The base 12 numbering system is far more practical for trades that transact in halves, thirds, quarters, and sixths.<p>12 inches, dozen eggs, 24 hours, 360 degree circle is 30 sets of 12...<p>If it weren't for the human justification of having 10 fingers on our hands, the base 10 metric system may not have gained traction at all.
I used to think the US would go metric, but more recently I'm not sure. The biggest question is what is the advantage for every day purposes? For example, a foot is a more useful measurement than the meter. Fahrenheit is more useful than Celsius (I know Celisus is not technically metric). Pounds are more useful than kilos (a best it's a wash). I don't see why grams beat ounces.<p>I just don't see the value of metric for everyday purposes. For science, yes, but not for everyday measurement.
Whenever a non-American brings this up to me as a negative point about America, I love saying the following:<p>"There are two types of countries in the world: Those that use the metric system and those that have been to the Moon.(1)"<p>(1)I purposely leave Liberia out of it. Unfortunately, I think it still might be a few years before the LSA gets to the moon.
One fascinating thing I discovered a few years ago: Lego Technic is a combination of both metric and imperial units. Hole centers are 8mm apart from each other. But hole diameters are 4.85mm, perfectly sized for a 10-32 (size based on inches) screw.
Ask anyone form the UK their height, weight, or for a glass of beer. Feet/inches, stone (America never really adopted that) and some scale of pint would be the reply.<p>Yet ask them to do a calculation in these measurements would result in looks of scorn, "THAT'S INSANE' in the words of Moss from IT Crowd.<p>Because we calculate in metric, and that's because all textbooks post late 70s were in metric and 'new pence' [1].<p>Fahrenheit is largely dead as a common measurement in day-to-day conversation, pint the least likely to disappear, as it's treated as a countable unit, nor an interval scale; on that matter, probably stone too.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(British_pre-decimal_coin)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_(British_pre-decimal_coi...</a>
The EU takes pride in multilingualism. Bilingualism is said to be a core part of Canadian identity. Children are encouraged to learn multiple languages. Yet for some reason diversity in measurement systems is bad?<p>The US uses two measurement systems. As a practical matter, those who need to use metric do so. Many sporting events are metric. Much commerce is metric. Food labels are metric.<p>I have never seen why this is a problem. Most other folks don't either, which is why we haven't chosen to do stupid stuff like run around and change road signs or insist that people use particular measurements.<p>Oh, and the story about how the spacecraft crashed does not make a convincing case. Any aerospace contractor worth its salt would check all its units of measure. Being entirely metric does nothing to alleviate this burden. Reporting a measure in centimeters rather than meters will get you the same problem. Units of measure must be labeled, period.
Rather than reiterating a lot of what I've said previously, I'm reposting my greatest hits from previous discussions on this topic: hope that is okay.<p>§<p>The US rarely uses metric in it's popular culture. Weather reports are in Fahrenheit, movies almost always use miles and pounds. By any measure of cultural output that you export that I've seen (and Australia is a huge consumer of your popular culture) you do not use metric.<p>§<p>In Australia we started metrication in 1971[1] with 1974 being the effective tipping point when all road signs were changed.<p>Being born in the early 70's, I have a rough understanding of imperial measurement units. I can roughly understand if something is a few inches or a few feet, but can never remember how many inches in a foot, and have no concept of relation between feet and miles. Miles I understand as a bit over 1.5kms. The only length measurements we tend to still give in imperial is a person's height in feet and inches. The concept that over six foot is tall, and under five is getting to be short (for men at least) has such utility that it's stuck. Official documents will use metric though, usually centimetres.<p>Weight is similar. Kilograms rule, except when talking about the weight of newborns which will still often be given in pounds and ounces informally. But give me anything else in pounds and I have no idea (very frustrating when that happens in movies.)<p>Similarly Celsius rules. I know 100°F is a hot day, but wont boil an egg, and 0°F is colder than a mother-in-law's kiss, but those are rough approximations, and anything between those two I have to convert.<p>Gallons is a foreign language.<p>However all the colloquialisms such as giving an inch and taking a mile are still common.<p>And yet somehow despite all this, the world continued to spin.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia</a><p>§<p>Just an interesting aside, measurements in construction are almost always given in either metres or millimetres, never centimetres (at least in Australia.)<p>So that would be 914.4mm and 1219.2mm respectively (or 1.2192m I guess).<p>The wisdom of this was explained to me by my builder father that metres and millimetres are orders of magnitude far enough apart that you can usually figure out which is which without too much difficulty in a specification even if they are not annotated properly. Centimetres fall close enough to in between that it can be confusing. Plus only using two standard units of measure (one for small stuff, another for large) is less potential confusion then using three.<p>§<p>Now if we could only stop anybody using m/d/y date formats...
Url changed from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-doesnt-use-metric-2016-6" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-doesnt-use-metric-...</a>, which points to this.