Originally it was because the ship carrying the official metric measures from France to the US in 1793 was captured by pirates. More recently it’s because there was a near-revolt when Jimmy Carter tried to reintroduce it in the 1970s in an attempt to make the US even slightly less regressive.
That reminds me of a road in AZ that had signage in KM when I was a kid. I guess it was a part of this program and it never got changed back? It was always a mindfuck suddenly seeing kms instead of miles on road trips through the area.
It’s still there
Interesting, I always thought it was because it goes straight to Mexico, so many people using it would prefer kilometer. Cool to see my local highway on Lemmy.
There was a stretch of the Florida coast that had metric in the late 90s and early 2000s, but people kept stealing the speed limit signs. They also had a problem with people misunderstanding 100kph (about 60mph) and doing 100mph instead.
“Misunderstanding”. They just wanted to speed
I’m assuming 2L soda bottles are also a remnant of this era.
Yeah. The attempt was made to convert everything to metric for official government documents, but that just meant most businesses paid people to convert it back for their use.
Because the entire country has a foot fetish.
Fact Check: TRUE ✅
It is even worse as there are two feet.
we do! one inch is exactly 25.4 mm. fluid volumes are almost always seen in both standard measure and metric. most disposable plastic water bottles contain 500 mL of water. lots of engineering for american stuff is actually using metric measures too, including automobiles!
other places use the standard measure as well. in canada, you’ll construct something with 2x4s and 4’x8’ sheets of OSB. in the UK, oh goodness… it’s a complete catastrophe. you’ll see distances in kilometers but speeds in miles per hour, and don’t even get started on stuff like body weight measured in stone, or the breakfast cup (these are actual, real units!)
a very good example is altitudes of aircraft. except for russia, china, and some ex-soviet nations, it will be in feet (or hundreds of feet; “flight level” 320 is 32 000 feet!). this holds true from the bahamas to japan to lithuania. the speed unit knot is a bit weirder, doesn’t neatly fit into either boat (pun absolutely intended), and is worthy of its own write-up.
whatever units you use, really our main suggestions would be to follow in the footsteps of the SI (even if using non-SI/non-metric units), be clear, and be consistent!!
stay safe and happy measuring :)
Technically they do. The US units are defined by the metric system, and they are full members of the Metre Convention since 1878.
because they industrialized before metricalization and it would’ve been incredibly expensive to convert all their machines and tooling to metric afterwards. same reason as the UK. a lot of places industrialized later, in metric from the start, and didnt have this problem.
and then they became the hegemon, and didnt have to convert, because fuck you, why should i cooperate with vassals.
the US will convert to metric when it sinks to the level it deserves and the customary units become a pain because nobody else is willing to deal with them and all the importable equipment is in metric.
USA uses both, just like the UK and Canada. It’s standard in the states for…medicine, the military, science, and… two-liter beverage bottles.
I can tell you that the military doesn’t use it much in my experience in aircraft maintenance. I rarely ever saw a repair manual use metric.
Soft drinks in general. A can is 255ml, a bottle is 500ml, a big bottle is 2L
Convenience store wise, a can of Coke is 12 ounces and a bottle is 20 ounces in the states. They have the volume in ml on the bottle though.
Grocery stores have 1l, 16.9oz, 12oz bottles, and 7.5oz cans.
It’s all over the map.
Containers of Specific Volumes For industry.
Ah yes, CSVFI.
355 for the standard aluminum can irc
Could have sworn it was 330
330 is perhaps the most common standard can size in Europe (other common ones being 250, 500, and for beer also 440 and 568 ml). Most drinks that I see that are imported from the USA have strange can (or bottle) sizes, 355 ml being the only one I remember off the top of my head. But I don’t buy them often because A) imperialism and B) they’re expensive.
Officially, we’re the only ones still using imperial units. But, the British use a mash-up of units in their daily lives, as does Liberia and Myanmar.
Reagan pulled the plug on our attempted conversion in 1980.
We’ll convert someday, probably after our imperial reign is over, somewhat fittingly.
Except it’s not imperial units, it’s US customary. Similar names, different actual quantities.
As a science teacher, when I see a worksheet online mention inches or pounds, that open tab on my browser closes at a rapid speed.
Americans aren’t taught the metric system in school in a way that would force them to understand why it’s better. American education rarely teaches life skills, and in my case, almost none at all even though I was a full honors student at a top high school.
Americans absolutely are taught the metric system.
Source: was once in elementary school
Because there’s no reason to switch.
