Imperial System (1 Viewer)

[Cronk]

If America is the most technological country and the third biggest (by population), why is it that America is one of three countries who adopt the imperial system? The other 2 are Myanmar and Liberia.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

But I remember in my lifetime that Congress actually considered adopting the Metric system and it was determined that it would disrupt too many things to which folks had become accustomed. Of course you have to realize that Congress won't vote FOR anything that is a good idea. It's not in their blood as far as I can tell.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Retooling everything would have been a monumental task. Of course, it gets worse as time goes on but now we have computers so it is easier to convert on the fly and also to keep both measurements.

 

[CJ_London]

Many sawmills still have machinery calibrated to the imperial system and in the uk many will still refer to ‘2 by 4’ rather than ‘50 by 100’ (and in fact since structural timber has to be graded it is actually 45 x 95)

 

[Minty]

We still have both in the UK, but in theory are metric.

However, I still get a pint when I go the pub, and I still want to know the MPG for my car despite buying the petrol/diesel priced in litres.
I'm of a certain age though, so I understand both. Youngsters are much more metric centric

 

[NauticalGent]

it was determined that it would disrupt too many things to which folks had become accustomed.

But not before they made my life at school (6th grade at the time) a living HELL trying to shove it down our throats. I don't know how many years this full-court press endured, but I was glad when it was over!

 

[JonXL]

I don't know if America "is the most technological country", but I see no reason why being so should preclude our use of one system of measures over another.

Besides that, most "technological" settings use the metric system anyway.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I still want to know the MPG for my car despite buying the petrol/diesel priced in litres.

Some years ago my husband and three friends took the golf trip of their dreams in the UK and Scotland. My husband shot the best round of his life at the old course at Saint Andrews. The one little glitch in the trip was that they thought they were getting distances in kilometers but they were in miles. That left they with a lot of white knuckle driving.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

But not before they made my life at school (6th grade at the time) a living HELL trying to shove it down our throats. I don't know how many years this full-court press endured, but I was glad when it was over!

In college I had to learn both. When dealing with chemistry, you do things in metric units anyway. I can't begin to tell you how many 100 ml and 1 liter flasks I had, though I guarantee you I had a lot of them.

I was always fascinated by the somewhat arbitrary definition of a meter (or metre if you were French): The "metre" was defined as one ten-millionth of the surface distance from the north pole to the equator, on a line through Paris. Why not through London? (Answer: Because they were still on Imperial measure at the time.) Could have been worse, I suppose. What we have is 1/4th of the circumference of the Earth on a line theoretically passing through both poles.

 

[Minty]

Some years ago my husband and three friends took the golf trip of their dreams in the UK and Scotland. My husband shot the best round of his life at the old course at Saint Andrews. The one little glitch in the trip was that they thought they were getting distances in kilometers but they were in miles. That left they with a lot of white knuckle driving.

Many years ago, a boss of mine had a Porsche 911 Turbo. It was French special edition 2 of 10 made. Fearsomely quick. (Left hand drive which is not the right side for us in the UK obviously, but he was used to that), oddly enough he did under his breath complain about the fuel consumption, even though it was a weekend car.

We came back from lunch one day when he had brought it into work, and I casually asked him what Mpg he was getting, and he said, "not sure not great" but he had just filled it up, and he had done about 275 miles on the tank. Some quick sums and he was getting roughly 18mpg! as he said - not great.

It was only a few days later when he came in that rather embarrassedly had to mention that he forgot the speedo was in kilometers.
His 275 miles was more like 170! His recent MPG was an astonishingly bad 11 !

He sold it not long after.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Speaking of Imperial measure and confusion about which one to use: If you look up the "Gimli Glider" incident, you would read about an air near-disaster in which an airliner ran out of fuel because someone did the math in pounds but should have used kilograms (or vice-versa). The jet ran out of fuel in mid-air and became a big metal glider. The jet pilot was also a glider pilot and somehow managed to bring the plane in on an abandoned runway in Canada. A few bumps and bruises but everyone walked away from it.

 

[NauticalGent]

During a port visit in Souda Bay, Greece, we were on a bus taking us from fleet landing into town. Behind me sat a young man who had never been out of the US before.

While passing a Q8 petrol station, he noticed the prices which were , if I recollect accurately, .76 - at the time 1 US gallon was about $1. He made a remark:
"Wow, gas is CHEAP over here!" Before I could reply, somebody else said "That is per liter, not gallon..."

There was a slight delay while he took this in and then he said "Oh yeah, they DO that over here don't they?" Still cracks me up to this day...

 

[Isaac]

If America is the most technological country and the third biggest (by population), why is it that America is one of three countries who adopt the imperial system? The other 2 are Myanmar and Liberia.

Because being "technological" doesn't necessarily mean you adopt every single thing that comes along down the pipeline.

Just like being in the tech world (you and me) doesn't mean we'll adopt everything little gadget that comes along, many of which are nonsense and totally unneeded (to my opinion). In fact the people with the most tech gadgets seem to be the least tech sophisticated - they require a machine that does everything for them because they know nothing. The more you know, the less you need the machine to decide FOR you.

 

[Isaac]

Having said that, I do prefer the metric system. It would take me an annoying while to get used to, after which it would be fine - and makes much more sense.

I love symmetry.

 

[Isaac]

During a port visit in Souda Bay, Greece, we were on a bus taking us from fleet landing into town. Behind me sat a young man who had never been out of the US before.

While passing a Q8 petrol station, he noticed the prices which were , if I recollect accurately, .76 - at the time 1 US gallon was about $1. He made a remark:
"Wow, gas is CHEAP over here!" Before I could reply, somebody else said "That is per liter, not gallon..."

There was a slight delay while he took this in and then he said "Oh yeah, they DO that over here don't they?" Still cracks me up to this day...

Gas used to be much more expensive in Mexico, but we exceeded their prices during the worst of Bidenomics about a year ago.
Still takes me a minute or two to do the calculation when we are in Mexico and I wonder who's worse