Will the US ever go metric?

Ivan Seeking

Yes, for everything except missions to Mars.

There are so many units of measure that are unique to a particular field that metric vs standard is only a small part of the picture. For example, frequency can mean per second, per minute, or even per hour or year, depending on the subject. If you don't know the subject, you may not know which frequency they mean. At least with general measures of length or distance, mass or weight, temp, torque, force, speed... the units of measure are generally specified, and usually for both standard and metric. I have to jump back and forth constantly and hardly even notice anymore.

Curious3141

When I drove a rental car in the US, I was thankful I was able to mentally multiply by 1.6 and 5/8 fairly quickly.

Pkruse

I'm a mechanical design engineer. I've worked for many companies, designing everything from wood chippers to jet engines. In all cases the default has been to design in inches unless the customer wanted metric. About 20% want metric, but most of those really want the design in inches, but show all the inches converted to mm on the drawing. Only our European customers want full metric. All the US government work is required to be in metric, but the first thing that happens in any new government program is that the civil servants get a waiver to design in inches.

Inches are a whole lot cheaper in the US because everything is designed around them, and the workforce is conditioned to think and work in them--the automotive industry not withstanding, since they seem to have done well with metric.

So I'd say that inches are here to stay.

I'm equally comfortable with both systems, and don't really care which system someone wants to use. They are both equally good. If anyone has a preference for one over the other then that just indicates that person understands one better than the other.

skeptic2

In fact, since the English system has always been used, there has never been a reason to pass a law recognizing it as a legal system of measurement as was done with the metric system.

I used to work in a manufacturing plant in Mexico. Most of our incoming material came from China but the design was all done in Chicago in English units. We encountered numerous errors because suppliers in China and also Mexican workers didn't always understand our specs. When I suggested to the chief engineer that we should add metric dimensions to our drawings he replied that since our cartons used English measurements, everything should be English. (?)

At my current company all the engineers received a company directive that measurements in all published materials for domestic consumption must be in English units. I responded that I refuse to specify transmitter output in horsepower. I have been tempted to use more obscure English units such as the line, digit, finger, nail, palm, shaftment, link, span or ell.

Fortunately the FCC uses metric measurements for everything including tower heights. Oddly the FAA uses English units for tower heights so we still have to convert.

SW VandeCarr

I think the real problem is having two sets of units. (Note I'm talking about units of measurement, not a "metric system" such as SI). In the OP, I asked if the US could get away with not converting to metric. With the kind of confusion you describe, I'm fairly sure that trying to deal with two systems is not sustainable if the US wants to remain a leading economic power. To the extent metric units are used in the US, such as the liter for Coke and Pepsi, it's because these companies have decided that it's too inefficient to work in two sets of units. These companies have huge overseas markets and they chose to market their products by the liter worldwide, including the US. The auto industry has done the same thing, and any industrial products that are exported are made to just metric specifications afiak. The conversion, such as it is, seems to be driven by industry, not government.

Companies with largely domestic markets can be expected to resist conversion because it's expensive and customers may object. In real estate, English units are deeply embedded. I've never heard anyone use the word "hectare" in the US for land measure. Yet few Americans can tell you exactly what an acre is. It's 43,560 square feet. Now why doesn't everyone know that?

BTW, this number has an ugly square root: 208.7103256 ft., so square acres are not very convenient.

Feodalherren

Not really... There's nothing to understand, it's just about having to deal with fractions vs moving the decimal point. Metric is superior in every way.

tiny-tim

even for eggs?

dydxforsn

Let's measure every quantity in meters and use the fine structure constant.

<.<

rduarte

Especially for eggs. :)

skeptic2

I was wondering if metric countries fail to distinguish between mass and weight as much as the U.S does. I asked my brother in law who used to teach science at a middle school level in Mexico how they compare the weight of an astronaut on earth and on the moon. in kg or in Newtons. He answered that the weight comparison is done in kg, he didn't even know what Newtons are.

Ryan_m_b

It's interesting to note how strange the UK is in this regard, it's like we're stuck in transition. For example it wouldn't raise any eyebrows for me to say "Ben is four metres away from me and six foot tall. He weighs thirteen stone but he's about to eat a kilo of sugar. In one hand he has a pint of beer and the other a three litre can of petrol. In his spare time he trains as a one hundred metre sprinter at the track five miles down the road. But enough about Ben I'm about to buy a fourteen ounze steak containing twenty of my thirty daily grams of fat."

SW VandeCarr

You mean like a metric dozen?

I'm curious as to whether the UK still uses acres for land measure. Ads for UK real estate give interior areas in square meters, but I'm guessing you're still using acres if you're still using miles.

Containment

Real reason is nobody wants to live through the nightmare of trying to retrain the parents of the kids who grow up using metric. You thought getting grandma to email was hard? Just you wait till she has to learn metric omg.

jcsd

I think most land is sold by the acre, though sometimes the size is quoted in hectares.

tiny-tim

yup!

see for example the royal institute of chartered surveyors report "rural market survey" at http://www.rics.org/ruralmarketsurvey

Jimmy Snyder

Do you expect me to mow the grass on my meter? Or drink my coffee from a quarter-liter?

Monique

Grandma will be just fine. Since 10 years ago 23 countries have changed their currency to the Euro, people adjusted to the new money and change in value just fine.

If the system changed to metric and instead of a gallon of water they would be getting 4 liters, do you really think it would take long for people to realize the quantity they'd get for a certain value?