My Daughter asked why the U.S doesn't use the Metric system, so I answered with some good 'ol Campfire wisdom:

Thanks to CashIsKing for this:

The US doesn’t use the metric system outside of science and engineering, where it is the standard everywhere (SI units), mainly due to inertia and stupidity. It’s a competitive disadvantage.

How many feet on a side is a tank of water weighing a thousand tons? The equivalent question takes less than a second in metric with no lookups.

I think the 6.5 Creedmoor may turn the tide though! 😎

Euro-trash math.

I thought the USA was going metric early on and the ship with the meter rod was pirated or something like that.

Used to work on oil rigs, a different form of imperial measurement to what was in Australia before metric (short tons, short barrels etc, short gallons) and confusion when converting to metric for companies like elf etc!

Funny, I think in weight ( personal weight) in kg but height in feet and inches!

Horsepower hp not kw or whatever. Total confusion.....

Anything to do with guns is Imperial of course.

It would be easier. Set a date, change over.

I'm with Grandpa Simpson, "It's a tool of the Devil!"

It would simplify so many things....^^^^ set a date and be done with it! ^^^^^

Much of the US was originally surveyed using the Government Survey system (Township, Range, Section). This is based off units dealing with miles and fractions of a mile. Those surveys make up the basis of legal descriptions for millions of existing properties.

Stick with the English system we’re on. Scientists can use the metric system for science. From aviation to surveying, stick with a English.

I absolutely HATE metric... I cannot relate to it...at all..

It would be much simpler if the country would have gone metric before we were born.

It'd have been even MORE simpler if we'd never have allowed that chit into this country in the first place....

At one time, back in the 70's-80's, the Govt mandated all federal contracts had to be metric. I was working construction for federal contracts, and all the documents were in metric, but it was "soft" metric. It was a pain to get used to, but being "soft" the materials were still english. Ceiling tile were still 2x4, but the documents chose a close conversion and went with it. It didn't last very long.

Oh, and at another time, federal contracts had to adhere to "buy America". Some things just weren't made here.

But in reality, like wabigon says, if we changed over and we grew up with it, it's really easy. Adding and subtracting is straight math, no inches to feet to fractions, etc.

I am a retired surveyor for the Arkansas Highway Department. When I first started back in the 60's, we used feet and tenths/hundredths of a foot. Was told to forget about inches, as only whores and carpenters used that measure. Later I was doing bridge surveys, where I had to measure the existing bridges, in some cases. They had to be measured in feet/inches, carpenter work. Move on along and they starting the metric system, as that was what America was going to. So I had to have and understand, and carry with me three different units of measurement. Hard to get a crew that could or would understand this. They finally kicked the Metric units to the curb, thank goodness. miles

Canada tried to go 100% metric in the late 70s early 80s but typically botched that process and now we have an integrated system which is more confusing than imperial was by itself. We build our houses using inches but do our driving distances and speed using kms. Had we just gone totally 100% metric in 1980, we would be long past the hassle of the conversion and been enjoying the benefits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Canada#:~:text=The%20Liberal%20federal%20government%20of,metric%20product%20labelling%20was%20introduced.

The metric system is a far better system in all ways esp for linear measurements used in construction. All weights and measures are multiplied and divided by 10. How easy is that?

Those who don't see the benefits of metric don't want to see the benefits of metric.

Watts are much, much gayer than Horsepower.





End of discussion.

Some years back there was a song "8 Miles HIgh" that I rather liked. Wouldn't have been the same if it was "12874.8 meters high".

Even the Byrds understood that.

Say you have the job of teaching the Imperial system. A inch is three barleycorns, end to end. A foot is the length of a man's foot. An acre is what a man, and a mule can plough in a day .

Remember back during the "oil crisis" they sold gas by the litre for a while?

Calculating loads in milligrams
There is a conversion block on my scale, but its just a bunch of rectangles to me.

If you metricians can tell me why I should GAF what the air speed velocity of an unladen African Swallow is in meters per second.........


Never mind. I still wont GAF about metric.

Anyone want to be on the old English money system?

It's funny hearing Americans wanting to adhere to ANYTHING English.

Why do you say that Paul?

Because they are always going on about rejecting the English domination over them as per the American Revolution.

I don't blame you folks for that either.

It may be because I spent some time in Canada as a youngster. Red Rose tea, and a lot of English influence in Canada.

