Why isn't the U.S. on the metric system?
450924
Even when using the UK Imperial system the US can't get gallons right!
722267
damned metric system. :)
941303
Why aren't you Americans using metric yet?\nDrag yourself into last century already!
1164039
The United States of America do doubt about it.
622850
It is a silly question  No one discovered the United States.  The United States is a political construct.  North America was discovered by John Cabot (I think), leaving aside the Vikings and Basque fishermen.  \n\nColumbus discovered the Caribbean.
1065632
There are none.\n\nMetric units all use base ten. We have ten fingers, so the whole decimal system is based on base ten.\nThis in turn allows for easy conversions and calculations between smaller and larger scales as they are all done in multiples of 1000 when using engineering units.\n\nSome imperial units have a finer scale than the metric equivalent, which simply means that an integer in the imperial equates to a decimal place on the metric scale. But not using a decimal place does not make it any more accurate.
111465
I'm really worried about all you folks who say you learned your incorrect answers in history class.  What are they teaching you?\nThe awkward system of measurement that Americans use was also used by the English until just a couple of decades ago.  It has nothing to do with Americans wanting to be different from the English, or the American Revolution, or anything like that.\nThe metric system was invented by French scientists in the Age of Enlightenment back in the 18th Century when the French (quite literally) worshipped Reason.  (There were even temples to Reason during the French Revolution.)\n During this revolution, in the 1790's, the French instituted the very rational, scientific metric system, in which everything is based on the decimal system.  The basic unit of measurement, the metre, was established by determining the distance between the equator and the North Pole and then dividing that by powers of ten until you got something small enough to be a useful unit of measurement in everyday life.  The gram was established by weighing the amount of water in a cubic centimeter (at least I think it was a centimeter).  In the centigrade system of temperature, 0 is the temperature at which water freezes and 100 is the temperature at which it boils.  Everything is beautifully rational, and therefore good for science, where it is universally used.\n\nThe French Revolution failed but its measuring system lived on, because it was so useful.  The English, who hated the French, refused to adopt their measuring system until they were forced to by the emergence of the Common Market.  Others on this list have accurately given the history of the failure of Americans to convert to the metric system.  But that's how it all began.
145722
While it originated in France, the metric system is based on easily observable phenomena in nature (the meter is a certain number of wavelengths of light, the kilogram is the weight of a certain amount of pure water, etc.) so there is no longer any need to keep a "standard meter bar of platinum" or a "standard kilogram at sea level" anywhere.
694761
You might do well to remember that the USA was founded on the separation of church and state.\nRemember this famous quote; "Freedom can be measured by the distance between the state and the church."
1151138
Agree that most users are American idiots which is why I have my country listed. They are the ones that don't know about metrics.
362853
Yeah, good question!\nI think to test how much America is influencing the world!\nThe metric system is much easier and much better and its fractions are easily measured.\nSome countries in the Arab Gulf are now using gallons for fuel instead of litres! Although litres are easier.. and using square feet instead of square meters to measure lands, yet the latter is easier.. but seems that the influence is working already on the Arabs in the gulf... so who knows, maybe it'll work on the rest of the world and on that day America will be the World's Empire.
592545
Because we are the mighty!  Oh, yeah!  The greatest!  Float like a butterfly, sting like a 10 megaton MIRV topped ICBM! In your face, G8!  Go on and cry, mew, mew, the big bad Americans make us do conversions to imperial.  Hah!  I fart in your general direction, silly european bedwetting types!\n\nUh, but seriously, uh, maybe it's because our leaders were too retarded to understand the basic simplicity of using a standardized base-ten system.  \n\nA-hem, harumph.\n\nOh, say can you see my math must be converted from imperial to metric then back to imperial again by the dawn's early light.  And you thought we were lazy!  We're so arrogant we don't mind doing two extra conversions for every problem.\n\nNow, has anyone considered going to base 60?  Worked for the ancient Sumerians, and we still use it today in geography, calculus, .....\n\nI hope no one was put off by my little bit of fun.  I  personally don't have a clue as to why we didn't go metric.  Sure would make a lot of s**t easier.\n\nBy the way, in case you haven't heard, GW is an idiot.  Heck, I bet he can't even calculate the kill radius for a 30 megaton thermonuclear warhead, 'scuse me, nu-cu-lur.\n\nYee-haw, yee-haw.  (Slim Pickens riding it in ala  Dr. Strangelove.)\n\nBye now.
628619
The majority of facilities in the US are and have been\nyard pools.  US started with a non-metric system and has not been able to convert all pools to metric.  Our major competitions other than High school and College are held metric.  Smaller or shorter pools are less expensive to construct so we can have more of them.  Thus more swimmers\ncan have the advantage of a facility. USA-S has about 300,000 competitive swimmers that use METRIC pools.  There are millions that swim recreationally in yard pools.
322556
I'm not sure, but it is really hard not to use it.  Metrics are really easy.  You just divide or multiply by ten.  But Americans just are afraid of change.
1163436
North America is a continent, not a nation. A continent can not have a gross NATIONAL product.\n\nGet it?
625608
I agree we should switch and the government has tried to get us to use it before but many Americans just don't want to learn it.  In the UK they are  complaining about it and an Australian told me alot of the older generation there still refer to everything in miles.  The best thing to do is prepare the next generation for it and maybe put signs in both the metric and miles and then eventually take away the miles part.
1067150
We will become metric when we finally elect people with vision and we have a higher regard for education and other countries.\nIn other words no time soon.Every answer against going metric can be easily debunked. It's mainly because Americans relish their arrogance and ignorance.It's still a baby country in the grand scheme of things with a collectively low I.Q. and E.Q.