Why do people insist on not using the Metric system?

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I heard when our country converted from imperial to metric there was suspicion that it would lead to unscrupulous 'shortchanging' during the adaption period, which caused a certain amount of resistance.

Really? And did it happen?

Btw are you an Aussie by any chance?

I was raised and live in countries using metric but I'm familiar with imperial too. I don't understand why some people get so hot under the collar about the whole thing, neither is exactly rocket science.

^^ I have no idea, maybe in some cases.
I can remember when we started rounding of currency, many people predicted it would be an excuse to raise prices, but it didn't.

Yes, I'm in Australia.

It's probably too hard for the small portion of the world that doesn't use it!

I agree though, it makes far more sense, as do Celsius rather than Fahrenheit (zero being the freezing point of water makes sense, as do the 'size' of one degree. As a person I can feel the difference between say 20 C and 22 C, but there's no way there would be a noticeable difference between say 20 and 22 F, because the degrees cover such tiny increase/decrease.



Yeah, to me it never made sense with the miles stuff. Km makes sense, but for both miles and km you'll quickly get some pretty high numbers.
For that reason I personally far prefer the system we have here. We use km and mil. 1 mil = 10 km

Interesting.. so basically it's like boiling down the measurements to even smaller portions. I must say using both terms sounds difficult at first to the new user but perhaps it can be easier on the speech that way. i.e when instead of saying 10 Centimeters you can say A decimeter. Likewise you could say you drove a Mil and a half instead of 15 kilometers... just fewer words and numbers to say.

I find it hilarious when people try and defend the imperial system, there's a reason 192 countries use metric and only 3 use imperial.

The imperial system uses nice, one syllable words like "foot", "inch", "yard" etc. The metric system uses words which are more of a mouthful like "centimeter", "kilometer" etc.

Metric:

• Uses multiples of 10, always.

• Uses decimal fractions (i.e., "0.1", "0.02", "0.003", et cetera).

• Referenced to physical constants.

• Used in STEM disciplines.

• One basic unit each for distance, area, volume, and mass.

o Distance: meter / metre.

o Area: are (centiare = 1 sq. meter; deciare = 10 sq. meters; hectare = 100 sq. meters).

o Volume: liter / litre.

o Mass: gram.

Imperial:

• Uses multiples of 3, 10, 12, 16, and others.

• Uses divisional fractions (i.e., "1/2", "2/3", "3/4", et cetera).

• Referenced to arbitrary objects..

• Used in commerce (USA)

• Multiple units each for distance, area, volume, and mass.

o Distance: inch, foot, yard, chain, furlong, mile, league ...

o Area: perch, rood, acre ...

o Volume: minim, scruple, drachm, ounce, gill, pint, gallon, peck, bushel ...

o Mass: grain, drachm, ounce, pound, stone, quarter, hundredweight, ton, slug ...

Last edited by Fnord on 05 Nov 2018, 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Check my post 2 messages above you. I was just talking about that, you may find it interesting.

@Deemar, lol you tell me! Like the guy beforehand who was thinking I'm going to force him and everyone else on the planet to "convert" to "my religion"... should have offered him a glass of water to pour over his salt

a lot of the amuuuurican animus against being forced to universally adopt the metric system can be traced to one man, Chicago Tribune Columnist Bob Greene, who in 1976 founded a grass-roots political organization called WAM, which stood for We Ain't Metric. his group had a LOT of sway with politicians nationwide, and was a significant roadblock to replacing our imperial measurement system.

We don't use centimetres; most measurements are in millimetres (mil) or metres.
I haven't heard anyone use the word decimetre since I was in school, it's considered archaic.
Kilometres are referred to as k's

Canada has been using the metric system for years. But I don't think it's superior or inferior to the standard system in any way. All I know is that since I was taught how to measure using metric I get confused when the US measures things differently than we do. Especially the weather temperature.

I rather like Fahrenheit for temperature measurements as it is more precise.

You use what you know. The U.S. schools teach Imperial and metric, but retail uses Imperial almost exclusively. The last time retail establishments tried to enforce metric, the customers protested and threatened boycotts.

I think a lot of it has to do with a right-wing fear of an alleged left-wing plot to place the U.S. economy under the direction of the E.U




...Your last comment runs into something I have often thought, and since we're toughly the same age, maybe you can comment from memory here...I seem to recall that, when Jimmy Carter was U.S. President, there was some - I can't maybe think of the right phrase here, maybe " plan "? " concept "? - plan in motion to seitch measurements in the US to the metric system that had moved along to someone degree but got unplugged) turned off when Reagan came in (Much as he got rid of the solar energy panels that Carter had put up at the White House, IIRC ) - not precisely, perhaps, because Ronnie himself felt in such a way the fear that you cite in your last paragraph, but that some of Reagan's big supporters sorts felt that way, or at least " He-e-eell No! We ain't gonna let them dang furriners tell the Yew Ess Aye what t'do no sir! Why, they're just a buncha' stinkin' Commies anyway!! ! " Some " red meat to the base ", I believe they put it nowadaze !

No, it isn't. It only has greater integer resolution -- 180°F from freezing to boiling (water), as opposed to 100°C for the same range. In either system, you can tack on the fractional decimal places until you get to the exact value you need.