In the low grades in school, it was the French that we were taught to admire.

I think it was WW2, that brought the US, and England together as great allies.

The choices are:

A. Use a system where you measure in fractions, then convert those fractions to decimal numbers in order to use a calculator, then convert the decimal answer back into a fraction. Your basic unit of measure is grouped in such a way that it's divisible by 2, 4ths, 8ths, 16ths, and 32nds or is multiplied by 12.

B. Use a system where you measure in decimals, use no conversion to plug those numbers into a calculator and no conversion of the answer as it's already in decimals. Your basic unit of measure is divisible or multiplied by 10, allowing one to slide the decimal as needed usually sans calculator.

Ahhh.....so the metric system is for dumb people.


No wonder the rest of the world uses it.


Well explained.....thanks.

I use both, daily.

I like speed and distance in miles. Mile a minute makes everything easy to estimate.

Temperature? Can we just forget there ever was a Fahrenheit? He was probably gay, constipated, or both, anyway.

Weights? Kilos for the win. You know why not Imperial? For the same reason you don’t know how many stone you weigh....

Carpentry, plumbing? Inches and feet, thank you. It just works. Never could come close to cutting to the millimeter. But welding and metal work? Metric. All the way. That stuff has to be right the first time.

Volume? I go either way. But once you get to cubic feet and acre feet, imperial Is easier. Cubic meters are just the wrong size.

I was a kid in the 70s and remember when they tried to get us to convert. They fugged up when they tried to ease us into it. Should've been like ripping off tape from a hairy arm ...quick and painless.

Guvmint fugged everything up per usual.

Never heard of it.

So that you don't mysteriously get flung off of a bridge into oblivian.

SAE wrenches only. Metric get thrown away.

😎

Fair point.

After five years of metric based engineering school I head off to work in a refinery. Need to do a performance test of a compressor train. Open up the company supplied steam tables, WTF?

2.54 centimeter worm just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as inchworm.

It would be easier if the rest of the world would just use the English system.

Metric is so simple. Everything is in 10ths. 10 mm = 1 cm, 100 cm = 1 m (little over 1 yard), 1,000 m = 1 kilometer (about 1/2 mile). 1 cubic cm = 1 gram. 100 grams = 1 kilogram or 1 liter (little over a quart). 1,000 liters = 1 metric ton (little over an English ton). 1 bar = 1 atmospheric pressure which is 14.7 lbs/sq inch. (They measure atmospheric pressure in milibars). Speed is kilometers/hour.

Then you have tools measured in mm's. Each number up is a larger tool. So simple. 5mm wrench is smaller than a 6mm wrench. Easy. No 1/4's, 1/8's, 5/16th.s stuff.

We voted in the early 1900's to go to the metric system. One vote shy in the senate and we stayed with the English system. English was chosen over Metric in the early 1800's because we traded more with England and her colonies world wide than anywhere else. Napoleon had the metric system devised on 10'th to keep it simple, because he conquered Europe and every country had their own weights and measures and he wanted every thing standardized. Thus the world went with metric. Numbers are universal in every country. Metric is universal also. If China prints the weight or measurement in metric it can be read by everyone in the world. Only their language can't.

I think we eventually will go to metric. It makes sense. The medical, scientific, NASA, and many others also use metric. Oh, Water freezes at 0 C. It boils at 100 C. However, many scientists use the Kelvin temperature scale. Absolute zero is 0, which is -several hundred degrees F, because deep space far away from the sun is absolute zero.

The US uses a lot of metric. Have you worked on a machine US made in the last twenty years?

Simple to use in a classroom but the application in real life is a bit more complicated. Fractions have real use and the metric system has nothing to compare. A millimeter and a centimeter are pretty small dimensions and then the jump to a meter? Poorly thought out measuring system. Easy to use with a calculator and especially if you are a low IQ leftist that does nothing of value anyway.

You skipped decimeter.

What does this mean?

We already have enough euro trash in this country.

give them an inch and they will take over the yard.

How we gonna divide up a pee-can pie?

I seen Domino’s slice up a round pizza into squares. A lot of kids ended up with just crust. Oh well, only the strong survive jack

It means you are missing the point. Tell me what metric dimension equals a gallon? then divide it into 4 equal parts. What does that look like to you? Tell me what metric dimension equals an inch, put it on a steel tape on a metric scale, divide it into 4 parts and tell me just how easy this would be to follow on a ladder 20 feet up calling out numbers to the saw man.