The US uses the metric system. SI units are provided by Federal Government for almost every quantifiable product produced by a federal agency and its been like that for decades. Often they use a mix of customary and SI units, providing conversions between the two in official reports. Generally you see customary units communicated when work more directly impacts the general public with more technical work using the SI system. Many industrial fields use predominantly the metric system as is the case for medicine and many engineering fields.
The US does not use, exclusively, the metric system because many units had been adopted by convention prior to the formalization of the modern international SI system and for cultural or historic reasons people don’t want to change.
That’s not so different from other places where measurement systems in common use are often retained.
The metric system debate is, for me, one of the most interesting cultural bugbears on the internet. Because it does not really matter that much what system of measurement a nation uses, its really not going to impact your life that much at the end of the day. Particularly in the modern era where conversion is as trivial as looking up a calculator online. But for whatever reason people get huffy about the metric system.
you make valid points! however, you did misuse some terms (no shade though hehe)
“SI” is short for “système international d’unités”, or international system of units. thus, we call it “the SI”, not “SI system”.
the SI outlines practices for using units, along with an approved set of units. they are the ones who say to write “3.2 kg” and not “3.2kg” or “3.2 Kg”, for instance. the units outlined include stuff like the meter, kilogram, and second too—in fact the SI is the successor to the “meter-kilogram-second” system! however, the SI does not include units such as millibar or liter. hectare, for example, is a metric unit, but is not an SI unit. this wikipedia page has a big list of them.
basically, the SI is a standard used so scientists don’t get confused by units.
the metric system, or rather a metric system, is a framework for attributes of stuff (aka numbers and units!) that is decimal-based (i.e. around powers of 10), uses a set of specific base units, and has ways of specifying unit multiplication applicable to any unit. the SI is a metric system!
while there are other metric systems too, most commonly you will see the spirit of the SI used in conjunction with non-SI units. this is what “the metric system” usually means. the liter is a very common example; the SI would say liter is not to be used and to instead use cm³, but you’ll still see L and mL about. their connotations are useful!
but yeah honestly so long as they work and don’t cause confusion use whatever units you want.
You seem to be well informed. I have no knowledge of what units are used formally, or in engineering or so, but often when I read news from the USA where measures are present, I find that they sometimes use the imperial units, and sometimes “the asteroid of the size of 5 football fields” or “a hole of the size of 4 washing machines opened in the road”.
That being said, it’s likely a journalism issue. Clickbaits matter more than accuracy. That unfortunately holds true not just for the USA…
This message is half a screen long.
It’s a journalism thing, I think. I’ve never heard anyone in conversation say things like that. I have heard people describe things like that when someone says “Well, how long is x in, mm, ft, km, etc.” “It’s about this many of that long” or whatever.
It’s actually about a quarter of a screen (for my phone anyway)
Because my car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that’s the way I like it!
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We’re a stupid country rules by assholes and morons.
You just know if someone tried to make a serious push for it, all the fox news types would go into a frenzy. It’d be an easy way to whip up their idiot base.
Not the only country Liberia uses the imperial system too.
I think its more odd that many countries use a mix (e.g. the UK with units like stones and some lengths in imperial while others are not)
It’s mainly older people that use imperial in my experience. Though we still have things like miles for roads.
I only know this because of Archer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIWDVuHDpq0
I’m old enough to remember when they tried to convert us to metric. I can tell you why.
People tried to force it on us and we don’t need the metric system for daily use. Trying to force people to use it isn’t going to work. Now, personally, I’d prefer if measurements on rulers and in cars were still given in both systems.
Metric advocates tend to be smug and insulting towards anyone not using the metric system. I have seen this myself more than once. Calling a whole nation stupid because they use a different but functional system of measurement is hardly a good strategy for converting them to your system.
I learned the metric system in school. I understand that the metric system is superior in many sciences. I have strong interests in anthropology. And here I am at 55 and I have never, not once, needed to use metric. Bone measurements are often given in metric but it’s not such a big issue that I need to wholly convert to metric.
My question is, what’s the big deal? Is the metric system a religion? I’ve seen evangelical Christians less intent on converting people. Why?
The main reason it annoys me is because a lot of English-language recipes online are written by USAmericans and therefore use imperial units that I have to convert. I’ve also noticed that they seem to measure everything in cups even for things where it makes no sense to use volume (flour is a common one—isn’t baking supposed to be precise? Flours can have different densities, air pockets, etc). I find ounces really confusing because they can be volume or mass.
