Survey: Should America Go Metric?

I would say yes, but since I don't live in the US, I would be strange to say that WE have to join the rest of the world.
Let's be real, it would be much easier for kids to learn centimeters, meters, kilograms etc. than the strange calculations you have to make to get from inches to feet to yards to miles etc.

curalex, you beat me to it. Why, on the WORLD wide web, are things America-centric?

Anyway, I have heard the price to concert in the Trillion dollar range. Think of what would need to be changed:
- all measuring equipment (weigh scales, flow meters, etc.)
- textbooks
- all media
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.
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Having a different system of units is great for educating young budding math and science students to learn how to cancel units using conversion factors. Which leads to a more numerically literate public, who theoretically, will know how to convert between BTUs, therms, and calories, etc.

YEAH, SI MAKES SENSE FOR MOST SCIENTIFIC CALCULATIONS, BUT THAT ASSUMED AMERICANS ARE INTERESTED IN LEARNING OR USING SCIENCE.

The USA is long overdue for a change up to meet the rest of the world.
It took Canada about 10 years to fully implement the switch, for internal usage, and as soon as the USA gets in step, the last of the old imperial system can be done away with.

We no longer measure in cubits and spans, why keep feet and yards?

The world will be a safer and better place when everyone uses the same measuring standards.

Most things in the US are measured in both. Some things are only metric. Others are only Imperial. Our children are required to learn both.

A bag of chocolates here on my desk says "12zo - 340g". The amount inside is the same regardless of which measure you choose to acknoledge.

Road signs are typically Imperial only. The US is not unique in that respect. The UK also uses feet, inches, and miles for road signs and their speedometers measure miles per hour. At least the US is consistent in that we also measure fuel in gallons so it is easly to calculate miles per gallon, where the UK measures distance in miles and fuel in litres, making it difficult to calcualte mpg or l/km.

Regardless, whether you measure in Imperial or metric units the weight, height, speed, volume, etc. is the same. The units makes no diffence except convenience. It doesn't make anything safer or better. I suspect much of the complaining comes from those not arithmetically adept enough to convert.

As for why this site is American-centric, I suspect it is because it is treehugger.com, not .ca or .uk or .nl.

As an architectural designer I would like to beg the US to switch to ANY measurement system where everything is base ten. We actually have special calculators designed to handle equations like (4' 3 7/8" - 2' 5 3/16"). It's messy, inefficient, and really obnoxious to deal with day in and day out when you know that there is a better way.

Liam, because Al Gore invented it.

Do we really think we are going to be pumping gas for much longer?

Plus, I don't think a lot of we Americans even know our current system of measurements. Ask an American how many feet are in a mile.

Oh, and remember the 1988 Mars Climate Orbiter? That was classic! Much like Spinal Tap's Stonehenge!

I'm an American... I am more comfortable using the imperial measurement system only because i can visualise the exact measurements in my head, no rulers needed. I don't find moving up or down the, admittedly odd, units difficult. However, I can and do use the metric system as much as possible. I learned both in school, my children learn both. all of our rulers show both measures. all my cooking tools (cups, bowls, oven etc) measure in both as well.

I don't really understand the fuss to comform or, equally, to not conform. Most things are dual labeled anyway. If it's such an imperitive we switch, just replace all the signs with dual distances as well. eventually people will learn whether they try or not.

It is difficult to make the switch mentally from imagining imperial measurements to metric. In the Uk there is still a mixture of the two. I think metric except for speed when I revert to mph. But if I got used to looking at kmph I am sure that I'd soon get used to it.

I might have a different experience now than when I was in my teens and 20s, but I discovered that it didn't take all that long to start thinking in different units when I had only a single system to use. Despite being brought up in the Imperial system, I was able to get the feel for a kilometer and other units pretty quickly during extended travels in Europe. Then I had to make the switch back to Imperial when I returned to the US. Even though making a radical switch would be difficult for the US -- way too many legacy machines, consumer items, etc. -- it would probably be less painful than a slow transition.

Geoffrey

In lieu of spending millions/billions/however much it would take to switch systems, we use it to ensure better health care and nutritional knowledge for all Americans? A little mental anguish for some seems to be a much better choice than painful living and early death for others.

If I never had to remember to distinguish pounds-force form pounds-mass again I would so so very happy. SI plzkthxby.

If we were willing to do it slowly, we here in the U.S. could switch over at absolutely no cost.

Step one: teach both systems of units in school. Completed! (Of course, some students don't actually learn or care to learn them, but from what I remember about elementary and middle school -I'm in college now- this applies to imperial and metric units equally well, so it makes no difference to the switch).

