Why ddint USA addopt metric system?

The US Constitution explicitly gives congress the power to set national standards for weights and measurements. It’s just a matter of not really needing to and negative public backlash.

President Thomas Jefferson invited scientists from France to introduce America to the Metric System, yet their ship succumbed to piracy. They could very well have been murdered.

Is that an opinion that people actually have?

It did.

>The majority of U.S. customary units were redefined in terms of the meter and the kilogram with the Mendenhall Order of 1893 and, in practice, for many years before.[2] These definitions were refined by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959.[3]

Of course. It is the system used by serious people.

America's history is so laughably short, that replacing the British system with the metric would be trivial.

All these answers beating around the bush, the bush being american autism

The metric system is more orderly, but doesn't actually offer much in terms of practical advantages.

For example, in the US you measure distance in inches, feet, or miles. Unlike the metric system, it's not easy to convert between those units. However, practically speaking it's rare that you need to. Those units are sufficiently suited for what they're used to measure. Users of the metric system do the same thing. How many of them use or even know what a decameter is?

That's not to say that the US system is perfect. It's units of liquid volume are a complete mess, but that's mainly because there are too many of them in common use. However, that isn't the case across the board.

>decameter
Lmao, Jahnny, get real

You're saying that the disadvantages of the US system do not matter much in many common use cases (not all of them though, ask an American for their height), but even in those cases they are not actually better than the metric system, merely equivalent, if needlessly byzantine.

My question was whether people actually believe the US system to be superior in certain circumstances, or whether that is a troll argument people use to rile up Europeans.

The main problem is not that it makes any more sense but that everyone else uses it. It means no one outside the US can understand wtf you're talking about.

In fact, just to piss off Amerilards, I actively refuse to learn anything about their stupid measurements. They should get on the same page with us, not the other way around.

"not really needing"
Army uses metric
Academia uses metric
NASA uses metric
Neil Armstrong thought in metric, not in imperial, when he set foot on the moon.
Future is metric. Imperial is outdated. The only reason your average US citizen still uses it is because the level of education in the US (pre-doctorate) is laughable.
Doesn't really matter anyway, all US citizen interacting with outside world thinks in metric.

Degree Fahrenheit is the most retarded bullshit they use. Even if they don't want to drop miles and ounces, they should seriously consider switching to Celsius.

>not wanting the planet to switch to Kelvin

You're all unsophisticated swine, boxed into this crude, state-based dihydrogen monoxide standard rather than the supreme and ultimate measure of particle vibration.

There was to be a presentation to convince Americans to switch to metric, but the instruments they were going to use to demonstrate were lost at sea. I'm not kidding by the way.

why would they drop such a smooth and logical system

>but even in those cases they are not actually better than the metric system, merely equivalent, if needlessly byzantine.
>merely equivalent, if needlessly byzantine.
>nedlessy byzantine
What did he mean by this

>le uneducated americans

Are the British literally retarded?

WTF I love France now.

I mean he's not wrong. Every country used to have a special snowlake system of measurement but all of them eventually ditched it in favor of metric, Americans were the only ones dumb enough to keep theirs.

The Git Gud of measurements.

The Metric Martyrs did nothing wrong.

Where do you think memes take root

You're right, "needlessly" is redundant. I didn't think people who don't even use a question mark at the end up their sentence would have such a good feeling for language.

it's not really a British invention desu, every European village had their own version of it before converting to metric
it's just that the British were too dumb to convert and exported this bullshit to the anglo colonies

>tfw it's not even theirs and even its inventors ditched it
Burgerland is hopeless if the populace cannot be convinced of something as simple as standardized measurement systems.

Kill kings, kill all old systems, embrace enlightment!.. And then it got muddled with imperialism, more losses, more revolutions, more... randomness. Cue back to Daft Punk

The difference between a degree Kelvin and a degree Celsius is the same unlike Farenheit.

I genuinely did not know people use the adjective byzantine like that. It's a bit harsh, poor guys.

Units of measure are arbitrary. An inch isn't inherently better or worse than a centimeter. It's the usability that matters.

