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I do not wish to counter with a list of Americanisms that British people find infuriating, as life is short and we might all expire before I was done. I will n
by modernerd 8y ago
I do not wish to counter with a list of Americanisms that British people find infuriating, as life is short and we might all expire before I was done.
I will note that — unlike in Europe where metrication and SI units have been legal requirements since 1973 and are in wide use outside of the scientific community — America has no agreed upon “system of weights and measures” as you put it, instead considering the adoption of any standard “voluntary”, which makes a farce of the very idea of standardi[s|z]ation[1].
https://gizmodo.com/the-white-house-says-you-can-use-the-metric-system-if-y-509827217 https://gizmodo.com/the-white-house-says-you-can-use-the-met...
- ubernostrum 8y agoMetrication in the US and UK are very similar. The US has an actual federal law on the books declaring metric to be the official system of weights and measures nationwide. And... we still use a mix of systems, including in "official" things like road signage. In much the same way, Brits still order beer by the pint, read their speedometers in miles per hour, etc. etc.
- modernerd 8y agoThat's interesting, and the “official but not strongly enforced” feel in the US does sound pretty similar to the UK, just from skimming through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat....