Ok, first off, this does not keep me up ant night, but I find it interesting. ( I am biased on the matter as I have been bought up with the metric system )

here goes anyway.




On this map you see all the places in the world that still use the imperial measurement system. Now I would have thought that as soon as you folks kicked the British out together with their tea and taxes, that you would throw out the kings way to measure things at the same time. Not even the British themselves have kept that archaic way of measuring stuff because it makes little sense and really has no system as such. I know folks around here like to call it " standard " but fact of the matter is that the official name in the world is " Imperial " as devised by Mr. Witworth and his fellow measuring stick advocates. One would think that a relatively high tech nation like the USA would go with the times and ditch the quarts , gallons and inches in favor of a far superior and more logical way of measuring things.
Or is it because ya can't call a 3.5 by 1.5 a 2 by 4 in that system and houses would end up even more crooked

We do use the metric system, unfortunately, just pull up any scientific paper or medical chart.

True the Imperial system is more cumbersome. But look what we do with it... all with one hand tied behind our back.

We're ok, it's the rest of the world that's messed up Scuba!

Warrior .... that could be considered a half a.... attempt at best

Fun fact.........the metric system is based on distance from equator to north pole............10,000,000 meters. That is it.......all weights and measures flow from that.

But since it is a 10 based system, it is way easier to work with if you have to do anything precise. But where is the fun in that?

Metrics are for commies.

We were taught the metric system in high school in the 70's with the assurance the US would soon be switching. Obviously that never happened. As a carpenter and builder I use math daily and have no problem with the imperial system. Likewise I probably wouldn't mind using the metric system. I do use it sometimes, when I have to. Some transitions would be a PITA.

Building my house, a co-worker was at the smart end of the tape measure, I was on the dumb end. He told me I needed to cut the board "11 feet, 4 3/16 inches. Wow! Why not 3.46 meters? Water boils at 212 degrees? How stupid. Why not freeze at 0, boil at 100? I think American's are too lazy to convert, although to me, it makes too much sense. Basically, the only thing we do metric is our money.

Rant over...

Jack

The British folks have done a half as.... attempts at converting as well. The road signs are still in Mp/h and consumption is still measured in miles per gallon. But when you fill the tank up, it is sold by the liter. Younger folks have no idea what a gallon is these days. They sell produce by the Kilogram and weigh persons in stones, pounds and ounces. Distances on maps are in kilometers. Speed limits in miles.
Having lived there for a while, other than them driving on the wrong side of the road, not much else made sense either

Worked in manufacturing.
One issue with going to metric is all the machine tools and measuring equipment around when the change was proposed were in imperial. So either convert all metric to imperial to make stuff (still happens most of the time.) or buy all new machines and measuring equipment. So the only real solution was convert from metric to imperial. there is one h*ll of a lot of machine tools and measuring equipment out there that is still in operation that was made before the '70's. And alot being sold today is still made in the imperial system.
Most part drawings are metric, then converted to imperial to make tooling and equipment to make parts. Parts made from tooling equipment are then measured as the drawing in metric.

Some places I worked at wanted tooling to be metric, so tooling was priced higher, had to buy metric taps, reamers and other components to make the tooling. Raw material (steel for example) is pretty much Imperial. So alot of the stuff was made in odd metric sizes cause in reality it was sized in imperial.

AS far as precision, I'd argue that imperial is more precise. Typically imperial measure in thousands of an inch, .001. Metric is .01mm. .001" is a smaller (more precise) amount.

Some may argue about fractions of an inch. How many carpenters, masons, roofers, and electricians work in less than 1/16"? Everyone I know who works in finer measurements ends up going to thousands of an inch, no more fractions. I have never seen anything built to any other fraction other than a multiple of 1/16. Never seen 1/7 or 1/5 or 1/13 used. So fractions are easy, I can tell you off the top of my head the decimal equivalents of every 1/16 increment. Work with the system for awhile and its easy.

Go to any hardware store and start looking for metric fasteners, wrenches taps, dies and compare to whats available in imperial. Always alot more Imperial stuff.

I watch youtubes from other countries that are metric and you'll see them using imperial from time to time.

In the end it works so why change? Just to be like everyone else?

X2!! We don't need no stinking metric system.

I guess I am the odd ball in this one as brought my tooling over from the other side of the pond. So all my stuff including micrometers etc. is metric. Same goes for taps and dies ..... So when I make things , they end up being made using the metric system. Unless I tread barrels and stuff like that, then i cut them imperial ( even single point on a metric lathe. ..... With todays machines ( that I don't have here at my disposal ) it makes no difference as you can choose your flavor of measurement in the CNC world. I do that on my 3D printer. Stuff that I write is metric. Things like hose adapters and such are imperial, so I go with the flow there

11 ft 4 3/16" is way more precise than 3.46meters.

if your of 1/16 your off .0625"
if your off .01 meters your off .3937"

so a measurement in 1/16 of n inch is 15X smaller (more precise) than a measurement in .01 meters.

I'd rather anyone building anything of mine would work in 1/16 rather than .01 meters.

your wrong about too lazy to convert, I had to convert metirc to imperial and back again so much that after awhile I can now do it in my head as I worked with both all day long. I was forced to by customers and vendors.

one can use any measurement system they want when their work is all made by themselves. But when you make something that needs to work with other machines and tools some thought best be made.

If I was making a implement to be used on a tractor I'd go with Imperial. I know vastly every farmer/mechanic/fabricator out there has imperial tools at his disposal.

If I was making something for the current automotive world I'd use metric as my final product.

Working for General Motors for 40 years, the last 30 in skilled trades in the tool room/inspection we used metrics.

Still some of the unchanging older guys always asked "what that in English"? We would convert it for them so they could build something.

Its actually quite easy to use if you think of the ratio. An inch comes out to 25.4(aprox.). Or .040 English to a Millimeter (aprox).

In 1976 GM and the other auto industry started to change over. (Cheaper nuts and bolts available -- Chinese)

All of the CMM machines were using metrics.

All our contacts from Europe talked Metric.

I worked making tooling for the auto industry and many other industries. I can assure you that GM may use metric on their part drawings and they may force their vendors to use metric in their tooling components but the vast majority of it is made and measured in the imperial system while being made.

How much of the tooling you worked with was actually made by GM?

That and soccer. Got no business being on our shores.

Pretty soon Scuba will have us figuring out fuel efficiency in our vehicles by counting how many liters of petrol to 100 kilometers like they do in France.

You would like the big 'ol lathe that's in my shop, Scuba. It does metric and whitworth threads but not American as I call them.