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why is the US not Metric
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boffin:

--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on October 29, 2019, 05:11:40 pm ---and has gained the advantage in number of users and will probably, sooner or later take over everywhere. 

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190 of 193 member states of the UN are Metric


rstofer:

--- Quote from: jfiresto on October 29, 2019, 04:01:55 pm ---No sir, the common American will never get a grip on metric.  :)

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I'm missing the point (again)...

The bottles are in fractional liters but the cans are in integer fluid ounces. For the convenience of the units challenged, the 355 ml equivalent is in parenthesis on the can.  Got one right here in front of me... 12 FL OZ (355 mL). I never buy the large bottles because they go flat before I can finish them.

When we buy supplies for the barbeques, we buy beer in cases.  We don't look at ounces, we don't count bottles, we simply buy a case or two of "Miller Genuine Draft" in a cardboard box.  Cost per ounce isn't even a consideration.

Simply put:  We aren't going to change, we don't care what the rest of the world does and nobody is going to make us change.  We're doing fine...

These threads always degenerate in the same way.  I'm surprised this one has stayed open as long as it has.
rsjsouza:

--- Quote from: tooki on October 29, 2019, 03:24:17 pm ---
--- Quote from: rsjsouza on October 29, 2019, 03:17:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: tooki on October 29, 2019, 03:07:37 pm ---All jokes aside, an interesting thing is the difference between e.g. US horsepower and German Pferdestärke (literally “horsepower”, but measured differently).

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Similar thing with the Brazilian "cavalo vapor" or CV: slightly less powerful: 735W.

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Does that literally mean “steam horse”? :)

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Yes. The big passenger ships used to be also called "vapor" as they were steam powered. That was probably the inspiration for the name.
Simon:

--- Quote from: rstofer on October 29, 2019, 03:27:12 pm ---
To cut to the chase, metric is eurocentric and the US doesn't do eurocentric.  Worse, the standards are French and we definitely don't do French.  We will never convert on a national basis.
 
You could also explain the issue as a matter of elitism.  The elite use metric and the last thing they want is for the commoners to understand what they're talking about so there is no real push to convert.  Those who need to use metric can and will.  Those who don't need it will never convert.



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that is what makes your personally backward. I don't know about the rest of America.
CatalinaWOW:

--- Quote from: jfiresto on October 29, 2019, 07:50:08 pm ---
--- Quote from: rstofer on October 29, 2019, 05:46:32 pm ---I'm missing the point (again)...

The bottles are in fractional liters but the cans are in integer fluid ounces. For the convenience of the units challenged, the 355 ml equivalent is in parenthesis on the can.  Got one right here in front of me... 12 FL OZ (355 mL).
--- End quote ---

Aren't the larger PET bottles sized and labeled in liters, as at Walmart? Do they even show the fluid ounce equivalent? From what little I have seen, Americans are buying them because they find them a good size – and have grown used to them being so many liters.

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rstofer is absolutely correct on this one.  The unit of measure on those large PET bottles is the bottle.  We don't buy x bottles to get y liters of soda.  We don't say we need y liters to fill z 0.5 liter glasses.  We buy the number of bottles that will fit the refrigerator or cabinet or budget.  When that runs out, or nearly runs out we buy more.  And I suspect that is the way people operate worldwide.  The guy designing the bottle filler may care about the units,  and other people in the Fab chain may care, though here in the US the recipe is likely to be in traditional units.

This behavior has been exploited in the US where almost all food is labeled in both metric and traditional units.  A product that was originally in a nice round number of traditional units is resized down to a nice even metric number without a change in price.  Later, after that is absorbed the product is resized again to the next smaller even traditional units.  This process has been repeated in some products until they are half their original size.
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