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

There is a question that has been vexing me for many years. Why do we Americans have to do so many things different than the rest of the world. If anyone can answer this for me, then please do not hessitate.

The first part is which side of the road we drive on.(not to mention which side of the car the steering wheel is on). I am pretty sure that if i went to another country and had to drive that the other motorists would wish that I had not. It would take some getting used to. This is not that big of a deal though. When it comes to measurment though I just can't wrap my mind around why our units are so complicated and the rest of the worlds' is so simple. 12 inches in a foot. When calculating this would it not have been just as easy to say 10 inches in a foot? It certainly would have made converting much easier. 5,280 feet in a mile. Why 5,280? Why not just 5,000.It is no wonder to me why the rest of the planet uses a different system. Why is it called "standard" if it is not actually the earths' standard way to measure distance?

Strange; I've never heard it called 'standard', here in the UK, the 'old' feet, inchs, pounds and such like were called imperial measrenents I think... I guess its just that other places like the UK/Europe have gone over to the metric system, though in the UK that wasn't until fairly recently and until very recently a lot of people still use them... I still think in imperial measurements a lot, though can pretty much just as easily do it in metric, but some things, like the height of people or their weight, I don't think I'll ever get to grips with in metric... and long distances too are still miles as far as I'm concerned... though smaller distances and accurate measuring things I'm happier with milimetres metres, kilos, gram and litres... mind, I do still like my pint* of beer

I guess having never been to UK/Europe i was led to believe that things were always that way. i guess what i was getting at was why not just one or the other. Especially on cars.working on the vehicle and having to continually change wrenches is rediculous to me. Anyway case closed i guess.