Why do americans still measure in feet/inches

[ThreeStorms]

Admit it, it's a rather weird system. Its incompatible with the decimal system every human on earth uses. Other units can be converted by a very simple formula. Like temperature or mass. But.. My calculator says I am 6.36 feet tall. This number is not really usefull for you, right? In fact I am 6'4" plus a little bit. Pah. Long live the metric system.
You may flame me now.

 

[Nighthawk]

Us Brits use it too. It would be boring if we were all the same. And 21 centimeters is never going to thrill a woman as much as eight inches.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

Admit it, it's a rather weird system. Its incompatible with the decimal system every human on earth uses. Other units can be converted by a very simple formula. Like temperature or mass. But.. My calculator says I am 6.36 feet tall. This number is not really usefull for you, right? In fact I am 6'4" plus a little bit. Pah. Long live the metric system.
You may flame me now.

Yeah, it's stupid. I think it will eventually be phased out. Everybod for atleast the last 15 years should have learned the metric system in public schools. I started learning it on 2nd grade 17 years ago.

I think we only keep the standard system around to appease the old folks. I think most generation Y'ers and X'ers are comfortable with the metric system.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

I think we only keep the standard system around to appease the old folks. I think most generation Y'ers and X'ers are comfortable with the metric system.

I don't even think the X'ers nor Nexter's know remember how to do the conversions either. Never the less the States will start using the metric system about the same time we start using the Euro.

 

[Shiftkey]

Yeah, it's stupid. I think it will eventually be phased out. Everybod for atleast the last 15 years should have learned the metric system in public schools. I started learning it on 2nd grade 17 years ago.

I think we only keep the standard system around to appease the old folks. I think most generation Y'ers and X'ers are comfortable with the metric system.

I'm at the end of gen X and I sure as hell am not comfortable. I know the basics just from science classes, but when I think about how long a meter is, I think "about a yard."

We won't be getting rid of our system because we have no need to. To change would require millions of dollors redoing street signs. The only way I could see it happening is if the US somehow got invaded and taken over by Canada lol

Threestorms, I just noticed you're from Austria. What do people over there think of Arnold?

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

We may not know how long a meter is or how fast 60 KPH is butor how to convert from k's to miles but we all (should) know 10 mm = 1 cm, 10 cm = 1 decimeter, 10 decimeters = 1 meter, 1000 meters = 1 kilometer.

I think Americans still have a hard time visualizing these measurements but none the less do (or are capable of) understand them. I bet more people could find 2.3 cm on a tape easier than 4 3/16 inches

 

[ThreeStorms]

Hey cool, no flaming so far ^^

As for Arnold, I admit the average Austrian is rather simple-minded. Not that we are stupid, but many like to brag about something without knowing too much about the subject. Prime example is US politics. When Tookie Williams was executed, Arnold was pretty bad dissed for allowing it.
They even renamed the ****ing Schwarzenegger Stadium. People doing this actually believe their opinion has any meaning outside their own small world without knowing anything about the background that is not mentioned in the Kronen Zeitung, the biggest and dumbest newspaper here.
Now I am against death penalty as almost every European, but if anyone deserved execution, than based on my knowledge of his case, it was Williams.
So most don't like Arnold but are proud of him anyway

 

[donjuanjovi]

For construction purposes the SI system is much more practical. For everything else Metric takes the cake. All conversions are multiples of 10, so you don't have to be a math guru to convert.

 

[Bible_Belt]

The US tried to push the metric system on its people in the 1970's. Road signs giving speed and distance in metric units were frequently used for target practice by resentful local residents.

 

[Le Parisien]

Actually we can look at things this way: it's about standards.

The English/Metric system is just a set of standards to measure distances, the same way there's GSM/CDMA standard for your cellphones.

As long as a country is big/populous/powerful/rich enough and it represents a non negligible share of the world population/market, it can afford to have its own standards.

The US is the most powerful and richest country in the world, so economically speaking, they can have a standard of their own different from the rest of the world and still "get away" with it.

The average Americans use the English system for their everyday life, however in the scientific community/fields, the metric system is used. All the engineering students/professors in the US use the metric system in their research and for the publication of their thesis/papers.

 

[Vincent]

Because it would be too expensive to switch over when there's really no need.

The SI system sucks, but it's not broken, so why change it?

 

[JohnJones]

Because we won the war, fight all the rest of them for all the Europeans, and because we said so?

Besides, I don't want tickets on the 45.72 Meter Line...

 

[Desdinova]

My biggest complaint is that I grew up solely with the metric system, but we still use SI for a lot of things. Being non-SI savvy is a pain in the ass especially if you're working with wrenches, sockets, etc. Also, if you ask me what a pint is, I'll tell you it's a type of tree.

Not being educated in a system that is still in use goes to show how much the education system sucks. It reflects what society thinks SHOULD be taught in school instead of what's used in daily life.

However, one thing that will probably never go metric is the measurment of time: the clock.

 

[MetalFortress]

Admit it, it's a rather weird system. Its incompatible with the decimal system every human on earth uses. Other units can be converted by a very simple formula. Like temperature or mass. But.. My calculator says I am 6.36 feet tall. This number is not really usefull for you, right? In fact I am 6'4" plus a little bit. Pah. Long live the metric system.
You may flame me now.

We use it because we have no reason to switch. Why would we need to?

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

We use it because we have no reason to switch. Why would we need to?

:cheer: To be just like everyone else!!! Weeeeeeeeee!!!!! :cheer:

 

[Adone]

I don't think it's that difficult to understand another system. I realized how the basic SI units worked when I was 14, in a couple of minutes, looking it up on the internet and I can easily use inches, feet and lbs. Not that hard, really.

 

[Spice_One]

to convert meters into feet you need to times it by 3.05. that will give you feet and a decimal point to then work out the inches you need to times the decimal point by 1.2. only know this because I have to work with feet and meters at work each day.

 

[Spice_One]

so basically 1 m is just over 3 feet

 

[donjuanjovi]

The metric system just makes so much more sense!

 

[Doggystyle]

(in the sound of the kaiser chiefs)

oh my god i can't believe it, i've never seen a thread this **** before!