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The US is on the metric system[0]. The people, however, are not. The children use the United States customary units, because their parents use it. The parents u
by jared314 13y ago
The US is on the metric system[0]. The people, however, are not. The children use the United States customary units, because their parents use it. The parents use it, because their parents used it. The companies use it, because the people use it.
I also happen to like the orderly ISO 216 paper sizes, but US people don't use that either.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order
- chestnut-tree 13y agoI wonder if the US will ever move to international paper sizes? I would have thought this would actually be an advantage to (American) product manufacturers making printers and photocopiers. Would it not simplify product offerings if A4 was used instead of US Letter? Plus you get the advantage that A4 scales up perfectly to A3 and scales down perfectly to A5.
- bazzargh 13y agoNever mind the paper sizes, the really crazy US measurement is the paper density: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_density tl;dr - most of the world uses grammage (g/m^2, ISO 536). The US uses pounds in a ream of paper in its uncut basis size. The basis size varies with the type of paper, and so does the ream size. It's a measurement that can only make sense to people who never take paper out of the box.