Also, imperial is not standardised, so different countries have different amounts for a cup, an ounce, a pint, etc. I guess I can check the recipe author’s country and then convert to metric. But I just find it confusing. Can’t we just all use the same units that are nice and easy to use together since they’re powers of 10?
It’s way easier to bake in ounces, IME
Metric is designed more for calculating on paper. For things using your hands like baking and carpentry, customary units are better. They’re designed for that.
The first time I encountered a baking recipe with ounces, I looked up ounces as I didn’t know what they were. Imperial units aren’t taught in a lot of countries. The Wikipedia article said ounces could be mass or volume, and also had different values in different countries. So I was just very confused as to what the author meant.
Everybody knows what a ml is, what a gram is, etc. They have the same value everywhere. There’s no ambiguity. What is “customary” for you is a confusing system imposed on the rest of the world who want to understand what you mean.
Yeah no they’re just more confusing.
This is the big deal.
These people didn’t need to die because people can’t see how doing something that makes it easier to communicate important information was too boring to bother with.
This is the same fucking stupidity to resist for literally no good reason simply because it would benefit literally everyone.
Because "less people will need to die for dumb reasons. Less sons and daughters will die after their own children are in the ground. It might not be a lot but it includes some of the smartest and most capable people wouldn’t have had to be blown to smithereens.
Vapourized in an instant, because you and everyone like you in this regard, are to fucking stupid to see the obvious benefits of choosing not to impose a handicap on endeavoring the biggest projects in human history.
And having the fucking gall to ask, what’s even the big deal?
I’m almost 100% that wasn’t because of metric or not using it.
I believe NASA had a disaster involving metric vs imperial conversion issues but the Challenger had nothing to do with that
cringe
See his third paragraph about being smug and insulting.
If your point is “but you’re mean” then you don’t have a point.
Ok shitwood
Did you really have to americanise my name to get the pun? Embarrassing.
For something as standard as math and science; it would be beneficial to have consistency across the whole board.
Im American and learned the metric system and it was helpful with science. I completly bombed the A.C.T but I scored in the top 3% in the science category.
At least some of the drugs in Americas still use the metric system. Thanks MDMA and LSD. Meth too I guess since people buy points aka 100mg
base 10 is way better than whatever the fuck cups, pints, ounces, different ounces, and so on are
Functionally, what’s better about it? I mean, really.
way easier to learn/remember or to convert things in your head. less chance of getting it wrong.
but once you’ve spent years and years getting used to the mess that’s US customary measurements, you’ve already put the work in, so metric doesnt look that much easier (and if you’re unfamiliar with it, will look downright harder).Is it that much easier? I think y’all make US customary out to be more complicated than it is.
Fractional math of a US tape measure is certainly more complicated than it needs to be. I’d rather just add and subtract directly than find the common denominator and subtract that in my head.
US car manufacturers got halfway through converting to metric, but decided to keep a few things that require SAE tools, cluttering up a garage or shop with slightly different tools.
Ounces vs fluid ounces is infuriating. So is having a recipe call for a pint of blueberries but blueberries are sold by the dry pint. Making larger or smaller portions in grams/weight is way easier than figuring out what sort of measuring spoon combinations you need for making a smaller/larger portion of a quart ingredient.
The only thing on US cars that isn’t metric these days may be bolt threads, but I’m pretty sure even those are metric now, except maybe for wheel nuts.
it’s so complicated i definitely don’t remember ounces in a pint or quart or yards in a mile, let alone any of the less common ones despite living in this shithole.
division by 10 is the easiest division you can have in base 10
When have you ever needed to know yards in a mile?
less often than knowing the mass of a volume of water would have been useful, which is trivial in metric.
yes, it’s generally easier to remember 10 as the conversion number and nothing else, and it’s also easier not to have to add/multiply fractions of an inch in your head.
this also works between types of units, so it’s pretty simple to remember that
10cm^3i’m a fucking idiot, it’s a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm cube, so 1000cm^3 is 1l is ~1kg of water, for example.I already know how many cups to a pint, pints to a quart, and quarts to a gallon there are bad fractions are so simple that we learn them in the 1st grade.
it’s still more stuff to remember than you have to in metric. but yes, of course, now that you’ve already spent years memorizing this shit and practicing fraction addition/multiplication in your head a lot, it seems easy to you.
Because metric is in base 10
The American system of crazy random measuring is in base 16, base 12, on and on it goes
Only a complete dingbat would think there’s anything ok with keeping that tradition
Kinda seems like you answered your own question…
