HI, this was a very interesting article, but I am curious why Americans always think us brits use the metric system
Granted mainland Europe uses metric pretty much exclusively, but we only dip our toes in the European waters and although some of measurements have become metric over the years, we still maintain fierce national pride in our britishness.
It always surprises American visitors to these shores that all our street signs show distances in miles and speed in miles per hour
We still go to the pub and buy a pint of beer, yesterday I bought a 4 pint carton of milk - granted its capacity was printed in both pints and litres, but it was EXACTLY 4 pints, and some weird fraction of litres that I didn’t even pay attention to
I know my height in feet and inches and my weight in pounds, but couldn’t even begin to guess what they would be in kilograms and metres
Yet the belief persists in the US of A that we are a bunch of metric heads - what’s the story ?
Link. And while we Americans commonly associate the metric system with Bolshevism and the guillotine, there are areas of the culture–drug deals come to mind–where metric is actually preferred.
I remember hearing this on a how stuff works podcast about the metric system. We already did in change, but we just didn’t let everyone know,. The united states no longer keeps a physical reference materials for the inch, fl oz, etc. They are all exact metric amounts, ie a inch is 2.54 cm exactly. This way the metric system is the base unit around the world and we all use the SI standards for measurement, we just obfuscate it for americans
First, welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, dave658, we’re glad to have you here.
Second, for future ref, when you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers to provide a link to the column in question. Saves search time and helps keep us on the same page. No biggie, Krokodile provided it in the second post, and I edited it on the bottom of your initial post just to be clear. You’ll know for next time.
Finally: I think Cecil was referencing that the UK adopted the metric system but uses a sort of “both” combination, and suggesting the US could go the same way. The trick is to balance the universal (metric) standard with the tradition that ain’t going away, and the UK seems to have done that.
As for the vast majority of Americans, I suppose the (wrongly) think that the UK is part of Europe and therefore metric. Hah. Those of us who have been to the UK (many many times, for meself) know better. My favorite was a TIMES notice (I think from Victorian era) that “storms in the Channel have cut off the continent.”
"2015 is the 200th anniversary of Waterloo, and I have suggested that we Brits celebrate it by:-
An in-out referendum on the EU.
Reintroduction of our fantastic Imperial weights and measures system-so divisible by so many numbers.
Also the reintroduction of £sd (ditto)
I’ve had few takers so far, but this may be because it’s the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta, and the Govt. ain’t got the cash. You’ll be glad to know the Master of Ceremonies for M.C. over here is a Yank. Bob ?- ex-boss of Gallup Polls.
I was delighted to see that my hire car over there has its c.c. measured in cubic inches- something we’ve not used in car engines since about 1906.
I could bang on about Waterloo, a battle that means all things to all men-but you’ll doubtless be delighted I won’t.
As an optical engineer and designer (one who works with lasers and astronomical telescopes, not eyeglasses), I always found it amusing that my designs always seemed to come out with lens diameters and focal lengths and other dimensions in multiples of 25.4 mm–being that the US manufacturers of stock lenses and mounting equipment still prefer ‘English’ dimensions. That being said, if people only thought about one inch as being ‘about 25 mm’, 1 meter being ‘about 40 inches’, and 60 mph being ‘about 100 kilometers per hour’ the US might be a saner place in the world vision.
The US uses metric on 35mm cameras; same for medium-format, except that the film size is in inches. I don’t know about the large-format stuff; I’ve never used one—heck, I haven’t even been shot with one in 50 years.
By the way, an inch is 2.54 centimeters unless you’re a US surveyor, in which case an inch is 10000/3937 centimeters (approximately 2.54000508001016).
Simply put, we know that our neighbors to the north and south switched over, and Japan and France and Italy and other places we buy cars from, and we developed the notion that the entire rest of the world went metric. We think we’re the last hold out.
Depends on the drug. Cocaine is sold by the gram or kilo (or at least, so movies and tv tell me), but pot is either sold by the ounce (or faction thereof), or simply by the dollar: a “dime bag” being $10 worth.
This ambiguity in the naming of traditional units – the fact that several different units have the same name, which can potentially lead to confusion – is one of the reasons I like the metric system. There are no nautical kilometers or troy grams or dry liters.
Actually, the split between the International Inch and the (US-only) Surveyor’s Inch dates only to 1959, when the US Inch and the Imperial Inch were both suppressed in favor of the International Inch, but American surveyors refused to go along.
Nice sentiment, but people don’t buy soft drinks by volume… they buy them by the “each”.
“Get me 14 liters of Nehi, willya?” just does not happen. People ask for an integral number of bottles, and the volumetric content is irrelevant except for pricing comparison… using the number of fluid ounces printed very conveniently right below the metric volume. Or with the unit price pre-calculated and displayed by the retailer on the shelf price tag… which is usually computed on the per-ounce basis as well.
Metric succeeded in this case precisely because it’s pragmatically meaningless.
I remember back in the late 70’s early 80’s when we made a feeble attempt, and failed.
Gas stations began selling gas in liters … only, they sold less gas than the neighboring stations that still sold it in gallons.
I worked for a major car company, who was trying to convert to metric internally. However, rather than replacing all the hardware and tools, they just relabeled them in metric. Oboy, everyone loved that. I need a 1/4" wrench. Oh wait, that’s … um … screw it; I’ll bring my tools from home.
I think it’s a shame and wish we’d convert, but I have to admit that the powers-of-2 setup for many kinds of measures does make a lot of sense. Until I want to make a 2/3 serving, that is. Oh well.
Some acknowledgement, but must dispute somewhat. For buying stuff, it doesn’t make any difference if it’s labelled in metric or ‘customary’ units. We’ll buy six two-liter bottles of soda and two one-gallon cartons of milk not because we care about liters or gallons, but because its on the shopping list, and someone has decided that six of the soda will be enough for the birthday party. They at least had some idea of the size of a two-liter bottle.
This matters
The Mars lander which crashed because of a mixup over metric/imperial units
The nuclear missile silos where you couldn’t shut the door because some goon thought a meter was the same as a yard.
The nasty argument I had about tolerancing with my US based boss where I was saying plus or minus a “mil” was ridculously lax (he meant 1/1000 inch)
I find it hard to understand why the US of all places would cling on to imperial units.
