# why woun't USA go metric **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 30, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544 "2002-04-30T20:23:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/21 "2002-04-30T23:10:16Z")
yes, with all that, why would anyone want to change??? ---
**Author:** ![POWER\_station](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@POWER\_station](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/POWER_station)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/22 "2002-04-30T23:20:28Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by tracer \* \*\*POWER\_station wrote, in the OP: Now, hold on just a cotton-pickin’ minute here! SI is **not** the same as the system of units used in most “metric-speaking” countries. Consider these differences: [ul][li]The kilogram is a unit of **mass** in SI, while the SI unit of **force** is the Newton. In most metric countries, the kilogram is treated as, and used as, a unit of **weight or force** , and the Newton is not used directly.[/li] [li]The SI unit of volume is the cubic meter. In most metric countries, the unit of volume is the liter (litre).[/li] [li]The SI unit of temperature is the Kelvin. In most metric countries, temperatures are measured in degrees Celsius.[/li] [li]The SI unit of velocity is the meter (metre) per second. In most metric countries, velocities are measured in kilometers (kilometres) per hour.[/ul] \*\*[/li][/QUOTE] I think kelvin is used in science only (this scale opperates with an absolute point zero). Metres per second is also used by scientists. -To measure the Speed of light for example. Cubic is used on more abstract fields (mathematics) while litre is the most common measure. Cubic is often used thoug. Motor size on cars, air-pollution, constructions etc. I often hear that people uses both cubic and litre to describe the sizes of a motor. Litre is often used to measue liquid. (water for example) “horse-power” is often used to describe how fast a car is - or how powerfull it is. (but that’s not the metric system) I seam to remember that they used KP (instead of KG) where I took my driving lessons. -The power that was the limit you could used on the break pedal. Seams to remember that it was 100 KP. (isn’t this almost the same as KG ?) ---
**Author:** ![POWER\_station](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@POWER\_station](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/POWER_station)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/23 "2002-04-30T23:27:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Whack-a-Mole \* > \*\* > > I don’t know what would make it a more ‘scientific’ measuring system unless you mean that it is the preferred measuring system used by most scientists. Beyond that any measurement is pretty arbitrary. Pick any length, volume, etc. and call them what you will and you have a new measuring system. > > Maybe it’s because thet metric system is based on units of ten that make it seem more practical…I dunno. \*\* I’m not sure about this, but isn’t it because the metric system have an abstract origin while pound and gallon have a concrete origin. (maybe I’m on this ice here) ---
**Author:** ![Phoenix\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Phoenix\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phoenix_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/24 "2002-04-30T23:29:22Z")
Thank you Tracer. My head hurts for having read all that… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![korath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@korath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/korath)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/25 "2002-04-30T23:30:02Z")
I agree that we keep some and get rid of others. I like using meters instead of feet. It sounds nicer somehow, but I just can’t bring myself to say centimeter in conversation. I like meters and inches, kilometers and litres, pounds and ounces, but I just can’t get that whole teaspoon/tablespoon thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/26 "2002-04-30T23:31:30Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by POWER\_station_ > I believe that inside every American there is an European trying to come out With just a slight knowledge of past threads and posts, and after reading a little between the lines I conclude that this must be the real topic of the OP. Hence, I won’t apologize for what could otherwise seem like a hijack. **POWER\_station** by some questionable standards of cultural cliché, Americans _are_ European. By some obvious historical fact they are not trying to _come out_, they’re trying to move on and do something else, something new. The secondary question of the OP, has already been [answered by Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_013.html). Read ‘The Straight Dope’…it makes a lot of sense. Sparc ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Kahuna_Burger)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/27 "2002-04-30T23:31:45Z")
Because my car gets 40 rods to a hogshead and that’s the way I likes it! ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/28 "2002-04-30T23:53:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*Tars Tarkas wrote: > You mean like Ronald Reagan did in 1982, when he disbanded the U.S. Metric Board and canceled its funding? (I can just see his reasoning now: “They use the metric system in the Soviet Union! It must be a Communist system!”) \*\* I knew I liked that guy for some reason! Go Ronnie! If the industrial sector has managed to balance the need to use metric measure for export, and still provide us Americans with the good 'ol measurments we want, why change? How does it improve my life at all if I suddenly have to give my weight in Newtons, or kg/9.8, or my height in meters? How does it improve American society to buy milk by the liter? It doesn’t. Changing something so intrinsic to society as its system of weights and measures, for the purely asthetic reason of making everything seem more orderly, with no positive effect at all on a manufacturing sector that has already found an efficient solution…this sounds like change just for the sake of change. The people who need to use metric already use it. Leave the rest of us alone. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/29 "2002-05-01T00:25:01Z")
