fahrquad Posted April 2, 2019 Report Posted April 2, 2019 Why can't we (the US) just go to the metric system already? We were supposed to switch back in 1975 and then dropped the whole thing. I am sure a lot had to do with the politics of the era, but I think the public resistance to switching systems was the conversions back and forth. We already know a 2 liter bottle of carbonated brown sugar water is a little over 2 quarts, our drugs have been measured in milligrams and milliliters for as long as I can remember, a meter is about a yard, and a kilo of cocaine is still a kilo of cocaine. If we could just switch then we could forget about the conversions and enjoy a flagon of ale or a dram of whiskey. :friday: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States Quote
fahrquad Posted April 3, 2019 Author Report Posted April 3, 2019 Imagine how cheap gasoline will sound when sold by the liter. $0.75 a liter sounds better than $2.85 a gallon. Quote
GAHD Posted April 3, 2019 Report Posted April 3, 2019 Ironically, the USA kinda IS on the metric system. All imperial units are currently defined by their metric counterparts, and most of the major industries use metric parts. Now all you have to do is switch to C or Kelvin for your thermostat and you'll be golden. Quote
fahrquad Posted April 3, 2019 Author Report Posted April 3, 2019 The Imperial system existed in various forms since the 10th century before being standardized in 1824. The Metric system was proposed in 1670 but was not adopted until 1965. The British Imperial System evolved from the thousands of Roman, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and customary local units employed in the Middle Ages. Traditional names such as pound, foot, and gallon were widely used, but the values so designated varied with time, place, trade, product specifications, and dozens of other requirements. Early royal standards established to enforce uniformity took the name Winchester, after the ancient capital of Britain, where the 10th-century Saxon king Edgar the Peaceable kept a royal bushel measure and quite possibly others. British Imperial System, traditional system of weights and measures used officially in Great Britain from 1824 until the adoption of the metric system beginning in 1965. The United States Customary System of weights and measures is derived from it. British Imperial units are now legally defined in metric terms. http://www.us-metric.org/origin-of-the-metric-system/https://www.britannica.com/science/British-Imperial-System Quote
fahrquad Posted April 3, 2019 Author Report Posted April 3, 2019 Ironically, the USA kinda IS on the metric system. All imperial units are currently defined by their metric counterparts, and most of the major industries use metric parts. Now all you have to do is switch to C or Kelvin for your thermostat and you'll be golden. How many parsecs does it take for your ship to do the Kessel Run? :computerkick: Quote
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