why is the US not Metric

[Cerebus]

I'm amused that this argument has settled down to the red herring/strawman of metricating road signs.

The UK is fully metric and has been for years. So much so that a few years back I was getting a lass, of perhaps 20 to 25 years age, on the meat counter in the supermarket to cut me a couple of steaks. She asked "How thick?", I said "1 inch", she said "How much is that?", "Two and half centimetres." said I. So metrication is sufficiently ingrained that there is at least one generation that has always had the Internet and doesn't know Imperial units, even ones that are still in casual use by older generations.

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km and yet have stuck with statute miles and miles per hour for road signage. It hasn't changed and we saw no need to change it as it is the least consequential of all possible changes. There's no great advantage to changing it in the way that there is a great advantage to an M6 bolt being the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza.

[Cubdriver]

Well, you've suggested a slightly lower cost 'how'.  I still fail to see WHY the government should piss away billions in tax dollars (when they're already running horrific deficits) TO CHANGE SOMETHING THAT IS CURRENTLY WORKING.

I dunno, I've already saved US motorists 13.5 billion dollars, compared to  your initial estimate, & even allowing for the outlier cases, you should be able to save at least 50% by using stickers  instead of completely replacing all your signs .
Many could be done with two guys in a pickup truck with a stepladder.

Awesome!! "Doing something you see no good reason to do won't cost as much as you initially thought!" Is that your idea of a rational case for it?  Doesn't strike me as a very compelling argument for it..

All the houses in the neighborhood are painted white.  Mine is painted grey.  The paint on my house is intact, solid, not chalking or peeling.  There's nothing wrong with it.  It's just grey, and everyone else has a white house.  The neighbors would like me to paint my house white, like theirs are.  I see no compelling reason to do so - the people living in my house are content with the color, the existing paint is in good nick and does not need to be replaced, and I have more important things to spend my hard earned cash on than changing the color of my house for no reason other than my neighbors would like it to match theirs.  I fail to see how painting it a different color would provide any benefit to me.  My neighbors then start saying "Well, you could just paint one side a year, and in four years it will be done!!"  "We got our houses painted 40 years ago, and it didn't cost that much!"  And now you come along and say "The paint is on sale!!!"

So...  My question remains unanswered...  Why should we change from a system that is currently working just fine for us?

In any case, each State will already have provision in their Budget for sign replacement, so some of the cost could be covered by that.(if, of course, such signs are a State responsibility like they are in Oz).
It doesn't have to be done immediately, anyway.

Why should we?

The whole cost of Metrication in Australia was hardly a "blip" on the curve showing the total outgoings including other, usually recurring, expenses.

Glad to hear that.  Why should the US spend money to change all of our signage to metric?

At this point, you are perhaps thinking "Australia has a much smaller population-- it won't scale".
Maybe, but you have a much larger economy, & many more people to do the acual work.

No, actually I'm still thinking "Why should we make them work to change our signs?  What benefit or ROI will be seen?"

As I pointed out, it was unnecesssary to modify speedos in 1974, so why is it so essential, now?
You can't tell me that American drivers are stupider than Australian ones!

I suppose that there is no need to change the speedometers or odometers.  But why should we change the signage and require drivers to do mental gymnastics to calculate speed and distance, when the system currently in place DOES NOT REQUIRE THIS?

At the end of the day, few people really care if you go Metric or stay "Customary", but arguments that can be substantially refuted don't make your case much more rational.

What is your 'rational' case for making the change, again?  As far as I'm concerned, you haven't made one.  It seems to be "Few people care if you go metric or stay customary, but you should spend untold billions of dollars to do it anyway."

1)  The system we have currently suits us just fine. (pro)
2)  It would cost a great deal of money to replace all the signage in the United States. (con)
3)  Changing to metric signage would render at the very least the odometers in the estimated 250+ MILLION cars in the US inaccurate, and require computation on the fly by drivers to gauge distances. (con)

So, once again, my question remains.  Why should we do it?  What is the benefit, and how does that benefit justify the cost?

-Pat

[KL27x]

^LOL a few times. That pesky encyclopedia salesman just doesn't quit. "This is the cheapest it will ever be, and if you act now..."

English units are still used in airplaney things, apparently, to this day.

