam old) there was a push to convert to the metric and switch our Measuregraph machine to the metric system. I was happy that the US did not switch.
 
I barely grasp our math. Not that long ago ? there was a push to go metric. It failed. Too many old dogs like me just wouldn't get on board, I guess! Besides, if something online is given in metrics, Google comes to the rescue!
 
I feel like I’m learning metric sort of by osmosis because these days so many things in lbs or oz , pts or qts have a metric equivalent printed right next to it.
And medicines are going metric too. I just got used to figuring CCs and now have to figure milliliters.
 
Another change during my life, was temperature scale,
from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

Temperatures are the easiest to convert, roughly, I find:-

Celsius, double the number and add 30 = Fahrenheit.

Fahrenheit, subtract 30 from the number, then half the
remainder = Celsius.

Mike.
 

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