Back in '66, President Johnson signed the Metric Act into law to lay ground for the US converting...

[Bucky]

over to the metric system. I am, of course, talking about President Andrew Johnson and the Metric Act of 1866.

[kayakjohnny]

1. Damn, and look how well that went.

What a visionary.

[kedrys]

2. And the reason it never took off is

"Third down and 1.8288 meters to go" just...doesn't...sound right. :P

[madinmaryland]

8. Can you believe that, John, he missed the first down by a millimeter!!

:D

[gratuitous]

3. Exhibit 1 of American stubbornness and stupidity

The metric system is such a cinch, that it can be taught to kids in about a day, instead of the weeks devoted to length, weight, and measures (how many quarts in a gallon again?). Let's face it, if the mileage sign says "50 miles," you have no idea how far that is, really. If it said "80 kilometers," you'd experience about two weeks of confusion, and then you'd adjust.

Instead, we have to kowtow to the Nitwit Brigade and their never-ending conspiracy theories about whatever hobgoblin is currently bedeviling their little minds, and the metric system figures prominently in so much of their nitwittery.

[krispos42]

4. It hangs around because for day-to-day stuff it works well enough

And nobody wants to have to do english-to-metric conversions in their heads.

The scientists and engineers know metric and english units inside and out and in many instances can use them interchangebly.

For everybody else, we simply use whatever system the product come is.


Next week, in South Dakota, a hunter is going to sight through the 40mm objective lens and 1" diameter tube of his deer rifle's telescopic scope and launch a 7mm bullet weighing 140 grains through a 24" barrel at 3,100 feet per second. It will blast through the chest of a deer 300 yards away, dumping about 2,000 foot-pounds of energy into flesh and killing the deer within seconds. He'll toss the carcass in the bed of his pickup truck, which is rated to carry 1,000 pounds and is powered by a 4.6L V-8 engine with a peak output of 231 horsepower, and drive off. On his way to home, he'll stop by the local convenience store and buy 15 gallons of gasoline, a quarter-pound cheeseburger and a liter of Mountain Dew.

:shrug:

[applegrove]

5. In Canada we converted to metric in about 1973. I still do height/weight

the old fashioned way even though I was about 7 when we converted.

[tjwmason]

6. We had metric foisted on us in England - I use the old measures

At school I was taught exclusively in metric, and it made sense for things like physics. but when it comes to real-life application, the old measures just fit more easily (they were derived from usage afterall). Cooking, in particular, is just neater and tidier with pounds and ounces.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. When did England convert to metric

Didn't they use ounces, pounds, and stones to express weight?

And pounds, farthings, crowns, guineas for money?

:hi:

[CBGLuthier]

7. I use metric for all my work

A lot easier to calculate 22.5% of 298 mm than 22.5% of 11 3/4 inches.

I remember when the director of the former Cowboy Hall of fame, said it was all a communist conspiracy. What an idiot that guy was.

[MilesColtrane]

9. Bah! All this fancy, schmancy, new fangled terminology...

In my day there were 5.827 firkins to a hogshead and THAT'S THE WAY WE LIKED IT!