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| why is the US not Metric |
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| Monkeh:
--- Quote from: rstofer on November 03, 2019, 12:03:47 am ---Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here? --- End quote --- Your delusional ego, yes. The units you use have nothing to do with the resources you have the luck to have as a country. |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: Monkeh on November 03, 2019, 12:37:39 am --- --- Quote from: rstofer on November 03, 2019, 12:03:47 am ---Been to the Moon, largest economy in the world, Imperial units... See a pattern here? --- End quote --- Your delusional ego, yes. The units you use have nothing to do with the resources you have the luck to have as a country. --- End quote --- The only important resources are people and capitalism. We can buy everything else. A relatively business-friendly government helps. |
| CatalinaWOW:
Here is an example to show the pace at which metric will take over in the US. A similar process may have occurred in other parts of the world. Back in the 1800s all bolts and nuts in the US were square headed. Sometime in the early 1900s someone introduced hex nuts and heads. They took slightly less material so were cheaper to produce and could fit into tighter spaces, and gave six options for the wrench which was an advantage in close quarters. They gradually took over the industry. By the time I was a young lad in the 1950s you could hardly find a square headed bolt, and square nuts were limited to small hardware sizes. But there was a major holdout. What we call lag screws in the US, large coarse threaded bolts with a tapering tip intended to screw into timbers and logs still had square heads. Currently square headed nuts are hard to find in any size, and lag screws have switched to hex heads. So roughly a 75 to 80 year transition time when not forced by economic necessity. As has been mentioned over and over, the industries where it is a necessity have already changed here. Where the major drive is to make someone on the other side of the world happy we will change no faster than they would simply to please us. |
| rstofer:
--- Quote from: jmelson on November 03, 2019, 12:30:48 am ---Our hardware stores now have as much metric nuts and bolts as the old imperial sizes. Lots of other things bought in stores are made to metric sizes. Jon --- End quote --- Lowe's and Home Depot do have a wide selection of metric nuts and bolts but in nowhere near the selection and quantity as Imperial. I don't think I have ever seen a metric carriage bolt in a hardware store. Same with heavily galvanized hex head bolts and nuts. Obviously, they do have zinc plated and some stainless steel nuts and bolts. I'm not sure what a metric lag screw would look like. Do they really think the homeowner wants to buy a 14mm wrench just to tighten a lag screw? Yes, there are examples where products are marked in metric but it isn't necessarily the number that the average person looks at. As I said above, Coca Cola, in cans, is marked as 12 FL OZ. It has a metric equivalent of 355 mL in parenthesis. I'm not aware of any food products that are marked solely in metric. OTOH, I don't spend a lot of time doing grocery shopping. There could be something out there because we import a LOT of food from South America. |
| Monkeh:
--- Quote from: rstofer on November 03, 2019, 01:07:53 am ---I'm not sure what a metric lag screw would look like. Do they really think the homeowner wants to buy a 14mm wrench just to tighten a lag screw? --- End quote --- Just... like... an imperial.. one.. And no, they don't - 13mm is the usual standard. |
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