We do adapt the metric system when visiting or just immigrating to other countries, just as easily as visitors or immigrants from other countries do. The metric measuring system is used in neighboring nations (Canada, Mexico, central and South America, and even the Caribbean islands). When traveling through Canada we don't have any problems that are "metrics" related. The same can be said for exchange students from around the world, and even soldiers. We all adapt and get along with each other. We have a great number of soldiers, sailors, and pilots from all the NATO nations participating in naval, air, and ground exercises each year.
You are right, that there are preferences involved, metric is pretty well ingrained in the States except for speed limits. I’d rate driving on the wrong side of the road as a more dynamic, significant mental adjustment than getting used to metric.
It took some work, but on occasions where I now rent a car on those “ wrong side” countries, I just say to myself “think left, look right”, think left for driving on the left, especially for round abouts that circulate clockwise in the UK, Japan as compared to counter-clockwise in the States and Europe, and “looking right“ for stepping into traffic.
In the UK, we officially changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius back in 1962.
The point is why is freezing point of water significant enough to base the entire scale of temperature around?
"Today's temperate outside is 21.111° and later will be around 23.8889."
Metric is not that hard as a psychological ball park:
So we should use Kelvin (or heaven forbid Rankine)? Let absolute zero be 0. It is a pleasant 295K day.
Indeed, you could argue for many other temperatures to have been used.
Yes, we'd adapt. But mostly we don't want to and many would argue we shouldn't have to. Who are outsiders to tell us how we should measure things? That would be the argument.
I think they just kept it for the older generations, my children born and raised in the UK never used Fahrenheit. School touches upon it as a topic just like Kelvin and other scales. But they just use Celsius. It will just die naturally.
You are just being silly. Why apart from scientific measurements would anyone need that degree of accuracy? Heck, if you take two steps away from your location, you'll get a temperature fluctuation. More normal people just call that 21 degree or 24 degrees"Today's temperate outside is 21.111° and later will be around 23.8889."
Yeah that really helps explains things.
People understand and properly associate feeling with a difference of 70 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, because that scale is proportional to what people can perceive.
The human skin and sensory perception isn't that accurate.Human skin has phenomenal ability to detect tiny changes - in ideal laboratory conditions, down to 0.02 C!I think they just kept it for the older generations, my children born and raised in the UK never used Fahrenheit. School touches upon it as a topic just like Kelvin and other scales. But they just use Celsius. It will just die naturally.
You are just being silly. Why apart from scientific measurements would anyone need that degree of accuracy? Heck, if you take two steps away from your location, you'll get a temperature fluctuation. More normal people just call that 21 degree or 24 degrees
I was born in a place where the metric measuring system was used, but it didn't take very long at all to become familiar with the US customary system once I moved to the US. Metrics in my memory has faded, but still remember my father and mother saying things like kilometer, "kilo" (weight), and things like that. However, in the kitchen my mother used the cup and fractions of cup, tablespoon, ounces, and so on. I like the US customary system much more than metrics, specially in relation to ambient temperatures and such. I feel the same in reference to mile versus kilometer per hour. On the road I prefer MPH, maybe because I pass the KPH sign sooner than the MPH sign? ~just kidding!Hehehe my wife is English, and I'm Dutch. Technically she grew up on metric but her parents, grandparents etc were still using Imperial. We managed fine between us. LOL We have had more difficulty about double meanings in language such as that I'm all right doesn't necessarily means that on is all right in British English. Or that interesting often means the opposite when someone says that. Give me a direct Germanic language any day
Imagine if 0-60mph times became 0-60km times? I’d have trouble getting my head around that!I was born in a place where the metric measuring system was used, but it didn't take very long at all to become familiar with the US customary system once I moved to the US. Metrics in my memory has faded, but still remember my father and mother saying things like kilometer, "kilo" (weight), and things like that. However, in the kitchen my mother used the cup and fractions of cup, tablespoon, ounces, and so on. I like the US customary system much more than metrics, specially in relation to ambient temperatures and such. I feel the same in reference to mile versus kilometer per hour. On the road I prefer MPH, maybe because I pass the KPH sign sooner than the MPH sign? ~just kidding!
One thing that I certainly enjoy in the US is the freedom to use whichever measuring system I want to use in my daily life. In this case, I use "metrics" where required, and the US customary (or a combination of both) by choice the rest of the time. The same for the 24-HR and 12-HR clock, and the date format. I use the US date format where it is required, but the rest of the time I use one or the other at will.
I thought the approximate equivalent was 0-100 km/hr times
For many years, at least in the UK, people (including manufacturers, dealers, journalists, etc.) have quoted 0-100 km/h times as if they were 0-60, and failed to make it clear they are more like 0-62.5.
And then there is Tesla; they are naughty and don't include the rollout. That is OK when doing motorsport, but come on, every other road — going car manufacturer includes actual times in full. And yup, those 11 inches (ca. 28 cm) make a big difference at that level and with an EV.
True. Do cars in Europe show only KPH on the odometer? Cars in the US have both MPH and KPH, so when driving through Canada I just pay attention to the KPH scale. Canadians traveling in the US pay attention to the MPH numbers; otherwise they would be... safely driving under the speed limit