All measurement systems are arbitrary. The whole thing is, shall we say, no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/30 "2002-05-01T00:29:33Z")
As long as we have sci-fi authors prattling on and on about how their massive starships are 2.8 or 3.9 or 4.32 kilometers long (or, better yet, saying 2800/3900/4320 meters long), we’ll eventually move on to the metric system. I mean, when was the last time you heard someone say that a Star Destroyer was a mile long, rather than 1600 meters? ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/31 "2002-05-01T00:40:35Z")
Well **POWER\_station** if the United States converted to the metric system, it would give you one less thing to criticize America for. We have to make sure that you occassionally have something to complain about other than the terrible USA corrupting the world and suppressing the defenseless and down trodden. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/32 "2002-05-01T00:48:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by POWER\_station \* > \*\* > > I’m not sure about this, but isn’t it because the metric system have an abstract origin while pound and gallon have a concrete origin. (maybe I’m on this ice here) \*\* Actually, the units in the metric system are: the meter: based on the diameter of the Earth the second: based on the rotation of the Earth the gram: based on the meter and the specific gravity of water the Kelvin: based on the specific heat of water etc. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/33 "2002-05-01T01:02:37Z")
Big Kahuna Burger wrote: > [@](#): > > Because my car gets 40 rods to a hogshead and that’s the way I likes it! \ Let’s see … one rod (also known as a “perch” or a “pole”) is 0.00313 miles … one hogshead is 63 U.S. liquid gallons … so … 40 rods to a hogshead is 40 x 0.00313 / 63 = **0.002 miles per gallon.** Man! I knew those new SUVs and monster-pickups were gas guzzlers, but I had no idea it was **this** bad! ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/34 "2002-05-01T01:37:19Z")
Believe it, Tracer! Ford is releasing a model next year called the “Exlaxian” that has a gasoline usage measured in IPG… Inches Per Gallon. Take THAT, environment!! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/35 "2002-05-01T01:44:57Z")
Are they also releasing an “International” version of the Exlaxian, with gasoline usage measured in centimeters per liter? ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/36 "2002-05-01T04:45:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by POWER\_station \* > \*\* > > I’m not sure about this, but isn’t it because the metric system have an abstract origin while pound and gallon have a concrete origin. (maybe I’m on this ice here) \*\* Would you believe it? According to the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ the size of one pound is utimately tied to an ancient measure - the grain. One pound was finally defined in the US as equal to 7000 grains. What was the grain? Well, it was the average weight of grains of dry wheat “taken from the middle of the ear.” The grain is now defined in terms of the metric system being equal to 0.065 grams. As has been pointed out in another post, one reason advanced for the advantage of the metric system was that it was based on reproduceable physical quantities instead of rather arbitrary things like the length of the king’s foot. Or at least at the time they were thought to be reproduceable. ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/37 "2002-05-01T07:32:51Z")
[Dave Barry] Remember when the U.S. was supposed to go metric and put up metric signs and people actually _shot the signs down_? Wasn’t that _great_? [/Dave Barry] ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/38 "2002-05-01T08:28:54Z")
My dad used to prattle on about how the US should never change to metric because that would be lowering ourselves to be more like the rest of the sinful world… ---
**Author:** ![Fox\_Moxin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/cdc98d/32.png) [@Fox\_Moxin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fox_Moxin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/39 "2002-05-01T16:07:18Z")
LAziness mostly. I’d have to memorise a whole new set of weights and lengths and such. I have more to this arguemnt, but i’m too lazy to type… ---
**Author:** ![manwithaplan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@manwithaplan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manwithaplan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2002, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544/40 "2002-05-01T16:23:51Z")
In Ireland, the roads signs are fun. Any distance sign erected in the last decade is in kilometres, but a lot of mile signs survive. Speed limits are still in miles, because we don’t want to change over while Northern Ireland still uses the imperial system. The speed limit signs are purely numerical so there’s no indication that they are in miles. In reality, I suspect we just do it to confuse the tourists. There is only one amendment I would suggest to weights and measures in the US - for the love of all that’s decent, will you make the pint bigger. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wount-usa-go-metric/106544.md?page=3)