Wasn't always like that:

Interesting pic, but the context would be nice to have. Are you suggesting this was the first "failed metrication" of America? We tried to get pilots to switch to metric, and they noped us back to "200 knots and 30,000 feet?" Or was this pic of flight instruments from a country which initially used metric in their planes but now uses imperial (probably influenced by other countries/allies)?

In either case, I am reminded of a scene from Lethal Weapon 2. The toilet scene


Murtov, sitting on a toilet bomb: Wait!

Murtov looks at Riggs, embarrassedly.

Mortov: Do we... you know. On 3? Or 1, 2, 3, and then?

Riggs: It's your ass, Cochese. You decide.



An engineer doesn't need to care. Changing units does not change any of the engineering. If the customer says "I want this piece moved to there," you might tell him that you can, but it will no longer work. You'd have to strengthen this other part, and add this, and weight will go up by x, maintenance routine will be 3x as frequent, manufacturing cost will go up by x,... and I can go on, but let's just say it sucks. Why not tell me what you are trying to do and maybe together we can come up with a better solution? But the units, themselves, don't change the engineering. So if the pilot wants feet, why not give it in feet? It's his life.

And when I replied with yes, he would not believe me.
In his mind, an engine could only be built "correctly" by using imperial units.

That is funny and it is true. I bet there are still a few people who think like this, today. And of course it applies to users of either system of measurement. And you would THINK that this minority of humanity would NOT find their way into a profession like engineering or machining, but I'm sure some do.

[bsfeechannel]

Bfseechannel.

Sono qua!

As long as you get some kick out of this, I am here for you. I will be here to represent the stupid American for you to condescend. I created Trump. That's all me. Destabilization of the Middle East? My plan.

Aw, come on, man. Don't be so hard on yourself. Using a medieval system of units doesn't make the US a bad country. Calling that collarbone-breaking game football does.

The #6 machine screw in your blender? I did that just to piss you off.

It was a fridge.

But after I switch to metric, you will have no one left to lord your kilo's over except Guyana.

Metric system of measurement needs to be used exclusively- GNBS (Guyana National Bureau of Standards). The bold letters are mine.

It seems that Guyana is leading the free world, now. By far.

I'm sure that was never the issue, though. And you will eventually tell me what is really bothering you. I'm listening. Let it out.

Read on.

I still fail to see WHY the government should piss away billions in tax dollars (when they're already running horrific deficits)

That's the answer I was looking for!

In other words, metric is really cool, but the government, mired in scandals and deficits, is not strong enough to educate Jack Sixpack and Jenny Average about the benefits of metrication, much less to ask for a small contribution and effort during the mildly discomforting transition. Until this embarrassing situation is solved, the US will still be forced to stick to this inconvenient system of units for quite a while.

I already knew that, and I guess someone posted an old Usenet joke about it, but it is fine to see someone admitting it for real.

It's so good an answer that we can start our own conspiracy theories on how the government is interested in maintaining this state of affairs despite the fact that people end up paying more to stay imperial than to switch to metric in the long run.

[Tepe]

Interesting pic, but the context would be nice to have. Are you suggesting this was the first "failed metrication" of America? We tried to get pilots to switch to metric, and they noped us back to "200 knots and 30,000 feet?"

Not at all.

Or was this pic of flight instruments from a country which initially used metric in their planes but now uses imperial (probably influenced by other countries/allies)?

It's from the cockpit of a Bf 109, so yes, it's from a country that used metric in their planes. The current non-metric situation in aviation is related to the realities of the post WW2 world.

[KL27x]

Sorry, bsfeechannel on the spelling.

In other words, metric is really cool, but the government, mired in scandals and deficits, is not strong enough to educate Jack Sixpack and Jenny Average about the benefits of metrication, much less to ask for a small contribution and effort during the mildly discomforting transition. Until this embarrassing situation is solved, the US will still be forced to stick to this inconvenient system of units for quite a while.

Operators are waiting by the phone. For the price of a cup of coffee a day (for only 4 short years), you pay union laborers high hazard wages for changing the numbers on a single interstate sign 100 feet over the ground in the middle of the desert. That is best case. Probably your money gets contracted out to overnight startups created by war buddies and somehow that pile of case dries up before the job gets done. Just another national "Big Dig." It's the same game, over and over, because oddly enough people don't really mind the slap on the wrist at the end.

