Memes

Really though, the most ardent defence of USC units is fuelled by great amounts of Copium. The US Customary set of measurements is several independent systems of measurements which often radically different origins and sometimes irrational conversions, all stacked upon each other and dressed in a trench coat. For instance, the mile has Roman origins while the inch and foot were defined separately, much later, and with a lot of regional variation. The French foot was longer than the English foot, which is why Napoleon was listed as 5'2" tall while he was actually closer to 5'9", or 1.71 m, which was pretty average for the time.

Which one of these is more straightforward to calculate:

• You are tasked with installing a rail along a 1 mile long bridge. You know you can use two half inch bolts to affix it every three feet. How many bolts do you need?

• You are tasked with installing a rail along a 1,5 km long bridge. You know you can use two M12 bolts to affix it every metre. How many bolts do you need?

Conversions within dimensions in USC require you to memorise arbitrary conversion numbers. Conversions within dimensions in SI require you to move the comma a few spots.

Besides, if the US Customary system of units is so great, why did most of the world voluntarily switch to SI units?

Everything in America except building trades has transitioned to metric already.

Even our imperial units are defined in metric.

But... PLEASE don't tell our citizens. It will all be fine as long as we don't tell them!

Americans are still using monarchy units while the rest of the world is on freedom units.

I have to agree 100%. The slavish devotion of small brained regressive idiots to base 12 time keeping has bugged me for fucking ever. Swatch solved this decades ago, but people are too stuck in their "But this is what we've always used" bullshit mindset.

I'm basically forced to know the good way, and the American way.

For anything construction-scale, all supplies sold in the US are based on 4x8' sheet goods and 16-24" on-center framing. I also concede that king George the 74th's foot length is more human-scale when dealing with large measurements: 20 feet vs 6096 mm. I still use metric when possible, however - I find it easier and more accurate.

For EVERYTHING else I've switched to using metric.

Context: I grew up in the US using imperial units and only pivoted to the metric system in 2020. If I grew up thinking in metric and building supplies/standards used it, it'd be superior in every way.

TL;DR I like my imperial/metric combo tape measure.

Metroids itt btfo, malding, fractionally mogged upon.

I’m terrified of driving the day they move the US from miles to kilometers. People go well over the speed limit as it is. I can only imagine how many people would read the kilometer per hour speed limit as miles.

@Zerush Too much hassle to change to metric

There are (huge) costs to retooling production to move from imperial to metric. Even if a company wanted to make that move they'd have to transition in phases and will likely end up with additional equipment to maintain. There's also significant training for workers (who will likely commit errors in the beginning) which will impact production. And what happens to the old equipment? I'd guess a significant portion of that would end up getting scrapped and landfilled.