That said, while the US system can be needlessly complicated, the metric system is also rather artificial. A foot can be more cleanly broken into fractions that a meter because it's based on a factor of 12 rather than 10. There's some practical advantage in that. I'd argue that the metric system converts up better, but the US system breaks down better. That's just my personal opinion, but I work in both systems regularly.

>degree Kelvin

Does France even have a defined historical cultural track except "We've tried everything but we're still not satisfied"?

They should have listened to Camus.

People literally argue successfully for Creationism in secondary schools in some states, it's not a meme.

Anyone important uses metric in the U.S. Nobody cares if Raoul uses inches when he's building a porch.

France is still not satisfied. France will never be satisfied. France is an experiment. We try stuff you are afraid of, and still we are wanting. We are forever experimenting, forever traditional, forever lacking. A perpetual social experiment, high in taste and colours. You are welcome here. Paris is best taken in the spring, as the Parisians.
We'll swallow you whole.

I think the disadvantages that come from a lack of easy convertibility in combination of the need to convert regularly, because each unit is only used for a certain size far outweigh the minor advantage of being able to break something into thirds without having to use fractions.

Kelvin is not as good as Celsius for every day use, because it doesn't reflect phenomena that people actually observe and uses pointlessly large numbers.

I'd say 95% of the use of "byzantine" is like how I used it. Outside of history, nobody cares about these guys.

I'm looking forward to the day we drop a few DOZEN MEGATONS of nukes on you europoors and put you out of your misery.

>I'd say 95% of the use of "byzantine" is like how I used it. Outside of history, nobody cares about these guys.
Ouch

I'd say we'd also have to somehow motivate students to learn in the first place, just look at fucking Kansas's attempt at spending more on education:
>Spent $11,700 per pupil
>To entice white students to come to Kansas City, the district had set aside $900,000 for advertising, including TV ads, brochures, and videocassettes. If a suburban student needed a ride, Kansas City had a special $6.4 million transportation budget for busing. If the student didn't live on a bus route, the district would send a taxi.
>The student-teacher ratio was 12 or 13 to 1, the lowest of any major school district in the country.
>The results were dismal. Test scores did not rise; the black-white gap did not diminish; and there was less, not greater, integration.
For anyone further interested, here's the whole paper
object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/pa-298.pdf

Most of those people aren't necessarily uneducated though. Delusional and stubborn, perhaps.

fuck didn't mean to reply

If you have the capability to believe shit like that you're uneducated in my book. It shows lack of reason and logic.

Only Americans do.

I think in the public consciousness of history, Rome was the Roman Empire and maybe the Republic, and Byzantium ranks somewhere with the likes of Bosnia and Bhutan, which is to say "Did you just make that up?".

I'd actually argue the opposite. I think in everyday usage it's much more common to deal with things in terms of fractions than actually converting them between different units. In both systems, the units fit a niche, meaning you're inherently going to conceptualize and work in that unit, even if another could technically be used.

>Fight against the cornerstone of Biology
>Take literally the Bible, ignoring History, Astronomy, Biology again, Anthropology, Geology, Modern Ethics, etc.
>those people aren't necessarily uneducated though
LOL what?

Because neither I nor Congress want to use hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to have crews run around to every sign in every corner of the North American landmass and change out every single sign, nor do we want to buy new cars with new speedometers. Just plug into google you lazy ass, it's not like you'd be caught dead in an area with no internet reception anyway.

Bit if you're using fractions anyway, then the sole advantage of the US system disappears.

How about you just switch them when the sign needs to be replaced/repainted?

Since you're gonna have to do that eventually anyway, why not take the opportunity to switch the units.

The thing is, your book doesn't count for shit. There are plenty of people who hold those beliefs who will accomplish more with their time on this world than you ever will.
It turns out you don't have to be perfectly correct in order to do great things. All you have to be is correct enough.

Are you aware of how incredibly variable that is? For a good 40 years you could be driving down roads with both metric and imperial signs, that's retarded.

> buy new cars with new speedometers
cars all have kmh and mph

No, that is the advantage. 1/32 of a mile is a clean number of feet. 1/4 of a foot is a clean number of inches. Metric units can't be broken down as easily without getting into units that aren't applicable to the thing be measured. As I said, metric units tend to work better as you scale up, but not as much when working down. I hope that clarifies what I was getting at.