When you do this, you don't just "get it done." You create a cottage industry that gets a life and a political power of its own.

But hey, when even half the signs are converted, that will be a massive improvement, right?

[Cubdriver]

I still fail to see WHY the government should piss away billions in tax dollars (when they're already running horrific deficits)

That's the answer I was looking for!

In other words, metric is really cool, but the government, mired in scandals and deficits, is not strong enough to educate Jack Sixpack and Jenny Average about the benefits of metrication, much less to ask for a small contribution and effort during the mildly discomforting transition. Until this embarrassing situation is solved, the US will still be forced to stick to this inconvenient system of units for quite a while.

I already knew that, and I guess someone posted an old Usenet joke about it, but it is fine to see someone admitting it for real.

It's so good an answer that we can start our own conspiracy theories on how the government is interested in maintaining this state of affairs despite the fact that people end up paying more to stay imperial than to switch to metric in the long run.

You're still not getting it, are you?  (Note here that I have been speaking specifically about changing road signs from their current, non-metric miles, feet and inches to metric units.  As has been repeatedly pointed out to you, most new scientific pursuits and manufacturing here in the US are already metric.)  Yeah, metric is really cool.  Happy?  Now, tell me why we should spend unknown billions to be 'cool'.  You still haven't.  I'm a techie-geek - I've never been particularly 'cool' my whole life, and, truth be told, really don't give a rat's ass that I'm not.  'Cool' is not a justification to spend that kind of money - sorry.  You'll have to do better.  And here's a newsflash for you - even if the government WASN'T in deficit, you'd still need to do better than you have in my eyes to justify spending all that money to change a perfectly functional system.

One more time - WHAT IS THE BENEFIT TO JOE SIXPACK AND JENNY AVERAGE to changing all the road signs to metric units that justifies spending billions of dollars in tax revenue (extracted from their pockets) to do so?  Why are miles, feet and inches on road signs 'inconvenient'?  As I've mentioned previously, the instruments in our vehicles display those units, and our brains think in them.  And I'm REALLY curious to hear how leaving our road signs in non metric units will be more expensive in the long run.

-Pat

[vk6zgo]

I still fail to see WHY the government should piss away billions in tax dollars (when they're already running horrific deficits)

That's the answer I was looking for!

In other words, metric is really cool, but the government, mired in scandals and deficits, is not strong enough to educate Jack Sixpack and Jenny Average about the benefits of metrication, much less to ask for a small contribution and effort during the mildly discomforting transition. Until this embarrassing situation is solved, the US will still be forced to stick to this inconvenient system of units for quite a while.

I already knew that, and I guess someone posted an old Usenet joke about it, but it is fine to see someone admitting it for real.

It's so good an answer that we can start our own conspiracy theories on how the government is interested in maintaining this state of affairs despite the fact that people end up paying more to stay imperial than to switch to metric in the long run.

You're still not getting it, are you?  (Note here that I have been speaking specifically about changing road signs from their current, non-metric miles, feet and inches to metric units.  As has been repeatedly pointed out to you, most new scientific pursuits and manufacturing here in the US are already metric.)  Yeah, metric is really cool.  Happy?  Now, tell me why we should spend unknown billions to be 'cool'.  You still haven't.  I'm a techie-geek - I've never been particularly 'cool' my whole life, and, truth be told, really don't give a rat's ass that I'm not.  'Cool' is not a justification to spend that kind of money - sorry.  You'll have to do better.  And here's a newsflash for you - even if the government WASN'T in deficit, you'd still need to do better than you have in my eyes to justify spending all that money to change a perfectly functional system.

One more time - WHAT IS THE BENEFIT TO JOE SIXPACK AND JENNY AVERAGE to changing all the road signs to metric units that justifies spending billions of dollars in tax revenue (extracted from their pockets) to do so?  Why are miles, feet and inches on road signs 'inconvenient'?  As I've mentioned previously, the instruments in our vehicles display those units, and our brains think in them.  And I'm REALLY curious to hear how leaving our road signs in non metric units will be more expensive in the long run.

-Pat

You have inches on your road signs?

[Cerebus]

You have inches on your road signs?

