- #1
SW VandeCarr
- 2,195
- 80
Officially, the US adopted metric units as the legal standard in 1866, but never seriously attempted to implement a plan to phase out "customary" units. As a result, the US is the only industrialized nation which still uses non-metric units widely in commerce and law.
www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/upload/1136a.pdf
A while back a British member posted opinions about this and was met with a tongue-in-cheek defense of inches (2.54 cm), ounces and pints. I joined in, pointing out that if we used a base 2 rather than base 10, one mile is close to [itex]2^{16}[/itex] inches (63360/65536 or 0.966796875 mile). There have been a number of initiatives to "go metric" in the past which have gone nowhere.
Can the the US continue to use non-metric units indefinitely as long as it can manufacture to metric specifications (for export purposes) and use metric units in scientific and at least some engineering applications?
www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/upload/1136a.pdf
A while back a British member posted opinions about this and was met with a tongue-in-cheek defense of inches (2.54 cm), ounces and pints. I joined in, pointing out that if we used a base 2 rather than base 10, one mile is close to [itex]2^{16}[/itex] inches (63360/65536 or 0.966796875 mile). There have been a number of initiatives to "go metric" in the past which have gone nowhere.
Can the the US continue to use non-metric units indefinitely as long as it can manufacture to metric specifications (for export purposes) and use metric units in scientific and at least some engineering applications?