Metric System and the US

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Metric System and the US

You gotta be kidding! Now you´ll also say that the Imperial system is better than the metric...

It's inertia, not preference. (Back when the metric system was new, it was "no way are we using a French system".)
Seriously, if all your tooling is for Imperial (since the British dropped it, it's now "SAE" or "U.S. customary"), there's no small amount of expense involved in changing, including the need to do things like stockpile replacement parts made to SAE dimensions. Businesses that aren't thinking of the export market don't like making expensive changes.
 
It's inertia, not preference. (Back when the metric system was new, it was "no way are we using a French system".)
Seriously, if all your tooling is for Imperial (since the British dropped it, it's now "SAE" or "U.S. customary"), there's no small amount of expense involved in changing, including the need to do things like stockpile replacement parts made to SAE dimensions. Businesses that aren't thinking of the export market don't like making expensive changes.

Sure, I can understand that.
But one can accept the system used in one´s country due to it being difficult and expensive to change, while still accepting that the system used in basically every other country is clearly superior!
:scold:
 
It's inertia, not preference. (Back when the metric system was new, it was "no way are we using a French system".)
Seriously, if all your tooling is for Imperial (since the British dropped it, it's now "SAE" or "U.S. customary"), there's no small amount of expense involved in changing, including the need to do things like stockpile replacement parts made to SAE dimensions. Businesses that aren't thinking of the export market don't like making expensive changes.

Yup, but other countries managed the change, it just takes a long time. I expect to walk into a shop and buy 2 metres of 48"-wide fabric, not because it's made in or for the US, but because nobody wants to replace equipment before it wears out. And people of my age and older still think in Imperial measures - Currency is decimal to me, so are temperatures, weights and volume measures, but if you ask my height, I'd give it in feet and inches, and if you asked the distance between two places, I'd give it in miles. And people manage to handle it just fine.

The problem is that it's dismissed because people think it has to happen overnight instead of just accepting that it takes a long time.
 
Metric System and the US

It is expensive to change, but it is also about time. It should begin in elementary schools. Kids should learn how to convert units from SAE to metric and then, as adults, use metric naturally and easily. Maybe after a whole generation feels comfortable with the metric system, the industry can catch up. But it has to start somewhere.
 
US is very slow with metrication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
I'm really puzzled why it can't be just done already. Even England did it.

We speak English in this forum because we all understand it. Likewise, most of the world understands metric. So English, centimeters, kilograms, liters and °C it is!
I surely prefer °C to °F. Interestingly enough, screen sizes are often measured in inches even in countries where inches aren't used for anything else :)

Kids should learn how to convert units from SAE to metric and then, as adults, use metric naturally and easily.

That's quite simple. Schools should just teach in metric. And imperial only as secondary. That's what England did. Otherwise this will never move anywhere.
 
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US is very slow with metrication: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
I'm really puzzled why it can't be just done already. Even England did it.
Schools should just teach in metric. And imperial only as secondary. That's what England did. Otherwise this will never move anywhere.

It's not a "can't" but a "won't". The "won't" comes from industries and trades that do not export, such as carpentry. You can't just tell Americans to change; at best, they'll just ignore you. You have to start doing things like using metric measurement on the job with apprentices; teaching it in schools will do no better than perpetuate the status quo.
 
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It's not a "can't" but a "won't". The "won't" comes from industries and trades that do not export, such as carpentry. You can't just tell Americans to change; at best, they'll just ignore you. You have to start doing things like using metric measurement on the job with apprentices; teaching it in schools will do no better than perpetuate the status quo.

Such things were already "told" in a number of ways. I.e. various laws were passed. Whether someone ignores it or not on the personal level is irrelevant. But if some production doesn't follow the law (for example doesn't use markings in metric), that already can be affected by the policy.

You have to start doing things like using metric measurement on the job with apprentices; teaching it in schools will do no better than perpetuate the status quo.

Making it mandatory in schools is the first necessary step. Not taking it is exactly what will keep the status quo.
 
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Such things were already "told" in a number of ways. I.e. various laws were passed. Whether someone ignores it or not on the personal level is irrelevant. But if some production doesn't follow the law (for example doesn't use markings in metric), that's already can be affected by the policy.

There are laws requiring goods to be labeled with both metric and customary units. There is no law permitting goods to be labeled with metric units only. (Hawaii is trying one.)

You are not going to tell carpenters to quit using inches and feet. They will tell you where to get off. They are bigger and stronger than you are and won't even tell you politely.

You would have to invoke the "commerce clause" to get a Federal law mandating metric in any industry. It worked for national defense, and the auto industry eventually saw metric was better, but that's as far as that works. Even if an administration tried and withstood all the rotten fruit and dead cats that would be thrown at them, it would not stand up in the courts, because many trades are not interstate commerce.
 
There are laws requiring goods to be labeled with both metric and customary units.

Yes, I mean these kind of laws. Not making it metric only right away (that's too much strain), but requiring both. The problem is with a lot of places where it not present in metric at all (temperature, distance, speed on the road signs and so on).

It worked for national defense, and the auto industry eventually saw metric was better, but that's as far as that works.

Other countries did it, so I don't buy the argument that it's impossible.
 
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Yes, I mean these kind of laws. Not making it metric only right away (that's too much strain), but requiring both. The problem is with a lot of places where it not present in metric at all (temperature, distance, speed on the road signs and so on).

Tried (in the 70s and 80s), with results that were an abject failure and without any level of popular support that would warrant a second try by any politician unwilling to risk a career-ending move.

Doing things the public doesn't see any value in just makes the government look foolish. Kind of like the mandate for exit numbers on Federally funded highways. California never used exit numbers; we know exits by street names. The fact that Easterners think exit numbers are important enough to mandate them just reinforces the belief of Californians that there is no intelligent life east of the Colorado.
 
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Doing things the public doesn't see any value in just makes the government look foolish.

Let the government do the work and explain the value. So far I don't see them even try. In my experience, people admit the value of the metric system (it is more straightforward in usage). The usual discomfort comes from the fact that people were never taught to use it as the primary system. So again - education.
 
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The metric system is taught everywhere in the US in K-12 education. But there is nowhere to apply it outside of science classes, and there is no reinforcement at all outside of school. It's not education, but outside reinforcement, in public life and on the job, that needs to happen.

Saying "let the government do it" may work, sometimes, for urgent matters of public health, like prevention of smoking. But in general it runs afoul of the problem that the government is a creature of the people and does more or less (usually less than) what the people want it to do.
 
Metric System and the US

Discussion transferred from The Hairy Bear. Issues of converting to and applying the SI ("metric") system of weights and measures, particularly in reference to the USA, are on topic here. Please avoid statements that could be taken as politically inflammatory.
 
As I said, it's taught as a theoretical option, not as a primary system. And that makes a difference.

I don't agree; for it to gain any credibility as a primary system, it must be used outside of school. Otherwise it is just another useless thing that schools are obliged to teach.
 
@Guy N'wah: Sure it must be used outside as well. So for example, some states started making road signs using both systems. But this didn't catch up. And that's again government's work.
 

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