A hangover from the spat between Texas and Alaska about who's got the biggest road.

[KL27x]

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km and yet have stuck with statute miles and miles per hour for road signage. It hasn't changed and we saw no need to change it as it is the least consequential of all possible changes. There's no great advantage to changing it in the way that there is a great advantage to an M6 bolt being the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza.

A #6-32 machine screw is also the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza. And this has already been hashed. I don't see how US having a national metric parade/conversion is going to put this cat back in the bag.

And can we take a moment to appreciate that UK did not change their road signs? I agree that this is not particularly consequential. But can you tell us why this stuff is a big deal to you?:

a few years back I was getting a lass, of perhaps 20 to 25 years age, on the meat counter in the supermarket to cut me a couple of steaks. She asked "How thick?", I said "1 inch", she said "How much is that?", "Two and half centimetres." said I. So metrication is sufficiently ingrained that there is at least one generation that has always had the Internet and doesn't know Imperial units, even ones that are still in casual use by older generations.

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km

If you live in the EU, maybe you wake up from a bender in a different country, regularly? You have trouble buying steaks and gas? "No, I want a Quarter Pounder, not a Royale with Cheese, god damnit!"

[Cubdriver]

You have inches on your road signs?

Clearance signs.  (I was trying to cover all the bases)

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/how-would-you-use-electronics-to-solve-the-11_-8_-bridge-problem/

-Pat

[bsfeechannel]

You're still not getting it, are you?

Of course I get it. I'm an engineer. Given the choice between metric and imperial, I wouldn't hesitate to choose metric, not even for a yoctosecond.

Those who don't get it are our beloved Jack and Jenny. The benefits of metrication for them are diluted and a technical explanation incomprehensible. They don't understand that their customary way of doing things is a hurdle to progress.

[vk6zgo]

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km and yet have stuck with statute miles and miles per hour for road signage. It hasn't changed and we saw no need to change it as it is the least consequential of all possible changes. There's no great advantage to changing it in the way that there is a great advantage to an M6 bolt being the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza.

A #6-32 machine screw is also the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza.

Except that "a #6-32 machine screw" is meaningless in most ex-Imperial Countries.
We know it isn't Whitworth, BA, or UNF--- we've tried them all!
North America has its own separate set of "customary" sizes, which is why it was a major annoyance when someone in  say, Oz, lost a screw out of some US or Canadian made equipment.

Folks in Countries which have been Metric since the 19th Century have the same problem, but "in spades", if dealing with legacy equipment from the USA, the UK, Australia, & so on, as this means sourcing, (at least in the small sizes), two entirely different sets of "Imperial"screws.

Another associated, but a bit "off topic" problem was the propensity in earlier years of German manufacturers to use fine pitch small Metric screws, & Japan to use coarse pitch.

And can we take a moment to appreciate that UK did not change their road signs? I agree that this is not particularly consequential. But can you tell us why this stuff is a big deal to you?:

a few years back I was getting a lass, of perhaps 20 to 25 years age, on the meat counter in the supermarket to cut me a couple of steaks. She asked "How thick?", I said "1 inch", she said "How much is that?", "Two and half centimetres." said I. So metrication is sufficiently ingrained that there is at least one generation that has always had the Internet and doesn't know Imperial units, even ones that are still in casual use by older generations.

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km

[KL27x]

Of course I get it. I'm an engineer. Given the choice between metric and imperial, I wouldn't hesitate to choose metric, not even for a yoctosecond.

Those who don't get it are our beloved Jack and Jenny. The benefits of metrication for them are diluted and a technical explanation incomprehensible. They don't understand that their customary way of doing things is a hurdle to progress.

I think most engineers probably don't care what their country's version of Jack and Jenny do. Jack and Jenny just provide the tax dollars and the consumer sales. They don't design the products. They buy them. How marketing describes the specs in various regions, what does it matter?

They don't understand that their customary way of doing things is a hurdle to progress.

No matter how many times I hear this, it is just as meaningless.

The benefits of metrication for them [Jack and Jenny] are diluted and a technical explanation incomprehensible.

Ok, you can call me Jack (or Jenny ), and I don't take offense. But there are plenty of semi-intelligent people on this forum who might understand your genius. So please hit us with your technical explanations that are incomprehensible to the world's under-educated peasant class. I bet your explanation uses a lot of words like "progress" and "science."