Not mine

What?

You people will pull every excuse possible not to jut change it will you?

No one else that isn't an irrelevent shithole still uses non-standard measurement units, so that everyone can understand each other.

I'm Canadian. We're infested with American products and parts. I am SO FUCKING SICK of having to deal with your bullshit measurements that when I last got a new car I bought a European one so everything was in metric. And to this day, retards who've been raised by old Imperial-users will ask me my height or weight, I'll tell them, and they'll look at me like I'm a retard because I didn't use pounds, feet and inches. The influence from you fuckers being next door fucks everything up.

>Australia did it
>NZ did it

>How to spot the Quebecian

Where's that thinking user who talks about the imperial system being more ergonomic

lol deal with it leaf

>How many of them use or even know what a decameter is?

literally everyone, it's used all the time

wtf are you talking about

I'd think hexametres were more useful than decametres.

>ballchinian

I don't get the advantage of getting round numbers when the units you get the round numbers in can't get converted easily in your head. It's like one step forward, two steps backward. It seems far more intuitive to just say 50.29 meters, rather that 1/32nd mile. I can immediately picture the meters number and how it relates to real world objects and other measurements taken in cm or mm.
There's also the problem that everything we use is usually base ten, but US style units are base 12. What the hell?

>It seems far more intuitive to just say 50.29 meters, rather that 1/32nd mile
You could just say 55 yards.
That is the real advantage. When you break the unit down into common fractions, the smaller unit will end up a whole number.
>There's also the problem that everything we use is usually base ten, but US style units are base 12.
Factors of 10
1,2,5,10
Factors of 12
1,2,3,4,6,12
Factors of 60
1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30,60

This is irrelevant. Given that metric is base ten like our numbers, anyone raised on metric (ie everyone but Amerilards) will find estimating with decimals intuitive.

how much is 1/12 of a mile?

Because the people in the US who actually use them (i.e. Engineers) are incredibly lazy and not willing to change over all their standards.

The whole reason why you need round numbers, is that nobody can think in fucking base 12, and because the units can't be converted easily. How many inches are 3.45 feet?

In metric decimals are super easy to use and very intuitive, as said. .47m = 47cm, 3.7cm = 37mm. To someone raised on metric these require no conscious thought, and you can to that with absolutely every number, not just specific factors.

Nasa uses both.

>army uses metric
And the navy and air force use a mixture of imperial and metric
>academia uses metric
The sciences use metric, engineering uses a mixture of both
>NASA
See engineers
>neil armstrong thought in metric
Again, they used a mixture of metric and imperial.

They only use Imperial because all the physical shit they have to work with is made in burgerland and thus made by plebs who just work in a factory and don't know metric.

>study firearms history
>calibre in inches, mm, gauge/bores and pounds
>weights in drams, grains, ounces and grams

Brits with their inane pounds for caliber really killed it. Nobody can ever come up with a more retarded measurement. I am forever happy that their pride got annihilated in Jutland, by the nascent navy of a continental power.

Jutland was a draw, by every measure.

underrated

In strategic terms it was, but it was a German moral victory. The Royal Navy was the pride of the British nation with centuries of tradition, and Jutland showed that it was a run down old men's club that got blown the fuck out when it met an enemy with the same kind of equipment, even though that enemy was outnumbered, outgunned and had no naval tradition to speak of.

We tried in the 80's

>Why ddint USA addopt metric system?

Then you will have no qualms about calling Dunkirk a victory.

American education everyone.

The French fought a successful rearguard action against a severely weakened German force while the British were ferried off, betraying their French allies by not taking them with them, as they had promised.

not anymore
or do they really want to crash another mars orbiter

>farenheit is arbitrary but celcius isn't
kelvin or gtfo

>not anymore
They literally use imperial on the ISS

>one whale is 12 and a half dandyropes which is 24 and 1/3 juggashrimps
>practical use

This kot belongs to metric people.

Why do you need to convert to Juggashrimps tho?

> implying Kelvin isn't also arbitrary

I hear it every single time someone mentions the metric system in front of an Amerilard.

Not wanting more taxes and government expenditure is always a good argument, but in the case of you guys it always falls flat when you think about your completely out of proportion defense budget.