General > General Technical Chat

why is the US not Metric

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KL27x:
GlennSpriggs of Australia:
--- Quote ---I understand their desire to 'hold-on' to what they know & like, mainly due to the difficulty of change,
--- End quote ---

I would put it as the ease of using both. Even if the average American is a dummy that can't rationalize and use metric, we have plenty of jobs for this average dummy. For anyone in a job that involves engineering or physics, we rather that they can demonstrate proficiency in arbitrary systems. Having "a favorite" is fine, but keep it to yourself. Complaining about one or the other is seen as a mental deficiency.

The average citizen is an expert in ordering and drinking beers, for instance. In Australia, they created schooners and middys for the ease of performing this repetitive task. In American, we have many such repetitive tasks in manufacturing and construction. Do you want a oil line to pump 20% more oil? Exxon engineers will use their existing body of knowledge and make the new one with imperial units.


--- Quote ---I understand their desire to 'hold-on' to what they know & like, mainly due to the difficulty of
change, but in the year 2020, in a Global environment, it makes no sense!!  :-//
--- End quote ---

What is the difference in "Global environment" today and during the 1800's? We are all friends, now, and should settle disagreements with chess matches, because we have the internet? We started 2020 by blowing up Iran's top general with supersonic drone missiles. But let's all get on the same page with the cups and quarts?


--- Quote ---However, they seem to forget their 'roots' !!  Unless I'm mistaken, it is the British who
first occupied their land. (Talking about real foreign influence, not the 'locals' at the time).
--- End quote ---
Americans are not ashamed of their culture and history. The imperial system has roots going back millennia, all the way to the cradle of civilization, in the area before Iran existed. The Brits and Americans have actually butchered this system a bit since the roman era.

bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on January 05, 2020, 02:20:56 pm ---Dwellers in smaller markets feel the standardization pull more strongly than those in large markets.  The US remains (for the moment) the largest single market and so it is fairly obvious why the pull of standardization has been felt less strongly.

--- End quote ---

This brings the thread to a full circle. The world is economically 5 times greater than the US. Its population, minus the US, is at least 20 times greater.  The world has a road network that is about 9 times lengthier than the US's. The world's GDP per capita is $17,300  (including the US), while the US GDP per capita alone is $60,000.

So the world, with more roads, greater population, bigger economy, but less money per capita, managed to successfully go metric. Why can't the US with much more favorable conditions do so?

Is it because the US has a culture and a knowledge base around imperial that it can't afford to suddenly ditch? But what about the rest of the world? Didn't they have a previous culture and knowledge base around their customary units? What made abandon all of that in favor of metric?

KL27x:

--- Quote ---Is it because the US has a culture and a knowledge base around imperial that it can't afford to suddenly ditch? But what about the rest of the world? Didn't they have a previous culture and knowledge base around their customary units? What made abandon all of that in favor of metric?

--- End quote ---
Yes. Many other cultures/nations have historically had relatively little to preserve in comparison to the US in this aspect. This is partly because America was one of the world leaders of technological advancement from the late 1800's to today. Significant portion of this boon occurred before America even had access to metric prototypes, being on the wrong side of the globe. The foundation for a lot of today's tech was laid out in inches, in America. And the reason this worked is because America used consistently sized feet and inches across its borders. They had that sorted out from the beginning of this boon. Russia's system was a complete mess until the change over to metric.

We were also in a tech race against the Axis and then the Soviet Union for many decades, post WWII.

This has already been discussed many times in this thread, but you are intentionally blind to anything that doesn't fit your narrative.

Secondly, you assume all other countries other than US and Myanmar have voluntarily abandoned their customary measures in order to "get the most" out of metric, when in fact most of the globe changed to metric during regime changes that destroyed other parts of national culture and government. And even then, there is still use of traditional measuring systems in many countries besides the US.

ebastler:

--- Quote from: KL27x on January 05, 2020, 09:36:40 pm ---Many other cultures/nations have historically had relatively little to preserve in comparison to the US in this aspect. This is partly because America was one of the world leaders of technological advancement from the late 1800's to today. Significant portion of this boon occurred before America even had access to metric prototypes, being on the wrong side of the globe. The foundation for a lot of today's tech was laid out in inches, in America.

--- End quote ---

This pride and preservation of technological heritage worked particularly well for the Detroit car industry.  ::)

Well, I won't grin too broadly, since the next years will show whether the German car industry can avoid falling into the same trap...

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: ebastler on January 05, 2020, 09:49:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: KL27x on January 05, 2020, 09:36:40 pm ---Many other cultures/nations have historically had relatively little to preserve in comparison to the US in this aspect. This is partly because America was one of the world leaders of technological advancement from the late 1800's to today. Significant portion of this boon occurred before America even had access to metric prototypes, being on the wrong side of the globe. The foundation for a lot of today's tech was laid out in inches, in America.

--- End quote ---

This pride and preservation of technological heritage worked particularly well for the Detroit car industry.  ::)

Well, I won't grin too broadly, since the next years will show whether the German car industry can avoid falling into the same trap...

--- End quote ---

All Detroit cars have metric fasteners these days (and have had for many decades now).  Any American car guy will know his Metric wrench sizes...

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