Tell me what English "dimension" equals a liter.

You're confusing personal familiarity with mathematical superiority.

I'm quite comfortable in both systems.

Joke from 1997 Wabigoon Star.

Two men in back yards. My dog died. That's shame, how'd he die? He ate my tape measure.

That must have been a slow agonizing death by inches.

No, he died by the yard.

Then he rallied a bit, and crawled over by the light pole, and died by the meter.

I call easy accurate SAE Dimensions all the time.

16.2, 34.6, 8.4, 108.1

16 2/8" or 16 1/4"

34 6/8" or 34 3/4"

8 4/8" or 8 1/2"

108 1/8"

I also frequently use the metric system on small benchtop one-off projects. If I was building a Gertsner type jewelry box for my wife I would use the metric system.

Have a young friend, engineering grad, that works for Boeing. His job is translating design engineers dreams into old fashioned 'blueprints' for r&d labs/machine shops. In the early stages of development, a tool or a part is now more frequently spec'd in Imperial..even though, in the end I guess it goes back to metric to be fed as a software program in cnc languages. I asked why?
He claims the best r&d machinists and tool and die makers, consider metric "clunky". He claims, once you get down to subdivisions of the length of the King's finger, thousandth's and ten thousandths are incredibly easy and intuitive to work with, just moving the decimal point. Somebody above pointed out, the jump from a meter, the basic unit to hundredths of a mm starts getting up into too many zeros to the right of the decimal point for an average guy to carry in his head.
I would like to hear some of the machinist guys on here comment on this. My lathes and mill are Imperial, so that's what I use, I suppose if the machines were metric, that is what I would use. It's for certain, a cnc computer doesn't give a damn.

Jeez, if you're working on small parts just make the millimeter the base unit for your project.

Why? The delusion that arcane language conveys special powers.

Is a blond c--t hair and a black c--t hair the same size in metric?

Who knew counting to 10 would be so arduous.

Milimeters are far easier than fractions. They have small tools in say 3.5mm. Mechanics I've talked to prefer metric. Smaller number is smaller size, bigger number is bigger size. Problem is a lot of old stuff is English fractions, and you are trying to equate metric to it. Metric alone is much easier. Trying to equate to English is what is hard. I've learned both and metric is far easier once you get your head around what the sizes are and their actual size.

If God wanted us to use the Friggin' metric system........................

there woulda been 10 Disciples instead of 12 !

The French invented the metric system, if it was so superior then somewhere in history they would have won a war.

Actually, I use both frequently and don’t find it a big deal. It’s just different ways of saying the same thing, kinda like speaking a second language.

Come on Lee, you're smarter than that !

Paul, what percent of the work your shop does is metric?

I'm conversant in both forms & METRIC is where it is at !

Water boils at 100*C
Freezes @ 0*C (hard freeze)

Yep, easy right ?

You need to rethink this !

No offense meant, but It's hilarious.

At least you've got a sense of humour !

All imports for sure & lots of the newer domestic vehicles.

Some domestic are a combination - $hitshow.

Metric is far superior for measuring & machining anything.

Don't phuggin start me on thread pitches !

Hey Miles.......if US had gone metric you’re parent would have named you “Kilometers”

I wouldn't touch this subject with a 3.048 meter pole.

Who got the piece with the Afro hair in it?

What about those thread pitches Paul?

10 foot pole.

Like your humour too !

Gross, I think I gagged.

I entered 9th grade in 1972. There was a big push to teach us the Metric system. Don't know why, but it never happened in the general population. But it is used in a lot of places, military, science, most vehicles have both metric and standard fasteners. Hell, even most drug dealers work in the metric system. I'm comfortable with either system and think we'd be better off had we changed. Once you figure it out everything is easier.

Diving:
Springboard heights are 1 m and 3m.

Platforms are 5m, 7m, and 10m.

Even in the US.

Spark plug threads have been metric since 1900.

Track & field events are all in metric too !

I'm an engineer in the transportation field and do a lot of DOT work and went through the conversion from english to metric. I know the DOT's spent considerable money to convert, I believe mandated by the Feds, only to convert back to english after a few years. I'm comfortable with either system, but my understanding for going back to english (whether true or not) was based on contractor issues related to metric units and construction materials produced in english dimensions and having to convert back and forth.