You think if NASA did not have to deal with imperial units, they can get a rocket to Mars just by sitting in a room and moving around a decimal point?

[Cerebus]

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km and yet have stuck with statute miles and miles per hour for road signage. It hasn't changed and we saw no need to change it as it is the least consequential of all possible changes. There's no great advantage to changing it in the way that there is a great advantage to an M6 bolt being the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza.

A #6-32 machine screw is also the same size in Doncaster, Dieppe, Düßeldorf, Dubrovnik, and Dabrowa Górnicza. And this has already been hashed. I don't see how US having a national metric parade/conversion is going to put this cat back in the bag.

And can we take a moment to appreciate that UK did not change their road signs? I agree that this is not particularly consequential. But can you tell us why this stuff is a big deal to you?:

a few years back I was getting a lass, of perhaps 20 to 25 years age, on the meat counter in the supermarket to cut me a couple of steaks. She asked "How thick?", I said "1 inch", she said "How much is that?", "Two and half centimetres." said I. So metrication is sufficiently ingrained that there is at least one generation that has always had the Internet and doesn't know Imperial units, even ones that are still in casual use by older generations.

We sell and price petrol in litres, measure vehicle weights in kilos, official fuel efficiency figures are in litres/100km

If you live in the EU, maybe you wake up from a bender in a different country, regularly? You have trouble buying steaks and gas? "No, I want a Quarter Pounder, not a Royale with Cheese, god damnit!"

You've just totally missed the point haven't you? Y'all have spent the last two pages bitching backwards and forwards about whether the US should or should not change their road signs, and I'm saying that it's inconsequential whether they should or not - and demonstrating that inconsequentiality by pointing out that the UK uses metric for everything else, yet hasn't changed from a Imperial units for road mileage or speed signs with no adverse consequences of not changing.

Y'know, I think all that calculating in customary units, and being shortchanged on yer pints and gallons has addled your brain. 

[KL27x]

You've just totally missed the point haven't you? Y'all have spent the last two pages bitching backwards and forwards about whether the US should or should not change their road signs, and I'm saying that it's inconsequential whether they should or not

I agree. Most of the americans here agree. So did I miss your point? This is what we have been saying for two pages.

[Cubdriver]

You're still not getting it, are you?

Of course I get it. I'm an engineer. Given the choice between metric and imperial, I wouldn't hesitate to choose metric, not even for a yoctosecond.

Those who don't get it are our beloved Jack and Jenny. The benefits of metrication for them are diluted and a technical explanation incomprehensible. They don't understand that their customary way of doing things is a hurdle to progress.

Hmmm...  As an engineer, have you ever done any sort of cost-benefit analysis?  Again - what benefit would the United States see from the extensive cost of changing all the road signs from imperial to metric?  Remember, this is not a clean sheet choice, but a choice to change an extensive infrastructure that already exists and is perfectly functional in its current state.

-Pat

[KL27x]

Except that "a #6-32 machine screw" is meaningless in most ex-Imperial Countries.
We know it isn't Whitworth, BA, or UNF--- we've tried them all!
North America has its own separate set of "customary" sizes, which is why it was a major annoyance when someone in  say, Oz, lost a screw out of some US or Canadian made equipment.

I'm going to try to explain this.
To 99% of Americans "#6-32 machine screw" has absolutely no meaning. To 99% of Americans "M6 bolt" has absolutely no meaning, but they would probably have a better guess to the latter. Most Americans who go to college and who have yet to take their first job will identify a fastener as one of the "4 long screws in bag A," that comes in their Ikea furniture. OTOH, all their coursework to that point other than geography or history will have been in metric. They will have learned probably zero about fasteners in school.

An American will learn what a #6-32 machine screw is when he needs to use one. It's not otherwise important. People use what is the most efficient at the time, what is at hand, what compatibility requirements are anticipated.

And if you think former colony's of Britain don't still use imperial fasteners, you are wrong. It's just a different standard and history is already done. You can't undo it by having a parade.

