Why  didn't   the   US   ever   switch   to   the   metric   system?
445097
..People were unfamiliar with the metric system and there was a big enough economic base to survive without changing. A lot of common sayings don't use metric. "A miss is as good as a mile." "Give him an inch and he'll take a foot". \n..The Fahrenheit temperature scale is more human oriented. Zero degrees is really cold. It feels like there is no heat left. One hundred degrees is too hot. There are almost twice as many degrees between too cold and too hot in Fahrenheit as in Centigrade.\n..I would prefer metric except on my outdoor thermometer.
91242
There's lots of confusion about different systems of measurement.  For example a US quart is different from an English quart which is differnt again from a litre.\n\nActually the metric system is the official system of measurement of most of the world, including the US, thoug in the US it isn't used much in a real sense.\n\nWhen you say the English system, which system do you mean?  The term can have more than one meaning.  Do you mean the metric system?
574309
As an Australian I just find it frustrating converting back and forth.  I find the metric system much easier to calculate in, but then that is what I learned.  I don't think it disadvantages the US scholars as long as there are people and/or programs that can accurately convert, but there is a danger that mistakes are made, such as one of the launches to Mars where some members did their calculations in metric and some did theirs in imperial and there was a huge stuff-up.  Lucky it was just an un-manned mission and no lives were put in danger.  Where lives are at risk then we just have to have extra-careful procedures that double and triple check things (including drug dosages) to make sure our understanding of amounts, volumes, distances etc are the same.\n\nIt is also a pain when trying to make up US recipes where your cups are a different measure to our standard metric cups :)
1118331
measurements have undergone quantum jump qualutatively (range wise and accuracy wise) from primitive to modern times.Necessity is the mother of invention applies beautifully to the art and science of measurements.\nAs opposed to primitive measurements which used to employ many systems of units for the various dimensions now we have standard international system of units or the metre,kilogram,second system of units
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.
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.
526487
Hey dummy - the US gallon is actually the older of the two measurements. Great Britain changed what was then called the "Liquid Gallon" (now known as the "US Gallon") into what is now the "Imperial Gallon" or the "Ale Gallon" in order to have an easily calculable relationship with the pound (weight, not money). Read all about it here before you make a fool of yourself again.\n http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallon\nThe United States didn't change the gallon, Great Britain changed it!!!
27647
I like the current system.\n\nFurther more the reason is that it makes it harder for other countries to copy or stuff like nuclear reactors.\n\n\nEngland by the way still uses miles as a measure of distance.
739281
I sort of agree.  Especially during the Olympics.  The USA is so much bigger than (moire populated and better ) than all other countries, why don't they compete under specific states?
65078
A unit of distance called a mile was first used by the Romans and originally denoted a distance of 1,000 (double) steps ("mille passuum" in Latin), which amounted, at approximately 0.75 m per (single) step, to 1,500 metres per mile. The English got the concept of the mile from the Romans, and though its actual length fluctuated over the centuries, up till the time of the Tudors the mile consisted of 5,000 feet. Unfortunately, the English also had the idea, for reasons we needn't go into here, that a mile consisted of eight furlongs. The furlong, short for "furrow-long," is said to have been the distance a horse could pull a plow before having to rest. Its length was a matter of confusion for quite a spell, but by the 16th century folks generally agreed that it consisted of 40 rods of 16-1/2 feet each, or 660 feet in all-- and of course eight furlongs was 5,280 feet.\n\nHaving bumbled along with this contradiction for quite a while, Parliament decided to settle matters once and for all in 1593. It would have simplified things for us if they'd decided to whittle the furlong down a bit so the mile could still be 5,000 feet, but no dice. Rods and furlongs were commonly used in surveying and changing them would have thrown land titles and such into confusion. Miles were used mainly to measure the distance between towns, a matter of no great consequence at the time, so what the hey, the Brits reasoned, who cares how long they are? Today furlongs are of interest only to horse racing buffs but 5,280 feet to a mile lives on.
722267
damned metric system. :)
332876
Sure, why not?\n\nWhen someone will introduce the metric method of reckoning time, people will SLOWLY accept it (you know, old habits die hard)...\n\nComputations will be a lot easier by using the metric method...
351671
The trade unions (plumbers, pipefitters, electricians) in the US were against switching over to metric.  It would have been too costly for them.
935512
tradition.\n\n\nFahrenheit is the way we have always done it...\nCelsius, although a more efficient and all around a better system is not the way we have done it.  Change is never easy.
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.
619422
Beacause many people perceive the metric system to be complicated. In fact it is much easier than the US system; it is the conversion between systems that is complicated.\nThe answer is to throw away your inch or inch/metric tapes and get a metric only tape. Ditto for scales, thermometers etc. And just use metric units. \n\nWhen you go to the shops, demand to be served in litres, kg etc. If they moan, tell them that congress legalised metric units in 1875. Only commercial pressure will win in the end.
138878
Because there is not enough stored gold to guarantee the value of the currency in circulation. That is why the US went to the silver standard. Then we found out that there is not enough silver to guarantee the value of the currency in circulation. That is why US currency is now backed by "the full faith and credit of the United States."