Why doesnt the US just switch over to the metric system? i'd make things a lot easier?

Answer 1

It's pretty much because it would make it much HARDER for lots of people. And we vote so lawmakers don't take advantage of the Constitution's giving them the power to dictate we change.

But more practically, there is a VAST number of things that would have to change and a lot of getting used to these things. Switch to metric and a tremendous amount of machinery becomes worthless as there is no standard metric size that fits exactly enough (for the input stock the machinery acts upon). I know, one can specify 10.8524862 mm for the stock he purchases if he desires but then we run into legal difficulties. Believe it or not, if a provider contracts with you to deliver a 10mm what-not, legal practice usually allows him to actually deliver stock that is anywhere from 9.5mm to 10.5mm and not even consistently one extreme or the other. The usual legal fudge here would act on the last digit in the size, but sometimes even the above part could be the half-mm off. No matter how exactly the contract expressed it. Naturally, that happens with the current measurements as well. The difference is that today, our machinery is pretty decently zeroed in and makes deviances that are fairly well-known and easy to fix. Think of all the suppliers who would hide behind practices law to avoid having to take that "fix" step. People are people after all.

Not accounting for human nature is how communism failed to overwhelm capitalism.

But never fear, the change is taking place gradually and there is no real effort to stop it or impede it. People will gradually get used to the sizes and terms and equipment will more and more be made to work directly with metric measurements and stock, and these small steps will be the building blocks for bigger and bigger steps and the changeover will speed up, slowly at first, but faster and faster and finally a tipping point will be reached and people will begin regarding those using the current system as bothersome and costly. At that point the change will swiftly finish in most every venue. Finally, equipment using the current measurements will die and we will be metric.

It will definitely take a LONG time yet though. This is a $12,000,0000,000,000.00 economy that has to change over and that doesn't even take into account the first human's lack of desire to change.

By the way, for some years, one of the changeover pieces put a lot of people in jail. Dealers were selling 4oz bags of pot but the law required anything over 100g be dealt with much more severly than arrests under 100g. Those going to jail learned a little too late that 4oz is more than 100g... But dealers now have gram scales not the old ounce scales and the, um, difficulty seems past us. See how bizarre the knock-on effects of the change can be? And that's just one simple machine, an ounce scale, and one, um, industry and group of people who found reason to hate the change. Multiply that by an awesomely huge amount and you see the problem.

Don't worry though. It's a done deal. Just not done yet.

Answer 2

Yes, they definitely should. Sort of hard to talk to American friends about the weather sometimes. On a side note though, here in Canada everyone still measures their weight and height by the imperial system. I don't know how many metres tall I am, and I don't know how many kilos I weigh. And for most construction workers, or just generation X in general, they still use the imperial system cause they grew up with it. Maybe generation Z will be completely metric.

Answer 3

Well, we do use a lot of metric, especially in closed, global, industries. Every auto made in the U.S. since about 1990 has been all metric.
On the other hand, going to the lumber yard to buy a 120cm x 240 cm sheet of plywood and finding that it is a fair distance short of fitting where a 4x8' sheet (121.92cm x 243.84cm) would be a real nuisance, like all the houses with 8 foot ceilings because sheet rock exactly fits.

Answer 4

The Us voted to change way back with Thomas Jefferson. They were making some progress before Reagan cut the funding. All science is done in metric. It is an economic factor. It would be easier, but adults are hard to change. We teach it in schools.

Answer 5

i totally agree with you. Trouble is that it would be very expensive to replace road signs and alter manufacturing equipment to the metric system. I am afraid the US measurement system is here to stay for a while.

Answer 6

Are you kidding??

Most Americans can barely spell the name of the state they live in. And it took a civil war to stop something that seems like a very obvious problem (people owning other people).

I'd say America will switch to the metric system some time after we're conquered by the Candian Army.

(sad, but true)

Answer 7

There is just too much invested in an English system measurements-based economy to justify replacing it; the benefits are not investment-attractive. However, in many ways, we are; such as in science.

Answer 8

I find it sad that the only things in the US that are in metric are drugs and bullets.

It's a start, but not quite where I would have directed it...

Answer 9

I think we are slowly , very slowly changing over. We have some mixed units already that drive me crazy. as an example car exhaust pollution is sometimes quoted as grams per mile.

Answer 10

pilots would make mistakes and die.