[bsfeechannel]

Hmmm...  As an engineer, have you ever done any sort of cost-benefit analysis?  Again - what benefit would the United States see from the extensive cost of changing all the road signs from imperial to metric?  Remember, this is not a clean sheet choice, but a choice to change an extensive infrastructure that already exists and is perfectly functional in its current state.

Going metric pays off.
Knock yourself out.

[KL27x]

Going metric pays off.
Knock yourself out.

These are companies. Most of them are American. They changed because of real benefits. Wow, Americans are so dumb, they change to metric where it has a benefit.

Here's an excerpt from Deere companies change:
"Training in the metric system was essential, although not overdone. Engineers were trained first, then foremen, and others as the need arose. Training was proportional to the use of metric measurements, and workers were already familiar with decimal measurements—Deere had changed from fractions of inches to decimal inches in the 1930s, as precision manufacturing increased and they realized that decimals were much easier to add—so the transition from decimal inches to millimeters was relatively easy."

It's not 1970's, anymore. Jack and Jenny America use metric where it suits them, no special training required other than going to school and shopping at the store. They learned the parlor tricks of the cube root length of a liter being exactly a decimeter, and the density of water being 1 gram per cc. They know a degree K is the same as a degree C (but with different calibration point).  Well, most Americans who have a high school diploma learned this at some point (or were passed anyway).

What then do you want? UK didn't change its road signs. And up to this point, it seems like you even agreed that this was part of your plan of "progress." What's left? To put the Meter, Liter, and Holy Kilogram on a pedestal so that stupid Americans can stop worshiping false idols?

You know this is the same America whose first response to new technology is to figure out if it can be used to make a better bomb? Maybe Jack and Jenny don't care to make these bombs, but the Americans who do are using metric just fine, and America can drop a nuke to any spot it wants on frikkin Mars. So I think America is pretty ok with science and metric, don't you?

[Electro Detective]

Moderator Simon has an easy gig here,
23 pages in and no 'row' yet (?!)  

 

FWIW some of us aussies do BOTH to stay sane 

I won't buy any tape measurement stuff unless it has both inches/feet and mm/cm 

Then there's the 'gauge' and 'mm2' things to deal with too, keeps decent sparkies, chippies, and welders on their toes..   

[Sceptre]

You have inches on your road signs?

Clearance signs.  (I was trying to cover all the bases)

Furthermore, the dimensions for the signs themselves are specified in inches, e.g:
https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2c.htm

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (which is legally binding for all US public roads) uses 'English' units exclusively, except in Appendix A2, which are metric conversion tables.
https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009r1r2/appendix/appendixA2.htm

Latest FHWA guidance (2008) is that metric use in documents is optional for the states:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/contracts/1108metr.cfm
At that time, only Vermont was using metric for bridge programs, and then only for old projects:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/metric01.cfm

--Sceptre

[Sceptre]

Jack and Jenny America use metric where it suits them, no special training required other than going to school and shopping at the store.

It all comes down to conservation of digits - a 302ci engine became 5.0l, and multiple serving soda bottles are 1, 2, and 3l.  Though it's interesting that other product volumes didn't follow.

--Sceptre

[vk6zgo]

Except that "a #6-32 machine screw" is meaningless in most ex-Imperial Countries.
We know it isn't Whitworth, BA, or UNF--- we've tried them all!
North America has its own separate set of "customary" sizes, which is why it was a major annoyance when someone in  say, Oz, lost a screw out of some US or Canadian made equipment.

I'm going to try to explain this.
To 99% of Americans "#6-32 machine screw" has absolutely no meaning. To 99% of Americans "M6 bolt" has absolutely no meaning. And if you think former colony's of Britain don't still use imperial fasteners, you are wrong. It's just a different standard and history is already done. You can't undo it by having a parade.

Well, that was a bit silly!
My comment was that many NA standard sizes & naming conventions were not used by the other 'Imperial" countries, so that it was always a problem for people working in engineering based occupations.

Yes, there is still a lot of legacy stuff out there, & the larger sized Imperial screws as used in cars, etc, are mostly compatible, (witness UNF & UNC), but most of the small ones are not.

In non-critical jobs, like bolting some wood together, it doesn't much matter, as we can use Whitworth, UNC, UNF, SAE, or Metric with impunity.
India, which have been nominally Metric since the 1950s, still produce prodigious quantities of Whitworth nuts & bolts, which turn up in the large hardware stores in Oz.
"Jack & Jenny Australia" not knowing, or perhaps not caring, use them to put their pergola together, & call it good.

