Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Why not Metric in the US?

Perhaps the best reason of all but, after using the metric system more and more, I've come to see that it's pretty easy. Everything is in multiples of 10 (I think).

As a tool and die maker, I deal with the metric system daily.

The most used numbers on my pocket calculator are .03937.

I don`t know. Milimeters, centimeters and Kilometers sound like bugs to me.I can`t quite get myself to look at a steak and think of it as being 3cm thick......

That's one of my favorite theories too....

Casey

The only time I use metric is when I am dealing with map and compas because a unit of 10 makes it unnecessary for me to take off my boots to count. So long as ya don't even THINK miles it is easier. BUTTT 8 KM = 5 miles

In my line of work we constantly go back and forth...
grams to pounds, pascals to psi, BTUs to joules, etc.
Gets old sometimes!!

1 cubic centimeter equals one milliliter equals one gram of water, and it takes one calorie to raise one gram of water one degree.

It may be tough to admit, but if the French designed this system, then they got at least one thing right.

Oh, there is that kissing thing, and French toast, and French fries and a couple of cute actresses I can think of.

THIS IS AMERICA. WE HAVE THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE! Use the one you want and let the rest of us do the same!

GOD BLESS AMERICA

8mmwapiti

Being a Canuck born in the early 70's I have been fortunately forced to be relatively fluent in Metric and Imperial Measure.

Around the house I measure in inches utill the fractions get less than 1/8th, then I am down to millimetres. I will always drive xxKm at xxKm/hour. I will by gas at xx.x cents per litre $x.xx dollars per gallon scares me.

I have no idea why we measure fuel economy in Litres per 100 km. I think it's dumb.

I will always been xx lbs in weight and 5 foot 11 3/4 inches tall (and that missing 1/4 inch is a sore point with me).

I guess some will always stick solely to imperial, especially in the US because for some it is a point of pride. However when it comes to something really important the US is very metric, and that is money. Except for nickles, quarters and 5 dollar bills every thing is base 10 which is metric. Kind of funny eh?

It is a real joy navigating at low level when you maps are based on kilometers and your airspeed indicator reads knots. Stupid metric system.

I love combinations of measuring systems...example: European Shotgun Shells, i.e. 12/70, taking what amounts to a fractional/non-decimal measure of a Pound, and expressing its length in millimeters.



You would probably like a book by John Allen Paulos called Innumeracy. In it, he mentioned things such as expressing the rate of hair growth in miles per hour, and how many of his students are skeptical that such expressions can be made. Furlongs per fortnight.....I will resist converting my velocity figures to this. I hope.

The US is more metric that you are led to believe. All food products are listed in metric weights or measures. So, we still talk about miles and gallons, but who cares? The Canadians still think pounds and quarts when buying food and milk, after 25 years.

I function just fine in either system, but outside of the sciences, there really is no benefit to working in grams vs. pounds. So what if we go to metric. Are we all going to throw out our cup measures for gram scales? Heck, even the Europeans use marked measures to convert the weights in their cookbooks to volume quantities!

Then again, at the hatcheries, I have trained all my managers to work in grams on the small stuff, simply because the bone-heads can't remember if there are 12 or 16 ounces to a pound....... LOL!

In Europe we use the metric system, but we also talk about 30-06, 308win,375H&H.And americans also talks about 9.3x62 and 6.5x55.
When reloading almost everyone everyone talks about grains.But when I measure velocity I use most m/s, but also f/s .
And when talking about scopes everyone says a 40mm scope, I have never seen an american talking about a 11/2" scope.

So you can't say americans don't use the metric system, they use both.

The English system, having evolved from engineering practice, is a much more intuitive and has more meaningful units than the metric system, which was has some similar units (meter vs yard), but most of the rest are less useful. For example, a millimeter is still not fine enough for carpentry, much less cabinet making or metalwork. Neither is 0.1 millimeter. But 0.01 millimeter is too fine for fine woodwork, and not fine enough still for fine metalwork. So they have to use fractional metrics.

The metric system derives liquid measurements from the cubic centimeter, yielding the liter, which is close to a quart.

The English system starts with the volumetric measurements of gallon for wet and bushel for dry, and does not try to make them fit cubic inches. Again, the subunits are binary - you just keep halving the measure, which is very practical for a balance scale, and something that doesn't work in metric.

A calorie is a nice small unit of heat energy for a serving of food, but a Btu ( heating one pound of water one degree F ) is much more comprehensible and practical for engineering calculations.

Metric countries still use the English system of time, which relates directly to the English system of measurement.

metric sucks because when dealing with temperature a 3 degree change in celcius is a LOT of change. It tells me nothing of how hot or cold out it is. Unlike 60 degrees F is coolish and 75 degrees is warm. a 15 degree change in celcius is HOT to freezing! no wiggle room. I hate it.

Also for me there is no reference point for how long a meter is or a kilometer or centimeter.

If the USA converted to metric, it would mean virtually everybody would have to inventory both metric and standard parts and tools for many many years. Overlap for repairs of older equipment would be very costly unless everybody agreed to not fix anything older than the metric conversion date.

In time the US will be converted whether they want to or not. Examine any new car and see how many of the components are now metric due to the sale of vehicles all over the world.
We have had metric in Canada for about 35 years now. I am still more comfortable working in Imperial measure. My children, however, who are in their forties don't understand what I am referring to when I mention temperatures in Imperial.
Most in the US forget their government reneged on their word to go metric with the rest of the continent back in the 70's. If they had done so the confusion would mostly have been gone within the next 10 or 20 years. Like it or not the change will come.

Obviously, some of them were brought up on the Troy system....or maybe they are just boneheads.

"What do Liberia, Burma, and the United States have in common?

They are the only three countries on the planet that have not officially adopted the metric (SI) system of measurement."

Not quite.

The metric system was instituted in France in 1795 and made mandatory by King Louis XVI.

Napoleon did not become Emperor until 1805.

In 1812 Napoleon suspended the mandatory provisions of the metric system making its use optional.

In 1840 France once again made it mandatory.

In 1866 the US made use of the metric system optional while making it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities.

We hate what we don't understand.