That's an interesting point I hadn't previously considered...

::This space is reserved for Slavek::

As an easy to use system for measuring distance, weight or volume the metric system is far superior.

But it's still hard to visualize how "much" something is since we're used to doing that in English and need to convert to more comfortable units. 15 Km - is that a long way? 100 kph - that's really fast, isn't it? Temp is 12 C - hmm, is that hot or cold? If something is 30 cm, that must be pretty long, right? (No, it's just about one foot) About the only equivalent I'm comfortable with is a liter since it's just about one quart.

It's mostly a matter of unfamiliarity and is a lot like speaking a foreign language. If you have to think of what you want to say in English and then translate it, that's difficult. Once you learn to think of what you want to say in the other language right off it becomes a lot easier.

Communist system is metric.

It has been discussed on machine forums where it is much more pertinent.. In machining, a thou is easier to use, but out side of that, you just have to learn to think in metric terms. Cars and machinery is metric. Construction it's still 16" OC.

Long range shooting adjustments in mils is easier than MOA. The hard part is thinking in mils and then trying to adjust a MOA scope...

Years ago, driving up Ontario 502, I'm taking the kilometers to Dryden signs. Multiply by six, round off for miles. !00 kilometers= sixty miles. 80 kilos to Dryden, I'm driving 80 kilometers an hour, duh, a hour.

Highway Engineer here also.

The Federal Highway Administration mandeted that we use the metric system back in the 80's. We produced one set (in 1988) of Standard Specifications in SI (metric) units.

We'd put out projects and Contractors would hire someone to convert them back to US customary units (english) so they could understand the plans and actually build them.

Had pay units for dirt work in megagrams! (fuggin unreal) [one megagram = 1 metric ton = about 2,200 #]

In what world is 39.37 thou easier to use than 1 millimetre ?

Solely North American input in those forums ?

In Montana, the metric projects I was involved with were designed in the 2000 - 2005 time frame. I still get involved with metric plans on current projects when having to work with as-built plans from older projects..

I've been the cut man, when you holler at me "77 & 5/8 minus" I know what to do, but 'gimme a "1.97167 minus" or is that the same as a 1.97009?????? And who ever heard of 6.096 Ladder!?!?!?!

Yup.

It only took one curve driving through Canaduh to convert 60km.

DO NOT take that curve @ 60 mph. 😳

Thanks to you guys I learned that 1 Megapascale = 145.0377 psi.
In the concrete business supplying freeway projects there for a while you had to learn the all the spec conversions. Major PITA.

Ya, that'll do it !

9mm Lugers, 7mm rifles, '62 NATO's don't bother anyone.

LOL! Nailed it, I ain’t reading any further.

We should hang on to every norm and tradition that is American, IMHO. Keep the English system at all cost.

Add to that, the countries that have actually put OPERATING Robotics on Mars................. it's a short list.

God gives most 10 fingers not 12.

I should have made a liter of popcorn.

I thought you hated the English and kicked them out? LOL

I'm of the age that I learned imperial and then we switched to the metric system up here as I was leaving high school. And then I ended up being a surveyor in my 20s so worked with imperial plans (feet) and metric plans (metres) so in a way I'm lucky I guess. I can use either comfortably and don't bother converting back and forth just use the unit that applies. Speaking of which that's the secret to it, don't bother converting just use what's used. A metre's about 39 inches, but really who GAF its just a metre, a good sized pace. I've also worked in ancient plans in chains. And I've done some nautical stuff using fathoms. For those that must convert a chain is 66 feet and a fathom is around 6 feet. I just go by my "wingspan" is just short of a fathom and a chain is about 3 crew cab pickups bumper to bumper.

The easiest of them all is metric though. Fractions are for very simple math and bad planning, nothing more. Decimal places is how we count, how we come up with percentages and how our brain works. However I won't be giving any of my tape measures away when I build stuff out of lumber its feet inches eighths and sixteenths. Its how all the stock is made, how I learned and how everybody still does it. Also I weigh about 210 lbs but I don't bother dividing that by 2.2 to figure out what that is in kilograms.

In this world there are two systems. The system used by the only country in the world to put a man on the moon and return them home safe and sound and then there is everybody else. Who haven't.

We shipped the German's, Italian's, and Japanese's asses so they should use our system!

NASA uses the metric system, just sayin

Was going to post that earlier, but decided I'd been enough of a kill joy !

