Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?

[Micky Do]

Yes. Generally the advantage of Imperial units is that the numbers that ordinary people use tend to be in friendly two digit ranges. The temperature outside is always a two digit number, and if it isn't, that is important to notice! The speed a car might move is also like this in MPH, but not KMPH.

Most people's heights are two words: "Five Eleven" for example, instead of "One Hundred and Eighty One". And even the unit name is half as many syllables. Miles is one syllable, kilometers is four. Pint becomes Half Liter at best, 473.176473 Milliliter at worst.

BTW, Are Knots metric? Why do they exist? And why does the UK have a different one? We need to get all those sailors and pilots on to feet and inches!

Tosh.

Ordinary folk in metric countries (all but the US, Myanmar and Liberia) don't seem to find anything disadvantageous or unfriendly about multiple digits / words in the numbers they use.

I grew up in a country that used imperial units (proper ones, not US units) when I was young. When we went metric in the 1970s folks adapted quite quickly. I can still use imperial units, but in general find metric units more convenient.

 

[Rafterman]

Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?

Well, to quote Bill Murray, "because we rarely wear underwear and when we do, it's usually something exotic."

Now you know.

 

[Algr]

proper ones, not US units

What makes imperial units proper? Do they speak all posh? That might undo the advantage of freedom units. I used to be more excited about metric, and can use them okay. We are kind of permanently both-standards in the US.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Tosh.

Ordinary folk in metric countries (all but the US, Myanmar and Liberia) don't seem to find anything disadvantageous or unfriendly about multiple digits / words in the numbers they use.

I grew up in a country that used imperial units (proper ones, not US units) when I was young. When we went metric in the 1970s folks adapted quite quickly. I can still use imperial units, but in general find metric units more convenient.

I love the word "tosh".

Very specific, and redolent of an era when some people were able to use language exquisitely.

Better still, is "utter tosh".

Anyway, I am in complete agreement with you.

 

[Micky Do]

What makes imperial units propper? Do they speak all posh? That might undo the advantage of freedom units. I used to be more excited about metric, and can use them okay. We are kind of permanently both-standards in the US.

US units of volume are different from Imperial ones with the same names. The US gallon is less than an Imperial gallon. Likewise pints, quarts and some measures used in cooking. Some units of area used in the US were never used in other countries that used Imperial units in the past.

And to top it all off, some US customary units have had definitions based on metric units since 1893! Not so for proper Imperial units.

 

[decafjava]

Phoenix and surrounding cities have been a major area for micro-breweries. The movement has cooled somewhat now, but there are still new companies starting and older ones still around. There are also a large amount of micro-breweries around here still, that continue fighting over shelf-space at my local Walmart. That's how mainstream they've become.

Some people even opened actual businesses where you could go specifically to drink. I'm not talking about a bar or a pub. These places are like coffee shops, except what they are offering is that companies brand of beer. I guess, beer shops? IDK.

As to fruit…I lived for 20 years in Southern California, a small unincorporated rural town called Cherry Valley. It's halfway between San Bernardino and Palm Springs and there used to be a reason why it was called Cherry Valley.

I love cherries, they are my favorite fruit and our house was right across the street from a cherry orchard. It's long gone now, and many of the orchards are also long gone (people from Orange county moved in during the early 2000s), but during summer as a teen I'd take a 5-gallon bucket and go picking. A 5 pound bucket will net you roughly 10-12 pounds of cherries. I more than happily paid the $4.25/pound price.

Took me about a week to knaw through 10-12 pounds of cherries.

How much in kilos? Never mind that's a lot of fruit-love cherries too and we lived near some strawberry farms in Langley B.C. where my sister and I would go picking every summer.

 

[Algr]

Okay, then to satisfy everyone, we need a bunch of one syllable names for the most commonly used metric units. Maybe with some adjustments to make the two digit rule work. Did I imagine "click" being used to mean kilometers at some point?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

View attachment 2210871

Okay, then to satisfy everyone, we need a bunch of one syllable names for the most commonly used metric units. Maybe with some adjustments to make the two digit rule work. Did I imagine "click" being used to mean kilometers at some point?

Why restrict yourself to words of one syllable?

Parsimony - no matter where encountered, be it money or syllables - is not something to be encouraged, to my mind.

Besides, the English language is sufficiently rich in vocabulary to be able to describe a means of measurement without having to confine itself, restrict itself, to words comprised of one single, solitary, syllable.

 

[eyoungren]

Did I imagine "click" being used to mean kilometers at some point?

No you did not imagine it. The US military has been using 'click' to mean kilometer since they converted to metric. It is in the collective American consciousness because of it's use during the Vietnam war.

 

[Mousse]

Why the heck does America still use outdated measurement and date units?

Well, to quote Bill Murray, "because we rarely wear underwear and when we do, it's usually something exotic."

Now you know.

Today I learned.😁

All this time I thought it was because America's refusal to submit to a foreign ruler.📏🤔

Why restrict yourself to words of one syllable?

Parsimony - no matter where encountered, be it money or syllables - is not something to be encouraged, to my mind.

Besides, the English language is sufficiently rich in vocabulary to be able to describe a means of measurement without having to confine itself, restrict itself, to words comprised of one single, solitary, syllable.

We, Americans, love our four-letter words😏: inch, foot, mile, pint, yard...😑

 

[Algr]

Parsimony - no matter where encountered, be it money or syllables - is not something to be encouraged, to my mind.

We, Americans, love our four-letter words😏: inch, foot, mile, pint, yard...😑

It's like data compression. The most commonly used words should be the shortest. Save the longer ones for more nuanced concepts.

