[OT] Metric system.

[Iron Sheep]

Likewise. I'm Canadian, but moved to the U.S. a couple months ago for grad school. Although it was difficult at first, and I basically had to learn whole new price comparisons of "what is a good price" for gas, groceries, and so on, I've basically adjusted. It's really not all that difficult.

I adjusted on the day-to-day level pretty quickly after I got here too. It's more that I don't have the "gut feel" for the US measurements. When I think of a kilogram, part of that concept in my mind is the feel of the heft of something that masses about a kilo. If I think of a temperature of 30C, connected with that is the feeling of the heat of a typical summer day in Sydney. I don't have that sort of feel for a pound or for a 80F day.

This probably says more about the way that my mind works than the relative merits of different systems of measurement.

So what you're saying is that it's never going to happen here.
The concept of an American government that has will, that values education, and sticks with a plan for a long time is almost unthinkable!

It could happen, but I'm not holding my breath. My observation is that there's too much fear of the metric system (or the change required to implement it) amongst "typical" Americans, which means there's easy political mileage to be had from exploiting that fear. Although I am surprised that so much engineering in the US still hasn't switched to metric.

 

[Michael Tree]

Besides, saying "I was driving 100 Miles per hour" sounds a lot better than saying " I was driving 162 Kilometers per hour".

As I said before, people in metric countries use metric measurements, not metric conversions of imperial measurements.

Besides, 100 Kilometers per hour sounds better than 62 Miles per hour.