General > General Technical Chat
why is the US not Metric
forrestc:
--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on February 11, 2020, 09:57:04 pm ---Are customary units DEPRECATED in the US? Nope.
--- End quote ---
Show me a country where customary units are fully DEPRECIATED. And I mean FULLY. As in, not the standard system of measurement for anything.
I'm not going to argue that we're behind the curve. But the concept that everyone is 100% metric and we're 0% is patently false. You should look up "false dilemma", or the "black or white fallacy". This fallacy seems to be pretty common among political activists - that is "you're either with us or against us". When the reality is much more nuanced in all most all cases. Most critical thinkers are actually able to understand that pretty much everything is not boolean, but instead tends to be a bit more analog.
We've given example and example and example where ALL other countries are not 100% metric, and given lots of examples to show that the US is not 0% metric. But somehow you seem to have this stuck in your head that everyone else is metric and we're not. As in it's a binary choice.
I posit that there isn't a single country on this earth which is 100% metric. None. With some research, one could calculate a rough percentage that a country has metricated. I don't think anyone in the US would argue against the premise that we would be close to the bottom of an ordered list. There might be some disagreement about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, but the fact is that no, we're not nearly as far along as other countries. If I were to guess, I'd probably say we're in the 50-75% metricated range, if you were to look at all aspects of the economy and life, and purposely excluding the fact that the customary measurements we use are all defined as metric. Yes, other countries may be closer to 100%, but it isn't like we're at 0 and they're at 100%.
Tepe:
--- Quote from: forrestc on February 12, 2020, 08:40:10 am ---I posit that there isn't a single country on this earth which is 100% metric.
--- End quote ---
Outside very restricted fields like diamond trade and such, I really can't think of much, if any, use of traditional units around here except for the occasional inches printed on tires or used to advertise TVs and monitors. And those are imported inches that have blown over the fence from the non-metric world. 99+ percent metric is so close to fully metric that nobody really notices the difference. But who cares. Those imported inches don't really seem to bother people here and what you use in the US, well, that's just a charming cultural curiosity to me - one that actually once was totally connected with the language: English and non-metric used to belong together. Learning English as a foreign language naturally also meant/means learning at least some of the units used.
Somehow we still manage to trade with each other without the US going close to fully metric so the "problem" it poses to the world at large can't be that great.
DBecker:
Tires are a good point: any country can go fully metric by simply switching to TRX standard wheels.
Good luck finding tires for them. And you might want to look at the dimensions of the pressure valve (Scrader valve) you are using. You will be specifying micrometers to get an acceptable fit in metric, so everyone sticks with TPI.
tooki:
--- Quote from: Tepe on February 12, 2020, 10:18:58 am ---
--- Quote from: forrestc on February 12, 2020, 08:40:10 am ---I posit that there isn't a single country on this earth which is 100% metric.
--- End quote ---
Outside very restricted fields like diamond trade and such, I really can't think of much, if any, use of traditional units around here except for the occasional inches printed on tires or used to advertise TVs and monitors. And those are imported inches that have blown over the fence from the non-metric world. 99+ percent metric is so close to fully metric that nobody really notices the difference. But who cares. Those imported inches don't really seem to bother people here and what you use in the US, well, that's just a charming cultural curiosity to me - one that actually once was totally connected with the language: English and non-metric used to belong together. Learning English as a foreign language naturally also meant/means learning at least some of the units used.
Somehow we still manage to trade with each other without the US going close to fully metric so the "problem" it poses to the world at large can't be that great.
--- End quote ---
If you read the whole thread, you’ll find many more examples. Hose threads, PCB grids, screwdriver bits and socket attachments, etc.
Not to mention that many common metric sizes for things are actually just the metric approximation of US fractional sizes. For example, in many industries one finds diameters of 3.2, 2.4, 1.6, and 1.2mm, which are the metric approximations of 1/8”, 3/32”, 1/16”, and 3/64”, respectively.
forrestc:
--- Quote from: Tepe on February 12, 2020, 10:18:58 am ---Outside very restricted fields like diamond trade and such, I really can't think of much, if any, use of traditional units around here except for the occasional inches printed on tires or used to advertise TVs and monitors.
--- End quote ---
The one major area where pretty much every country in the world has not metricated is aircraft flight levels. There are only a few exceptions. Is this enough for the country to not have "fully metricated?". After all, the horrible feet has to be depreciated everywhere or else one can't join the "pure metric" club.
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