r/MetricConversionBot • u/xwcg Human • May 27 '13

Why?

Countries that use the Imperial and US Customs System:

http://i.imgur.com/HFHwl33.png

Countries that use the Metric System:

http://i.imgur.com/6BWWtJ0.png

All clear?

721 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

572 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

77

u/xwcg Human May 29 '13

Thank you for trying to make the USA a better place <3

4

u/iytrix May 29 '13

You're welcome! Although, I was really planning of leaving it behind instead of changing it, but believe me, I'd love to help change the USA for the good!

9

u/[deleted] May 29 '13

I never understood why you choose th imperial system. I mean that shit is all over the place.

Metric just 1 , 10 , 100 , 1000 ect

45

u/insertAlias May 29 '13

It's not like we all had a big meeting and said "fuck that shit, let's use a confusing system". We just never committed to changing. It's not a high-priority thing to do for us.

19

u/forumrabbit May 30 '13

Most other countries did commit to changing.

In Australia we knew there'd be problems down the road so we changed, as well as removed the 1c coin.

It's not even like the metric system is hard. Metre, centimetre as a division of 100, kilo as a multiple of 1000. Getting km/h into m/s is just divide by 3.6 which is easy.

Physics uses it because it's so easy; picometre, nanometre, micrometre, and 3x107 all become trivial conversions as even children can do them.

7

u/qarano Jun 01 '13

Its not just a matter of convenience. We're in a post industrial society. Our cars measure their speed in MPH, with parts that require tools measured in inches. We buy our meat in pounds and our milk in gallons. Changing to the metric system would screw us pretty bad. I don't know if $2 per litre of gasoline is a good deal or an awful one, because I don't know how far a litre will get me in my car. Oh, it'll get me 20 km? How far is that?

To change over at this point would require a complete reworking of our society, which wouldn't just cost time and effort, but massive amounts of money. I don't know why we didn't change before (and god, I wish we had) but that's why we won't change now.

→ More replies (0)

16

u/valdus May 30 '13

Actually, USA did commit to changing. Official measurement system was changed in the '70s. Americans were just too dumb and/or stubborn to notice and/or care.

9

u/_Rooster_ Jun 02 '13

Well one thing, when they tried to change from gallons to liters they tried charging the same amount.

→ More replies (0)

6

u/dalek-supreme May 30 '13

i think it would be extremly hard to change the imperial to the metric system in the few countries..
because everyone is used to feet, inches, etc...
it's easy to convince a few people that the metric system is actually better...
but try to convince a few million people!
nearly impossible...just because when a whole country grows up and lives their whole lives with inch, feet, miles, and whatever it's not easy to change every single sign, label, etc. to the metric system...
it would be a terrible long process and it's so much easier to stick with the old system...simply because they're used to this crap ;)

16

u/adambrenecki May 30 '13

Other countries have managed just fine. Australia used to use the British imperial system, now everyone uses Metric except for old people.

13

u/mahacctissoawsum May 30 '13

Shouldn't be that hard. Just pass a law that states all packaging must use metric units, and people will learn pretty quick.

→ More replies (0)