How Can We Convert the US to the Metric System?

thesolo asks: "Despite past efforts of the 1970s and 1980s, the United States remains one of only three countries (others are Liberia and Myanmar) that does not use the metric system. Staying with imperial measurements has only served to handicap American industry and economy. Attempts to get Americans using the Celsius scale, or putting up speed limits in kilometers per hour have been squashed dead. Not only that, but some Americans actually see metrication efforts as an assault on 'our way' of measuring. I personally deal with European scientists on a daily basis, and find our lack of common measurement to be extremely frustrating. Are we so entrenched with imperial units that we cannot get our fellow citizens to simply learn something new? What are those of us who wish to finally see America catch up to the rest of the world supposed to do? Are there any organizations that we may back, or any pro-metric legislators who we can support?"

Comments

Metric

[certel]

The reason that the United States doesn't switch to the Metric system is because 99% of the people are to ignorant or are not intelligent enough to understand.

Re:What's stopping you?

[that this is not und]

Shouldn't you have capitalized the 's' in Scientist?

(hint: this wasn't a grammar/spelling troll)

Re:American scientists use metric

[gay358]

Maybe oversized food containders are part of the reason why Americans are so fat.

Re:What's stopping you?

[geekoid]

If you have to break the units down, then they are too big. .3 degree in celsius can mean the difference between needing to take coat or not.

Farenheit makes perfect sense. The fact that you make no effort to understand it means you are ridiculous and nonsensical to discuss it.

Re:Euro-homos

[Spikeles]

Formula: Tc=(5/9)*(Tf-32)

They don't see or touch the rest of the world, so, it pretty much doesn't exist to them.

And that my friend is one of the core reasons of why everybody hates the US.

Re:Metric Imperialism - Globalisation the goal?

[cluckshot]

There is a problem in measuring units. It has to do with physical space. Despite the efforts of the Metric crowd to say otherwise, the USA is measured off in a physical system that will be here forever. Miles are obvious even from space. The issue is that many things if you shift systems will remain in fact. This is the famous question, "Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?"

I have worked extensively in metric and in the US Standard system. Inches and Feet are space division systems and frankly they have a lot of reality behind them. Metric on the other hand is pure arbitrary. Metric works with calculators. It is fine but it has no reality behind it. The famous fractions complained about so loudly actually are ratio and proportion related number systems.

Changing the USA to metric distance measurement would only confuse billions of legal records, cause immense cost in new traffic signs and confuse the US citizenry for no good cause. Changing form SAE thread systems on bolts would comply with the rest of the world, but it causes the thread strength to drop nearly in half. SAE Bolts are really much more effective because of the space division rules in the math that enforced their construction. It actually works out to proper ratios for force dissipation over distance in physical materials. Sorry for the Metric fans but it is true. Changing the USA from its bulk commodity measurement is also just silly. I have been elsewhere in the world where the metric was emphasized. 454 grams of salt is sold. It is still a pound. Sure 1 liter bottles of Coke abound. This stuff really has no reality. Consumer goods will be sold at whatever size the market wants no matter what. Change the numbers and it will move right back to the original size. Just the markings will change. Evidence those funky 4.5 ounce bottles of stuff and the strange quantities of grams as well.

As to the USA going Metric, our money was nearly the first in the world to go metric. The USA seems to be quite able to be metric when it wants to be and not when it doesn't want to be.

In construction I have seen the buildings with walls 2 meters tall. The problem I have is that I am 1.88 meters tall. I don't fit. 96 inches is a minimum for me. Play your 2.5 meters if you want but USA buildings are 96 inches standard. Air flow in the smaller buildings suffers from serious Geometric problems. It causes illness. Enforcing stupid rules on people who don't want them is arrogant. Enforcing measurement that doesn't fit the world of a people doesn't work either.