4 ms·
Congress already tried. No one cared. > Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 "to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in th
by wmeredith 10y ago
Congress already tried. No one cared.
> Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 "to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in the United States". Voluntary conversion was initiated, and the United States Metric Board (USMB) was established for planning, coordination, and public education. The public education component led to public awareness of the metric system, but the public response included resistance, apathy, and sometimes ridicule.[8] In 1981, the USMB reported to Congress that it lacked the clear Congressional mandate necessary to bring about national conversion. Because of this ineffectiveness and an effort of the Reagan administration — particularly from Lyn Nofziger's efforts[9] as a White House advisor to the Reagan administration, to reduce federal spending — the USMB was disbanded in the autumn of 1982.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States#20th_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat...
- Apocryphon 10y agoMaybe the way to get the mainstream to adopt a niche system is to find a use case that widens it to us. Witness the triumph of Linux through Android, for instance. What would get laypeople to use metric? Measuring alcohol?
- epistasis 10y agoAs in those 750mL bottles of alcohol or wine?