You do get emotional about this stuff, don't you?------"You can take my freedom, but you'll never take my #6-32 machine screws!"

If you just said "I don't wanna!" everybody would leave you alone, but all this nonsense about "how difficult & costly" it would be just doesn't add up.

[KL27x]

Except that "a #6-32 machine screw" is meaningless in most ex-Imperial Countries.
We know it isn't Whitworth, BA, or UNF--- we've tried them all!
North America has its own separate set of "customary" sizes, which is why it was a major annoyance when someone in  say, Oz, lost a screw out of some US or Canadian made equipment.

I'm going to try to explain this.
To 99% of Americans "#6-32 machine screw" has absolutely no meaning. To 99% of Americans "M6 bolt" has absolutely no meaning. And if you think former colony's of Britain don't still use imperial fasteners, you are wrong. It's just a different standard and history is already done. You can't undo it by having a parade.

Well, that was a bit silly!
....
In non-critical jobs, like bolting some wood together, it doesn't much matter, as we can use Whitworth, UNC, UNF, SAE, or Metric with impunity.
India, which have been nominally Metric since the 1950s, still produce prodigious quantities of Whitworth nuts & bolts, which turn up in the large hardware stores in Oz.
"Jack & Jenny Australia" not knowing, or perhaps not caring, use them to put their pergola together, & call it good.

You are making my point, and you are calling me silly? Even if Americans talked in kilos and meters, India and Australia, and the UK, and China would still be making and selling these non-metric fasteners, and they could still end up in Bsfeechannel's washing machine.

You do get emotional about this stuff, don't you?------"You can take my freedom, but you'll never take my #6-32 machine screws!"

Emotional? No, that is the last thing I would call it. Motivated? Dunno. Amused? Yeah, that's probably the word. I find this entertaining.

You have this wrong. I don't feel any free-er than you do. I feel like a slave, actually. And freedom? What is that other than chaos? Nope, my friend. Not for me. I'm just a cog in a wheel, and I go along for the ride. I pay my taxes, and then I die. Meh. The coffee ain't that bad.

Second. The only reason I know a #6-32 machine screw, is because I used one recently. And no, you can't have them for nothing, because I paid for them, and for the drills and taps, and I occasionally use them. I also have metric taps and bolts, not that it should make a difference to you. Take them away from me? Who would do that? Oh, did you think that on National Metrication Day, I was going to smash them with a hammer and bin them while my heart was swelling with pride? The reasons I own and use them will have melted away and life will be like a schoolbook? Or do you wonder why all those countries you were talking about still have and use imperial fasteners decades after their own metrication?

If you just said "I don't wanna!" everybody would leave you alone, but all this nonsense about "how difficult & costly" it would be just doesn't add up.

Oh, really? How much of this thread have you read, and what kind of colored glasses do you wear that half of the posts don't show up on your screen?

Just look at Scram's last post. That link. Look at the dates. America became metric in the 70's and 80's. America also started teaching metric in schools at this time. Every born American under the age of 60 has formally learned and been taught in metric (and pretty much all of the immigrants, ditto), and most Americans use metric in some way, daily. How far do you want to take it? Because if you change over the air travel industry, I suspect it will cost at least thousand lives, give or take. 

;; I edited the following part several times. I don't have a quick wit; more of a writer than the actor. Or the Q to the James Bond. I have tried to make it as funny as I could, but maybe no one else shares my sense of humor.;;

Can we just fake it, like the UK? We will sing a bar of Hallellujah. And we will spread the word. Ain't metric swell, folks? C'mon 2 - 12 other tiny countries depending on Google hit that still use imperial and are apparently neither Guyana nor Rowanda. Please join us in Progress. And in our own heads, if we actually still think in inches, can we still enter the Promised Land with the rest of you? I mean, not like the VIP section, obviously. But maybe we can just squeeze in somewhere with the general admission. Did I mention we will have a parade? I can't promise you, but I think we can get Gronk to be there. If not, we can for sure get Madonna. Yes, I know. I mean worst case, Madonna. That's the minimum.