Why doesn't the USA adopt officially the metric unit?

[highdesert]

This leaves the carpenters/and builders. They have a minor concern but if the plans were in centimeters and tape measures were metric, they would be fine with it.
Dave

Having gone from carpentry/cabinetmaker to machinist to yacht designer, I'll take metric any day, as long as the switch is complete. Example: A manufacturer of RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets went from imperial to metric in their plant; errors dropped about 60-some per cent in the space of about 60 days. I made the switch as a machinist in about three days, using a $10 calculator. I saw the same thing occur in boatbuilding, where we went from imperial to metric during my stint. Everyone whined until they got a set of metric plans and new measuring tapes. Errors down, productivity up. No more feet, inches, eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, big lines on the tape, little lines, itty-bitty lines. The hangup, in my mind, is big industry and American Chauvinism. And still big industry whines about having to compete against the world, but won't grant themselves the advantage of competing equally.

 

[wardric]

now, why doesn't the U.S. officially adopt English as its official language?

Because it's not as widely spoken as spanish yet

 

[wardric]

Having gone from carpentry/cabinetmaker to machinist to yacht designer, I'll take metric any day, as long as the switch is complete. Example: A manufacturer of RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets went from imperial to metric in their plant; errors dropped about 60-some per cent in the space of about 60 days. I made the switch as a machinist in about three days, using a $10 calculator. I saw the same thing occur in boatbuilding, where we went from imperial to metric during my stint. Everyone whined until they got a set of metric plans and new measuring tapes. Errors down, productivity up. No more feet, inches, eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds, big lines on the tape, little lines, itty-bitty lines. The hangup, in my mind, is big industry and American Chauvinism. And still big industry whines about having to compete against the world, but won't grant themselves the advantage of competing equally.

Everyone who uses metrics (and I dont mean just try it) knows that it's a better system. Any opinion by someone who never used it (and I dont mean just tried it) is irrelevant.

 

[Teamcasa]

Having gone from carpentry/cabinetmaker to machinist to yacht designer, I'll take metric any day, as long as the switch is complete.

That's exactly right!
I too have taken a similar path. I started as a mechanic where the metric system is well entrenched. I now work for a management company where it is my job to manage large construction projects and I volunteer building houses.

Working with framers I found out that many don’t understand fractions either. I hear them call a measurement out like, “Cut it 63 and 6.” This means 63 inches and 6/8ths. They do this because the guy on the saw does not under stand 6/8 is really 3/4. They say it cuts down on errors.

As an amateur furniture builder and machinist, I don’t care if the plans are in inch/fraction, inch/decimal or metric. I just use the appropriate measuring devices to build it.

But like you and I have both said, any conversion needs to be soup to nuts. If we have to rely on any conversions there will be errors.

Dave

 

[MSilvia]

Besides, who has a mental reference for how far a meter is? I don't.

It's about a yard.

 

[Tomeck]

now, why doesn't the U.S. officially adopt English as its official language?

Because the authors of the constitution forgot, or not to intervene by legislative way so that English can assert itself by itself, or according to the Constitution, residual capacities, i.e. those which do not deal expressly at the federal State or the Member States, known as "are preserved by the States and the People"?

29 American States adopted English like official language and 21 States did not adopt English like official language.

 

[Skull]

Carter appointed Volker in 1979 who was the guy who actually got us out of that mess, Reagan opposed the fed policies.

hmmmm since when does it matter what the president thinks of the feds moves ...last time I checked it was an apolitical commision ...also I didn't know that Reagan carried that much weight ..with the Fed?

 

[Teamcasa]

direction measured in degrees (now there is a discussion...360 degrees in a circle)

The 360 circle is maybe 4000 + years old.
First you must ask the Sumerians, then the Babylonians, who noticed the Sun's annual path took about 360 days to complete a year's circuit. They divided that into days (360 degrees = days) to track each day's of the Sun's orbit.

One of the many oddities in our world today!


Dave

 

[wardric]

speaking of oddities, there's tennis with it's system of points: 15, 30, 40, etc

 

[Rick Murchison]

Why doesn't the USA adopt officially the metric unit? Almost all the countries adopted the metric system, because measurements and calculations are easier thanks to the base of 10. Even with NASA the American scientists use the metric system. The unit imperial was very much used in the Anglo-Saxon countries, but now another large countries Anglo-Saxon like Canada or Australia decided to use the metric system. Why is the USA the only large Anglo-Saxon country to remain "irreducible"?

Why? Because most of us don't want to, and vote that way.
Rick