h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And is any other country still using imperial?

Near as I can figure, Liberia and Myanmar haven't gone metric. As for why -- your guess is as good as mine about any of the three.

But if you ask google, you get lots of explanations: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-GB%3Aofficial&hs=ED7&q=why+hasn%27t+the+u.s.+adopted+the+metric+system&btnG=Search&meta=

Don't know why the US didn't (possibly because there was no need to)and imperial measurements are still used in Britain despite us being metric. Metric distances and weights are fairly meaningless to me and it takes me ages to convert them back to imperial. I think weights is because of my upbringing (after all, my visual concept of a pound is no better than my visual concept of a kilogram) but I have a visual concept of imperial distances that metric fails to satisfy. A foot is about the length of a foot, three feet is a yard, the top of a thumb is an inch... but that wasn't the question you asked, kea

I don't know why the US didn't go metric; possibly there was no need to

I noticed in my ten minutes of research after seeing this thread that, in fact, the U.S. has been officially metric since the 70s but the actual implementation has been pretty much none existent due to interdepartmental and state-federal bickering and just general inertia.

I feel myself to be quiet fortunate because I am of the generation which grew up with both systems in my country (Canada). I think of temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheith -- C for the weather, F for the kitchen -- and I jump quite happily between Imperial and Metric for volume and weight/mass (although my own mass is still Imperial). I also have to consider U.S. measurements as I am a home-brewer and the unofficial standard in that world remains U.S. gallons.

Liberia, Myanmar, the Untied States of America. That makes sense

I didn't know that about the UK. I thought it was like NZ, where older people could do both but metric was the standard mostly.

I know how long an inch is, but looking at a diagram of the specs of something in inches drives me batty. All those quarters and eighths

Did an inch come from the top of the thumb? That's very cool. The Chinese have a measurement called a cun which is the width of the thumb at the first joint. That is used to determine the position on the body of any particular point, as the human body is relative to that size i.e. the middle three fingers of the hand are 3 cun wide on any body (at the second joint) irrespective of the actual measurement in inches or cm.

( btw for those that are used to me banging on about different cultural world views I think this serves as a very good example. The Chinese use a system that is relational, the West uses one that is absolute.)

Opps, 3 cun is four fingers wide. Here's a visual if my description didn't make sense:

http://www.tcmstudent.com/study_tools/Cun%20Measurements.html

When did Canada go metric, anhaga?

NZ went in the 60s I think, at least currency did around 1967. I like being able to think in both too, although I can't do temperature because I've never been around people here who talk in Farenheit.

I can figure length conversions but if I am looking at a lot of measurements in inches I can't think about them that way and have to convert to cm first eg if I want to fit a box into a space and it's measured in inches I find that much harder to visualise once it becomes very detailed (the quarters and eighths thing).

I'm maybe a bit younger than you. I was born in the decade they made the change, so by the time I got to school they'd stopped teaching imperial, you just picked it up from general usage.

It does depend in the UK. Our money is metric and our weights are supposed to be metric but there was a big legal battle about ten years ago where market traders were prosecuted for selling in pounds and ounces but they've since been allowed to do so as long as they display the price per kg too. I still hear things like "potatoes 40p a pound" when I walk round the market. Our distances are measured in miles (speed limits mph) and beer in pubs is sold in pints and so, generally, is milk (or multiples of pints). Petrol prices are displayed per litre but petrol efficiency is described in miles to the gallon. I'm not sure that temperature scales are metric per se but we tend to use celcius for low and farenheit for high (though tv weather always uses C on the charts.)

Most of it is undoubtedly personal; I was taught metric at school but I grew up knowing imperial too (to the extent that I understand pounds, shillings and pence) and football is all about yards so I can judge 6, 8, 10, 12 and 18 yards pretty accurately. But Britain is technically metric and many of my peers are probably more metric than I am (I'm 29.)

Not sure if an inch *is* the top of a thumb but it can't be far off in most adult men (like a foot).

'When did Canada go metric'

Ooh. I have to look it up.

. . .

it started in 1970. That 'W' place has a nice precis of it all: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Canada

For very many things, we are 'soft' metric. Ironically, we've ended up using three systems (imperial, U.S., and metric), due to our geography and history. But -- you know what? -- we manage to get along.

I meant to add, as a personal comment:

If I'm doing a bit of carpentry or something of that sort, I use whatever system comes up on the ruler, measuring tape, etc.

If I want a board 4 feet long, I cut it four feet long. If I want a board 1.2 meters, I cut 1.2 meters long.

I couldn't agree more anhaga. That's how it should be

'That's how it should be'

that's how it's always been. I mean, the imperial system has been three barley corns, one king's arms, and 'ooh, I think I'll stretch my limbs out this far to see how deep the water is' for a millenium. I'm sure we can get along.

Most of my peers still refer to things by their imperial option, however I'm at Uni with a group who grew up with metric, so discuss things in kilograms - once we get to weight I'm really lost.

Most of my experience of the USA is through television. Often wonder why things are referred to by their total pounds value rather than stones and pounds; On crime dramas "in pursuit of 168 lb male, dark hair" etc, and I'm thinking "What's that In stones?", something I can understand.

.... "Why didn't the US go metric?" .. is probably the wrong question. Some people found out, during the course of the history of mankind, that they usually have ten fingers. That would be the difference.

the proper question would then be "why do a lot of USians still use imperial units", the proper answer would be "they never counted their fingers". This by the way also explains the rather unfortunate election results four and eight years ago.

Next time any of you are out shopping, whatever country you live in, I would suggest taking a closer look at pipes and fittings.

Somehow, the whole field of Plumbing has managed to avoid metric madness. ( by which I mean forced conversion just for the sake of...well...conversion).
Pipe fittings are still measured in inches / zoll / pulgas. and in fracciones thereof around the world.

There is a very good reason for this, so before before this thread turns into yet another yank yanker, consider the plumbers lethargy.

There are many companies over here in the US who embraced the SI system, some did not achieve the success they deserved for switching, Schwinn Bicycles for example.

I would say that in Higher Education and specialised fields SI is used to the exclusion of Imperial units.
But when the 'Metric System' is taught in elementary schools, a very outmoded form is used involving decametres and such and only serves to confuse the kids.
Whenever I've explained the ease of using metric to American craftsmen, they see the advantages and would be happy to switch.

Laying out the dimensions of a control panel to be cut...
Selecting tapping and clearance size drillbits for a particular machine screw...
Only having to carry three spanners instead of seven...
...are just three examples of how much easier you euros have it.

But if the guvmint started messing around with the sizes of packets and loaves over here and then actually prosecuted people for continuing to sell things in pounds then the American People would take to the streets, just like the English didn't.

The only thing I've got against SI is that the fr*nch claim to have invented it.

alec.

see here:
http://www.metrication.us/

oh, and a 'zoll' is actually 0.9643128321904273 of an inch

and for those challenged by tongues, a 'pulgada' (spanish) and a 'pouce' (fr*nch) both mean 'thumb' and are still used to dimension pipework.

alec.

Not wishing to divert the thread - but...

Why is it acceptable to routinely disparage the French?

The same reason that Kiwis disparage Ozzies? (although we'd have more reason to disparage France in fact).

Not making a big thing of it. It's just something that's always puzzled me. Like - I was mocked by an American when I mentioned I have a French car.