Step two: Dual label all packaging. Mostly complete!

Step three: as road signs and such reach the end of their life spans, replace them with dual-labeled ones. Since they'd have been replaced anyway, and are made for just this one unique purpose for a small set of customers, cost ~ $0.

Step four: after enough years of this, remove the imperial units on packaging. And the next time the signs and such need replacing, use metric-only.

Keep in mind, everyone, that in the U.S. the national government can't just change the national system of units by itself. The federal gov't does regulate labeling of products- and indeed, these are dual labeled already. But it is the individual states that regulate education curricula and traffic signs, with only limited input from the federal gov't.

The scientific community has long incorporated metric into their methodolgy so why not convert to metric in our personal lives? For the same reason the Brits hold on to the Pound Sterling, the Imperial Gallon, and the Stone as medival units of measure. It's national pride and recognition. We defeated President Carters metric conversion in the 70s, and we shall rally round the flag again in the 21st Century.

It is really not that hard to go metric. At the ripe old age of 57, I found myself teaching in an international school. While we did teach standard measurements, we did not test it. We tested for a mastery of metric. I was learning right along with the kids here. I found it much easier than I thought. We just need to bite the bullet and do it. At first, we will be trying to go back and forth between the two, but once it is in place, we can and will understand it.

I post on a forum with people from both Europe and Canada. Whenever I post something with a measurement on it, I have to translate it for them...I'm keeping up my skills.

We can hold off Alzheimer's for a whole generation, while we do the mental gymnastics of conversion! :-)

I recall how WalMart made a big splash by heavily promoting compact fluorescent lights in its stores. It is also a promoter of RFID tags on products.

As the world's largest retailer, WalMart has a significant impact of all manufactured consumer goods. If the metric system (SI) is to be adopted in the U.S., the entity to persuade is not the government, but WalMart.

One can easily see how the Big W can simply announce that it will phase out US/Imperial units for its purchases and resale, citing greater cost savings through efficiency, and future plans for internationalization of their chain. Producers and manufacturers will then be encouraged to downgrade their US/Imperial production streams over some planned transition period.

When I was in elementary school, I developed the impression that learning the "metric system" was confusing. As a graduate student in molecular biology, I realized that the confusion stemmed from learning stupid conversion formulae (feet to centimeters, miles to kilometers, yards to grackles). Actually *using* the system is simple! No one can really tell the difference if they buy four in pounds or kilos, all they want is a bag about 'this' big.

OK, so WalMart is the Evil Empire, but maybe they can be a force for good.

Absolutely! That way when the morons in this country go to the pump they'll see it's only costing them $1.50/liter and they'll think gas is cheap again. Trying to talk sense into the average American clearly isn't going to work so we might as well lie and make them feel better. Works for the politicians.

I learned the metric system as a result of being in the military (maps are in metric and all US weapons adhere to NATO standards which are metric) and also from working as a bike mechanic. I really don't see why people find it so difficult. Then again I don't find it difficult to walk or ride my bike 1/4 mile to the grocery store which is something most of my fellow citizens seem to think of as an impossible task.

I live in the Netherlands.

Until about 150 years ago in my coutry about every larger city had its own weights and distance-measurements. So when I was a trader that traded between say Amsterdam and Haarlem (being roughly 20,6 kilometers (12,8 miles), I had not only to convert from the standard Amsterdam foot to the Haarlem fot, but I also had to do so with the different weights of those two cities. And when I had to go on from Amsterdam to Den Haag (56,6km-35,17 mi) or any other mayor city, same thing applied. And then afther doing that math, I also had to change my currency because every city used its own currency.

My point being: In an ever growing and tightening world-economy where distances seem to get smaller every year, it just makes sence to convert to those systems that are used the most to facilitate trade.
All this conversion stuff costs money on its own. Cutting that part out just saves hard cash and keeps the bucks there where it belongs- in your own pocket instead of in the pockets of the traders and authorities that skim off value at the point of conversion.

in australia we've been metric since 1973
you hear the older generations using the imperial system
i find it so much easier to use the metric system
the imperial system doesn't make very much sense to use
look how simple it is
1 kilometre = 1000 metres
1 metre = 100 centimetres
1 centimetre = 10 millimetres
1 litre = 1000 millilitres
0°c = freezing point of water (sealevel)
100°c = boiling point of water(sealevel)
69°c = boiling point of water (mountain heights)
it was so confusing when i was in america it was like going back into the past