If god had wanted us to use metric, he would have given us ten fingers. Oh, wait???
That said, I am quite familiar with standard, but do appreciate metric, and it's simplicity.

Metric sucks. I have two sets of tools because of it. I could have one completely awesome set instead.

We should, and we do.

Ha ha !! Except when someone forgets math!!


In September of 1999, after almost 10 months of travel to Mars, the Mars Climate Orbiter burned and broke into pieces. On a day when NASA engineers were expecting to celebrate, the ground reality turned out to be completely different, all because someone failed to use the right units, i.e., the metric units! The Scientific American Space Lab made a brief but interesting video on this very topic.


https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/

A lot of Farvas in here ordering a liter of cola....

Conservatives killed the metric system in this country because the feared it would lead to one world government and was a Communist conspiracy. If you don’t believe me, look at political debates in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

Yeah, gotta make sure the right system is used. I recall a passenger plane crash shortly after take-off because the luggage was weighed in kg but thought was pounds and ended up being overloaded in the rear of the plane - it went nose high, stalled and crashed. I think there has also been an incident with fuel weight being done in the wrong system and ended up running out and crashing at sea.

LOL .....

Because we have American Express card limits higher than your piss ant metric number will even count.

Sorry, i've been wanting to say that for decades.

Let the free market decide. The mandates always fail. If the end users ask for it then the suppliers will make it.

I think it's humorous that we (the revolutionaries) still use English units while the British have to use the Metric System.

The brits are still confused... They drive miles and use miles per hour... They measure with the Imperial system 20% more than a US gallon....pint,... quart...

Yep, the Saturn V was 10 meters in diameter, (33'). Just saying. NASA translated their stuff to English for the news and the American people to understand. We are the last country in the world to convert to the metric system. All scientists, the medical profession, NASA, the military, so we are already halfway there. Even the car manufacturing is moving to metric.

The cost of converting to metric would be more than most people realize. Imagine having to buy all new metric measuring tools if you're working in a shop that makes parts that have to be measured. If I get a metric drawing in my shop I have to convert the dimensions so I can measure what I'm building. Digital measuring devices can be changed with a button but if you use tools that are not digital that's not an option. So many things in the tool and die trade were designed around our system years ago. Just look through a machinist handbook. If you want to use metric then be my guest.

I find it interesting that we use a base 60 system for time...........

yet for distance we start with a base 12 system (the foot)...............then for longer measurements we use yards (Base 3?) and multiples thereof..............until we reach miles, then we're on a decimal (Base 10) system of sorts as in our mileposts are in miles and tenths.

But sometimes we want other measurements like inches and fractions thereof...............unless you're using an engineering ruler or tape, then that's in 10ths too. and then as someone mentioned, there's machining................lets make something 3.0015 or three and fifteen thousandths inches, (basically as I understand it mixing a base 12 and a base 10 system)

Weights are cool too. Pounds and ounces (base 16?). Unless you're a reloader, then you use grains and tenths thereof. Unless you need 7001 grains, then you go back to using pounds for the major increment.

Measures??? WTF teaspoons and fractions , then tablespoons, then cups and fractions of them (dry or liquid??), pints, quarts, gallons, bushels, pecks, pinches, dashes, sprinkles, whatever...............

Man, that "English" system sure sound smart to me.

Have seen some posts complaining about our French compatriots having come up with the dumb metric system and that being enough reason to want to avoid it. Well, it seems I heard somewhere some Frenchy came up with the first workable smokeless powder and most of us here really like that stuff (Digital Dan, Kaywoodie, Birdy, and a few others of us still like Lord Black though). Couple of French dudes came up with the design and built Lady Liberty, and I'd say the majority of us approve of that gal, no? And what about some French words most of us manly types enjoy.............Derriere..............Decolletage.......

Let us not forget croissants and eclairs too...................I love them things! ( I like English muffins too, but give me a choice of one or and eclair and it's no contest)

I bought some Euro " Gerry Cans" a few years back...............Not hard for me to figure out the 20L ones are basically 5 gal................Looking at them I can't tell the difference................and they work and don't have silly spill proof spouts and scheidt to go on them.

The dumbazz gov't does that and I retire that very freakin' DAY!

Read some history. Before we were born, the greatest and most powerful country to ever exist, was carved out of the wilderness and developed more ingenious devices and a standard of living without the metric system.

