4 ms·
I've thought about this too. Basically, once you switched, you'd obsolete a hell of a lot of stuff. For it to make sense, a large portion of the developed world
by lionhearted 17y ago
I've thought about this too. Basically, once you switched, you'd obsolete a hell of a lot of stuff. For it to make sense, a large portion of the developed world would have to switch at the same time as you too. So unlikely to happen.
At the same time, I'm still trying to figure out why the USA doesn't strike imperial measurement from the books.
- ckinnan 17y agoThe US is a dual system-- people are free to use whatever system they want, but business is encouraged to use metric, especially for trade. There was a big push in the 1970s to teach and adopt the metric system on a broad basis-- I remember there were even km speed limit signs-- but it failed. Americans think in feet, inches, miles, gallons, and pounds....imperial still has the first-mover advantage 400 years later!
- anamax 17y agoNote that some things don't scale well. Cooking recipes are one example - all of the ratios matter and the mass/length ratios are different for metric than imperial. (Inches, for pans, and cups, for ingredients, have different relationships than centimeters and liters.) Screw threads are another example. Metric threads have different characteristics than imperial ones.
- CamperBob 17y agoMachinists also don't like the metric system much. There's no metric unit that's anywhere close to the mil (thousandth of an inch). So in fabrication work, you're forced to either use large, oddball numbers of micrometers, compromise your design by moving to 1/10 mm precision, or hose your budget by using micrometer-level precision.