> They use tonnes, hundreds or thousands of litres, and large areas. Outside America, they don't need to convert between units of the same type: no acre-feet, b

> They use tonnes, hundreds or thousands of litres, and large areas. Outside America, they don't need to convert between units of the same type: no acre-feet, bushels, pounds, tons, or all that crap. In America, anyone who would deal solely in tonnes can deal solely in tons; anyone who would deal solely in hectolitres can deal solely in barrels (traditionally, 128 quarts); anyone who would deal solely in kilolitres can deal solely in tuns (traditionally, 1,024 quarts). No-one in America has to say '7 tuns, 2 hogsheads, 3 gallons, six quarts and a fluid oz' any more than he'd say '7.2850546 kilolitres.' > Calling them "French units" sounds like xenophobia. Oh, I'm not xenophobic! I just don't think they deserve a privileged position. > The American system was never international, and the British system didn't extend that much further than the French, at the time of the empire. The American system was used in Liberia; prior to the Russian Revolution the majority of the peoples of the world used systems of measurement substantially similar to the Anglo-American system, and could (should have, IMHO) rationalised and standardised that, rather than adopting the objectively inferior decimal principal.