If the English use the 'metric system',what system do we use?

Question

what 'system' of measurement do we use? What is it called?

Answer 1

Believe it or not the web is not limited to the USA so who we is I assume you mean Afghanistan.
the Americana's use there own form of the imperial system with a smaller gallon, but since the rest of the world has switched over to the Metric system the USA is forced to use both systems with the imperial system as the official and the metric system as the only way the rest of the world will talk to them.

Answer 2

The original English system is called The Imperial System. The metric system was invented by mostly French people. It's an easier system than Imperial. Because,it's based on the base 10.
Americans oddly use the Imperial System. Americans rebelled against British rule. But,kept their Measuring system. The entire world uses the Metric System except for Americans.

Answer 3

There are two systems that exist in the world today:

The FPS system (the imperial system, introduced by the British back in the good ol' days). and -

The MKS system (or the SI system, the System Internationale, introduced by the French)

FPS, stands for Foot, pound, second - is so cumbersome with all the weird numbers such as 12 inches to a foot, 36 inches to a Yard, 1760 yards to a mile on and on.....16 oz to a gallon ..... you get the point. Some numbers, indeed....!! But, they were in such common use, people have used them for many decades in Engineering calculations.

MKS, stands for Meter, Kilogram second - is in multiples of 10. It is easy to get a grip on what the measurement is because the meter and kilogram can be converted or measured very easily and understood by the common masses easily.

USA, is the only country that still uses the imperial system and they are slow to change. In fact, they refuse to change. Rest the world have seen the logic behind the multiples of 10 and they have adopted the SI.

It gets messy only when one converts a metric system to an imperial system. Such as 4.54 litres to a gallon, 30.48 centimeters to a foot, to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit you have to go jump thru the hoofs to get the answer.

Embracing Metric is not only prudent but it is also the easy thing to do. The British had a way of keeping the enemies guessing in those days. So, they were using the Imperial system. Even Britain has now converted to SI completely.

Hope you have understood now the background and the reasoning behind all these measurements.

Answer 4

We use the standard system, sometimes called the English standard system, because the En\glish developed it (and called it the "Imperial" system). Now of course the English, like most of the rest of the world, use the metric system.

Answer 5

The english system

Answer 6

The USA uses the inch/pound/second system as opposed to the centimeter/ gram/second system used by most other countries.

The USA is converting to the metric system( although quite slowly). You can see examples in some states of speed limits posted in kilometers/hour instead of miles/ hour.

Answer 7

The USA and Burma (Myanmar) are the only countries in the world who do not use the metric system. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Answer 8

The metric system ... we are English here in England ... :)


The alternative is the 'Imperial' system (pounds, gallons etc) which is what I think 'they' use in the USA. ...

Tongue in cheek ...
Merry Christmas

Answer 9

Who is "we"? (Such a question can only come from americans, who always seem to be thinking, that they are automatically meant by "we".)

We, in continental Europe, use the International System of Units (SI): http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units