If you remember, your buddy Jimmy Carter and a bunch of environmentalists tried that crap in the ‘70s and it didn’t work then. What is so wrong with America that we need to adapt to a bunch of foreign ideals and change America into a handicapped country that can’t even support itself without foreign influence?

Schit......
We got a couple of generations who aint even got the multiplication tables memorized, let alone able to do fractions or decimal math .
Electronics are their brain.....
They are blanks in the noggin for the most part.
All the answers are a click or voice activated question away
To them the brain is for jayz and beyonce factiods they intimately know and can rattle off instantly for cred amongst others.

How in the fugg does anyone expect them to be able to handle a system based on factors of 10


LOL!!!!

This is kind of a fun thread. The only real difficulty of either system is based on one's familiarity. People always try to convert or compare the system with which they are not familiar to the one with which they are familiar instead of learning them separately without cross-reference. I'm not saying anybody is wrong to do that because we always try to put things into a context we understand. I'm just saying that this comparison is what creates the biggest barrier to implementation of the system with which we are least familiar.

"My buddy Jimmie Carter".

Welcome to Canada, the land of no guns, welfare medicine and the metric system.

Take some of the conversation here, apply a bit of mutatis mutandis, and you have the comments of those thinking a minute of angle means an inch at 100 yards having trouble with milliradians.

WOW ...... That some funny stuff right there.

Thanks mathman. That literally made me laugh out loud.

Tikka rifles are metric...Gunsmith and builders are doing a lot more builds off a Tikka receivers currently.

Could Tikka become the Remington action of basement builds?

😎

Many years ago in the early 60s in my school the teachers were introducing the metric system to us in addition to the English system. My Dad told me this:

"In the days when I was a young man and just back from the war, the USA was the undisputed world heavyweight champion -------and we killed people that used millimeters.

Yoho, the US DOES use the metric system, just not exclusively.

Yep. Our money uses the metric system. Anybody want to go to pounds and shillings?

G' a jar full a' hapennies, can I trade ya for a handful 'a tuppence?

Most all newer machinery is metric.

Keep it up Canuck.

The 9.3x62 should now be called the .366" X 2.441".

Metric is French invented - what can you expect?

But it does make more sense, and easier to use if one is used to it, than English.

LMAO years ago when someone posted about surveying their property in TX, I think. Had to convert from "bullhide" units of the old Spanish land grant to English, or maybe metric.

Some assembly required.....

Varas most likely

Money is not metric...

adjective
1.
of or based on the meter as a unit of length; relating to the metric system.
"all measurements are given in metric form"
2.
MATHEMATICS•PHYSICS
relating to or denoting a metric.
noun
1.
TECHNICAL
a system or standard of measurement.
2.
INFORMAL
metric units, or the metric system.
"it's easier to work in metric"

The people who did that are NASA. NASA uses Metrics.

So is the US Army system. Ever hear of "klicks' (kilometers)?

Some of the craziest arguments on the campfire show up in these metrics vs English threads.

The thought that our success as a nation is somehow due in whole or part to our system of measurement is beyond absurd. If anything, it’s retarded our growth.

Some claim to hate the metric system. What is there to hate? That makes just a little less sense than hating a particular caliber rifle. What they’re saying is they don’t understand it and are afraid to try.

When I was doing my tool and die apprenticeship in the early’70’s we took a shot at it...like now, fear reared its ugly head and you heard all sorts of completely irrational, fear-driven arguments against it. Part of the problem was the fact that.gov and industry focused on conversion and tried going soft metric. That resulted in a Charlie Foxtrot and killed it.

Today, all my personal tools are in English units but I have metric stuff available when necessary. The coordinate measuring machine I use can go either way, but I don’t think it’s been used in English since we’ve had it. The CNC stuff and all the electronic metrology stuff converts as necessary.

The real objections to metric are fear and intellectual laziness.

Exactly

As someone who spent their working life in manufacturing, specifically aluminum extrusion, I am convinced it makes a huge amount of sense for us to go with the simpler and universally accepted metric system. As an exporter of finished extrusion, we were required to duplicate many product groups in order to compete. This carried huge costs which seriously degraded our profitability and marketability. In sticking with the English system we unnecessarily hobble our ability to compete internationally.

On the other hand, we are in a position to fill the needs of Liberia, the only other nation on the planet who is stuck in the old English system.