I think the worst example of metric's "human scale" problem was the metric clock, which had 10 hours per day. It was technically "logical" but totally failed to reflect what people use time for and was not accepted anywhere. 100 units per day would have made more sense. (It's about 14 minutes per unit.) Then you could say stuff like "The meeting is on Jan 9.5" to mean noon on that day. You'd expect sunset at .75 in the spring.

 

[Huntn]

It’s the most common one over here.

Omg, no wonder Europeans spit on American Beer.

 

[Huntn]

Oh I can assure you my choc cravings like and have experienced plenty of different products. While having often been in awe about some things American, mostly because of Hollywood, tasting beers and chocolates has been rather disappointing. A simple Reese's runs circles around most Hershey products.

I drank instant coffee as a teenager when I couldn't afford a proper cup

Reeces and York Peppermint Patties reside among my favorites.

 

[Huntn]

One benefit of Fahrenheit over Celsius is it's more granular. Who cares that it's nice and neat at freezing or boiling when the majority of the time for regular people we're discussing indoor and outdoor temperatures (and unless you live somewhere cold 0 probably doesn't come up that much, and 100 never does). Fahrenheit has 180 increments between freezing and boiling and Celsius only has 100. Which means Fahrenheit users can discuss comfortable indoor temps like 70 degrees where in Celsius that's 21.1111 (repeating).

Fahrenheit is more nuanced.

 

[Huntn]

Tosh.

Ordinary folk in metric countries (all but the US, Myanmar and Liberia) don't seem to find anything disadvantageous or unfriendly about multiple digits / words in the numbers they use.

I grew up in a country that used imperial units (proper ones, not US units) when I was young. When we went metric in the 1970s folks adapted quite quickly. I can still use imperial units, but in general find metric units more convenient.

1 quart and 1 liter are pretty close.
1gallon is far superior to 3.7 liters, unless you don’t mind buying your gas by the quart…

 

[Algr]

It’s the most common one over here.

Not any more.

 

[Algr]

US units of volume are different from Imperial ones with the same names. The US gallon is less than an Imperial gallon. Likewise pints, quarts and some measures used in cooking. Some units of area used in the US were never used in other countries that used Imperial units in the past.

Every county had its own standard on how big units were. Napoleon was either 5' 2" or 5' 7" depending on who's inch you used. Russia's inch was almost double the Spanish inch. It was the US that got everyone on the same page.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

Funny zombie thread, but I'll throw in my opinion for fun:

Us Americans get taught what we get taught in school, so changing things for the sake of change is pointless.

Thanks to the British colonizers, we happen use the imperial system. And thanks to the Revolutionary War, we kept it (ironically).

The US is BIG. Third most populous country. Longest standing democracy. HIGHLY technologically advanced. Fully capable of being self-sufficient. Thus, the non-existent need for change to conform with the rest of the world to get things done on our end (which is the point of all these systems).

That said, those of us that deal with international situations learn and adapt to the relevant systems (I'm a military vet, so I've lived all over the World).

And when it comes to tools, I have both metric and (American) "standard".

 

[AlaskaMoose]

The average United States American doesn't have problems with both the US Customary and metric system, including those who perform vehicle maintenance. For example, I had to replace the airflow directional actuator in my 2001 Silverado, and according to all the related videos in YouTube, a 5.5mm socket must be used. I have lots of both metric and SAE tools, but since I don't have a 5.5mm, I used a 7/32" one. In fact, I had to use two 7/32" sockets, a short and a deep-wall one. It made no sense for me to buy two 5.5mm sockets.

 

[pdoherty]

What makes imperial units proper? Do they speak all posh? That might undo the advantage of freedom units. I used to be more excited about metric, and can use them okay. We are kind of permanently both-standards in the US.

I've got bad news for them... turns out US English is the actual original English accent. The Brits wandered off and affected a new accent.

How Americans preserved British English

Americans today pronounce some words more like Shakespeare than Brits do… but it’s in 18th-Century England where they’d really feel at home.

www.bbc.com

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

I have been away for a few days, and so come late to this.

Do not knock Robusta as a coffee bean. I believe that Vietnam has produced a high quality breed of Robusta, and Papua New Guinea has taken it on.

They are now selling green Robusta beans, in wholesale export quantities, for $US10 a kilo.
For comparison, Aldi and Coles in Australia sell a highly regarded Robusta/Arabica blend, in a dark Roast, for a similar price.
PNG's Robusta is not ending in Nescafe Blend 43. It is being used in a Robusta/Arabica blend by some of the top baristas.

 

[Macky-Mac]

clearly the main reason the US continues to these measurement units is to keep this thread alive

 

[Doctor Q]

clearly the main reason the US continues to these measurement units is to keep this thread alive

That's also the reason why they still sell bacon!

 

[AlaskaMoose]

No you did not imagine it. The US military has been using 'click' to mean kilometer since they converted to metric. It is in the collective American consciousness because of it's use during the Vietnam war.

The military has used "click" since WWI. Still, both the US customary and metric systems are used in the military. By using metrics, specially in military operations, all military forces know exactly strike distances, and so on. But lest say that the Civil Engineer personnel are building an aircraft landing path, the workers just deal with feet and inches, miles, and so on.

It makes no difference. If I were working at a hospital, for example, metrics are used, and also the 24-hour clock. But if there is a worker laying a hospital floor, then he or she deals with inches and feet, and the 12-hour clock.

 

[Algr]

But lest say that the Civil Engineer personnel are building an aircraft landing path, the workers just deal with feet and inches, miles, and so on.

It makes no difference. If I were working at a hospital, for example, metrics are used, and also the 24-hour clock. But if there is a worker laying a hospital floor, then he or she deals with inches and feet, and the 12-hour clock.

Runways and floors? So anything that needs to be flat uses feet and inches?