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why is the US not Metric
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Mr. Scram:

--- Quote from: CatalinaWOW on November 26, 2019, 04:16:58 pm ---Those who do lose sleep over murder must not sleep at all, because it happens.  In every part of the world.  It is a horrible thing, but me staying awake is not going to change it.

--- End quote ---
Imperial is like murder but both are acceptable. I think that's the story.
Cerebus:

--- Quote from: Mr. Scram on November 26, 2019, 05:57:41 pm ---
--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 26, 2019, 11:17:19 am ---There is here (UK), I've never seen a set of measuring spoons that weren't 5ml, 10ml, 15ml. With the proviso that they were recent enough to have markings/specifications in mls as well as nominal 'spoon' sizes; I'll bet my old mum's measuring spoons just said "tsp" etc.

Just did a quick search on ebay for measuring spoons from the UK, Europe, China and the USA, and they all seem to conform to those sizes. So it looks as if there is an ad-hoc world standard.

--- End quote ---
Your search bubble may be getting to you. I'll refer to Wikipedia. "The unit of measurement varies by region: a United States tablespoon is approximately 14.8 mL (0.50 US fl oz), a United Kingdom and Canadian tablespoon is exactly 15 mL (0.51 US fl oz),[2] and an Australian tablespoon is 20 mL (0.68 US fl oz).[3]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablespoon

--- End quote ---

I'd suggest that Wikipedia (one source), with results for the US, UK, Canada and Australia, is a bit more "search bubble" than a deliberate search across what's being sold by vendors from "UK, Europe, China and the USA".

Anyway (apart from the greedy buggers in Aus - population 25M - with their oversize spoons)  your results still come up with 15ml +0-1.3% or +0-200ul, which is about 'one drop'. I strongly suspect that making 0.5 US fl oz measuring spoons just for the US market is something that, in practice, doesn't actually happen, so they end up with 15ml measuring spoons just like the rest of us. Or the situation is standardised in the same way that mains voltage is standardised across the EU - with a wide enough margin of error that a device manufactured to a slightly off-centre spec is acceptable anywhere.
KL27x:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 26, 2019, 11:56:25 am ---I got a package from the US of A today.

On the CN22 customs declaration form, surely the most international of documents almost by definition, the weight was printed only in lbs, with no metric equivalent. Now that strikes me as dumb, and it's the sort thing that might, not unreasonably, lead some people to perceive that the US is a teeny weeny bit arrogant about insisting on using weights and measures (in the explicit context of international trade let us remember) that are out of step with the rest of the world.

It's one thing to use whatever units you like in your own backyard, heck it's your backyard, but when talking to the other 96% of the world's population it would at least be only polite to try and speak the same language, units wise.

I suspect that this is what is at the heart of the rabid taking of positions pro and anti the US adopting metric units.

--- End quote ---

Woman: you left the toilet seat up, again. The only reason I didn't fall in, is because I fell in the toilet, once, when I was 15. I always check, now, before I pee. You're the only man in the house, so you have to respect the female majority.

Man: If it's my job, I have to lift and put down the lid every time I pee. But logically speaking, I might have to use the bathroom again, before any of you do. So I would have done extra work for nothing. You said you always check, anyway. So if the lid happens to be up, then the first woman to use it will have to put it down, and then the women are collectively doing half the work between them, so it will be nothing. There are so many women, that this will be trivial to you. I am the only one that has to lift this damn lid every time I pee, and you all have it easy.

Woman: Ok, then. Why don't you pee sitting down, too? Then all of us will be able to sit down without even looking!

Man: Fine, I'll put the lid back down.

~1 week later, repeat.

;;;
Yeah, that is annoying to you, and I apologize for America. But you do at least still read the units. The day we fill out or read the "weight" section as simply "8.4," then we will all be zombies.

Maybe US companies/government offered to use only metric, but this offer was politely declined. Seeing as US is officially imperial, it is maybe something that is negotiated between countries, diplomatically? And maybe this happened 100 years ago, and this is simply the way they have handled it ever since then? :-//

From the EE's perspective, there is also RTFM. I wonder what did the instructions say on the form, if any.
tooki:

--- Quote from: Cerebus on November 26, 2019, 06:56:12 pm ---Anyway (apart from the greedy buggers in Aus - population 25M - with their oversize spoons)  your results still come up with 15ml +0-1.3% or +0-200ul, which is about 'one drop'. I strongly suspect that making 0.5 US fl oz measuring spoons just for the US market is something that, in practice, doesn't actually happen, so they end up with 15ml measuring spoons just like the rest of us. Or the situation is standardised in the same way that mains voltage is standardised across the EU - with a wide enough margin of error that a device manufactured to a slightly off-centre spec is acceptable anywhere.

--- End quote ---
Almost certainly. Nobody measuring a teaspoon of baking powder or vanilla extract is going to be doing it down to 0.07ml of precision by hand.

These are my measuring spoons, purchased in USA around 2001. Like essentially all measuring devices in USA sold in my lifetime, they’re marked in both customary and metric. Given the cheap quality of these things, there’s no way they’re accurate to 0.07ml on a teaspoon even if they tried, so I’d also wager that they’re actually nominally metric, and they just stamp them differently for the US market. (Presumably they have an entire array of stamps for different languages and regions.)




What surprised me is that a few years ago, one grocery store here started carrying measuring cups that also have US cups graduations on them. (Other than the US-designed Oxo Good Grips products, and the IKEA stuff that’s made for the whole world, one practically never sees US cups measurements on cookware here.)
KL27x:
AFAIC, a tablespoon is 15mL in America. 14.8mL? The madness.  >:D
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