The AntiChris

Not true.

Chris

Jesse

If anyone really wants a system of measurement in which all "arbitrary" units are eliminated, they should scrap the metric system and use Planck units which are all multiples of various fundamental constants of nature, like the speed of light and the gravitational constant.

fando

We are actually in a state of transition. If you pay careful attention to units around you, you'll notice that many things are expressed in both metric and imperial. For instance, there's a box of Kix cereal sitting in front of me right now and it lists the net weight in both ounces and grams. There are many things listed purely in metric, like bottles of water (liters) and everything in my car manual. I purchase 2 liter bottles of soda all the time, so there are actually product families that use metric units as a basis for packaging dimensions.

The perception that the US is entirely based on imperial units is myopic, almost ignorant. Metric dominates science, engineering and parts of the business world. Imperial hangs on in some of the more traditional engineering fields and companies (e.g. Lockheed Martin, the source of the conversion error that doomed Mars Climate Observer). Travel distances are still noted in miles, but it will be extremely expensive to convert the transportation infrastructure to read kilometers on a nationwide basis. To demand that the U.S. switch over to Kilometers already is arrogant and silly.

The reality is that the U.S. government officially supports the use of metric, but it is a slow and continuing transition. Read this page for details.

seanie

You may end up in a situation like the UK. We officially went metric over 30 years ago but muddle along with both. Ask most people their height and they'll give you it in feet and inches, weight in stones, pounds and ounces, and distances in yards and miles.

However people will also use metric. Millimetres are a damn sight easier than pissing about with various fractions of an inch. I assume kids these days are more and more metricated.

One curiosity is that everybody describes hot weather in Fahrenheit and cold weather in Celsius.

gcameron

"Thirty days has September and... and..." ah, screw it.

ElectEngr

I beleive there was a 10 year plan to bring the US into the metric system when President Carter was in office.

When Ray-Guns was "elected", the plan was scrapped.

In the mid 1980's while I was living in San Antonio, TX, I heard one person tell me that Ray-guns presidency was "inspired by the holy spirit and therefore inerrant" and that the metric system 'made up" by the French and therefore either Catholic or Athisitic and therefore inventied by satan. (hay, I'm just repeatin' what I was told). The person then went back to his bomb shelter in "screamin' fundie land" (i.e. East Texas)

Later,
ElectEngr

Tenpudo

*starts counting knuckles*

Koiyotnik

That's the situation in Canada, at least along the border cities. I consistently use Celsius measurements for temperature, but I've become rather adept at converting in my head since others use Farenheit.

I don't weigh myself in kilograms, but I do measure myself in centimetres, or decimal metres - 155 cm. Woo.

I also work for an Engineering firm that specializes in motorized vehicle accident analysis and investigation. The majority of our files are in the States, so I'm usually plotting the drawing using the imperial scale. Then there will be the times that I forget it's a Canadian case, and try to do the drawing in feet and inches. The worst is when the field agent mixes up their measurements, which forces me to convert on the spot.

About the base ten/ten-digit correlation: Carl Sagan mused about this in his book The Dragons of Eden, if anyone's interested.

Godless Dave

Phew!

trientalis

FWIW, it goes:

Thirty days hath September
April, June, and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, which alone
Has twenty-eight, and one day more
We add to it one year in four.