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why is the US not Metric

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bsfeechannel:

--- Quote from: Cubdriver on November 15, 2019, 05:06:42 pm ---No one is making paradoxical explanations.  The question was posed - "Why is the US not metric?"  It has been answered repeatedly in this thread.  The fact that YOU refuse to accept that answer, and insist on arguing against what people here have told you over and over, does not make it wrong.

-Pat

--- End quote ---

Of course I don't accept it. It contains contradictions. The cost of switching to metric is in fact marginal. And the benefits enormous. If that weren't true, the world wouldn't have taken the plunge.

By the way. Let's take this opportunity to do something I don't recall anyone doing. The metric system is one of the greatest gifts from the French to the whole world. It really helps our everyday lives. It simplifies things, eliminates ambiguities, lower costs. It is logic, systematic, consistent. It is good for the woodworker, the cook, the shopkeeper, the engineer, the scientist.

It is free and you don't get lectured about going to the moon, Uranus or some place where the sun doesn't shine, every time you use it.

So, I guess  I can say this in the name of the whole world: thank you, France.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

P.S.: Meanwhile we could organize a whip-round to help the US replace their road signs. If everyone on the planet chips in $1, I think we could metricate the road from El Paso all the way to Las Cruces.

SiliconWizard:

--- Quote from: bsfeechannel on November 15, 2019, 06:59:20 pm ---It is free and you don't get lectured about going to the moon, Uranus or some place where the sun doesn't shine, every time you use it.

--- End quote ---

Ahah, I liked this one. :P

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: boffin on November 15, 2019, 06:56:46 pm ---
--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 15, 2019, 11:48:35 am ---
--- Quote from: forrestc on November 15, 2019, 07:24:46 am ---For some reason in the UK, humans are weighed in stones....

--- End quote ---

Not universally true in the UK any more. Here, as probably everywhere, kilos are used by the medical profession and the man in the street seems more and more comfortable with expressing corporeality that way. I can tell you what I weight in kg, if I wanted to tell you in stone I'm have to convert via pounds. What you'll never heard a Brit saying is 'so-and-so weighs 180 lb'. Stone, by the way, is one of those peculiar units that doesn't take a plural - someone will say "9 stone 12 pounds" or just "9 stone 12", never "9 stones 12 pounds".

For those not familiar with the unit: 1 stone = 14 lb = 1/8 hundredweight = ~ 6.36 kg. A hundredweight  (112lb, 1/20 ton, ~ 50.9 kg) used to be the standard size for sacks of flour, coal and similar commodities - the amount a man could shoulder until the Europeans came along and told us that a man could only carry 25 kg on his own.  :)

--- End quote ---

Nice try, but not quite right. 

Most commodities (flour, potatoes etc) were distributed/sold by sacks of "HALF HUNDREDWEIGHT", or they certainly were when my family owned a store in the UK in the 70s.
and 25kg is almost exactly a 'half-hundredweight".  But nice try on blaming the Europeans for something with incorrect information, I assume you think the EU tried to ban bananas as well.

--- End quote ---

No, the EU didn't try to ban bananas. Unfortunately neither did the EU require us to re-educate people who were too dim to spot a joke, even when it's got a sodding smiley next to it, before we permitted them to emigrate.

Anyway, I didn't say all commodities under all circumstances came in hundredweight sacks, but the coalman definitely delivered coal in them, and it was the standard size for most things used in industrial quantities like flour by bakers. Obviously things used in relatively small quantities by small traders, or if they were perishable, or had a shortish shelf life, came in smaller quantities e.g. potatoes, onions, carrots, and so on tended to come in 56 lb sacks.

Sal Ammoniac:
I don't see why people from other countries are so concerned about what measurement standards we use in the U.S. If you like the metric system, fine, use it, but don't try to force your opinions on everyone else (only we're allowed to do that  ;)). In any case, U.S. manufacturers will ultimately use whatever system the market demands (and already do, for the most part).

GeorgeOfTheJungle:

--- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on November 15, 2019, 07:31:34 pm ---(only we're allowed to do that  ;))

--- End quote ---

 :-+ LOL :-DD  :clap:

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