Comment by jimt1234
19 days ago
When I was a kid the schools taught us the metric system, telling us it was the world standard, and would become the standard is the US by the time I was an adult. That was over 40 years ago. And that pretty much sums it all up.
The US legally switched to metric when England did. It is taught in all schools and used for international trade. But, just like in England there is a mix of imperial and metric units used domestically. If you dont travel internationally, like many Americans, there is little need to use metric. Another generation and there won't be many people left in the US that didn't at least learn metric.
It's not like England in that respect at all. Yes, there is a mix of usage in the UK but it is very limited. People use metric for everything except miles in cars, pints in pubs, and height and weight of people.
From what I have read about metrication, England required all industries to change. The US government doesn't have authority to do that and US industry wasn't going to change all their tooling at great cost if they didn't need to.
At least they were right about one thing. It definitely is the world standard.
see that proves it - the U.S can't adopt the metric system, it's too big, you don't want to have to break out the megameters! /s