Will the US ever move to the metric system?

Question

I know America has already "offically" adopted SI units but will industry ever make the move. Have any sectors of industry moved yet?

When I say "officially" I mean that the US government has adopted the system and recommended its use.

Answer 1

Most Americans resist it even though the government recommends and uses it at the top.
Local level government isn't that co-ordinated and still holds on to it's traditional 'American' practices (just like the French and language).
American engineers and scientist are now mostly using SI, they have to because they seek knowledge from everywhere (that's in their nature). And also incidentally a way of telling a good American engineer/scientist from a bad one. I know that's how I do it when I get a set of designs.
Although there is this one old geezer who send me manual drawings in feet and inches, drawn in 1:33.3333 scale. He's an old eccentric who is the benchmark for the industry. Absolutely brilliant. But without me transferring it all to AutoCad ( without telling anyone) his bosses would probably put him out to grass, poor chap.

Answer 2

Yes. Industry will make the move. There is every increasing pressure, particularly the result of globalization, that industry is changing.

The metric system is far easier to learn and use. Its just a matter of time until it gains enough momentum that even those who adamantly resist will need to change. It will not happen in a few years, probably more like a decade or two, but it will happen nonetheless.

For the record, I see more and more use in the industries that I have been employed. At the moment I have two projects. One is all metric units, the other is primarily old units. I have had projects that required units specified in both systems!

Answer 3

What's the problem?

Before the introduction of the metric system to the UK, US and others, we, the metric part of our engineering world, did and still do both systems. Because the US don't do SI.

It don't matter in what unit you measure e.g. speed, as long as we all know what the result is. We would all know what we are talking about if we were going 10 doolalies per hour. It's just a matter of calculations. In every day life a thumb rule is good enough. In higher levels we will use all the digits.

Answer 4

In short, no, although they do have a metric currency.
We are not really that metric ourselves when a tin of beans weighs 454 grams (which is 1 pound by the way), If we were truly metric the beans would weigh 500grams. There are many more examples of this where the unit of measurement has changed but the roundness of the measurement has been lost. Another hatred of mine is temperature measurement, weather forecasters keep telling us in both celsius and fahrenheit. The newspapers put a spin on this aswell, when it's hot it's always 90 degrees fahrenheit headlines but when it's cold it's -10 degrees celsius because 14 degrees fahrenheit doesn't sound cold.

Answer 5

I'm not American, but I sense that many well educated Americans do see the advantages with the metric system, but unfortunately they are not in majority. The way to do this is by law, but no governement dare risc their popularity on this question, so I don't know how and when it will come. Americans generally seem to get so upset when you mention their old outdated system of measurement and tell them the advantages with the metric system, "Don't try to tell us...." Yes, it is all the other countries that are odd, not USA.

If a change should come I think it would be necessary to have paralell systems for a generation, but it would be worth it in the long run.

Answer 6

I disagree with the comment that America has "offically" adopted the metric system. Speaking as a Mechanical, Design, and Applications Engineer, America has "unoffically" adopted the metric system. In the Manufacturing industry (in which I work), American companies are still building CNC (computer numeric control) machines using the standard system while Asain and European companies use the metric system. What do I do you ask??...I use a conversion formula because when talking to a customer, he or she may use "inches" on one point of the conversation, then use metric to describe another issue on the same conversation. The formula is easy, to convert inches to mm, you multiply the number of inches by 25.4 to get the measurement in millimeters, and then to convert metric to standard, you divide the number of millimeters by 25.4 to get inches. When my customers are making complex parts, for the medical field (surgical pins and screws, hip replacements, etc.) they use metric because of its tighter tolerence, meaning you can make very small parts extremly accurate. Will America ever switch to metric??...I think one day we will but I doubt its something you'll see in your life time (and mine too)....maybe our kids will experience the switch.

Answer 7

I can't give a good strong opinion, but here's some food for thought:

Several years ago, sometime back in the '90's, several state departments of transportations spent tons of money converting all of their manuals, standard construction details, and other documentation to the metric system. They even went so far as to begin putting up road signs that list both miles and kilometers to the next city. (You still see them occassionally.) Two or so years later, they spent tons of money to go back to the imperial system.

On the flip side, quite a few professional journals require that articles be in metric.

Your guess is as good as mine!

Answer 8

Yes, eventually. Most of the components used in industrial applications are manufactured overseas. Eventually, as the market becomes more and more global, the overseas producers will get sick of catering to the US, and stop manufacturing the parts special for the US. Then we will switch to metric.

Answer 9

.Most things that are manufactured have parts measured in the metric because of the sharing of part manufacturing sites, some overseas and some in the us . So really we have but there are holdouts in daily use .that might never go away like recipes and so forth. I know it seems crazy but some are proud of the English system like one foot being the length of the kings foot . ha

Answer 10

for my area, i admire the reality that basically drug sellers use the metric gadget interior the U. S.. yet, as quickly as we cope with Iraq, Afghanistan, the conflict on Terror, the Federal deficit, the national debt, and immigration...then - yeah - i might actually help the change to the metric gadget.