You know, that would sting a lot more if you could still do it.
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Here is why. Every building in the country (with possible rare exception) is built with materials measured by inches and feet. The Home Depots and Lowes and their respective warehouses are stocked full of raw materials measured to the same specifications. What is going to happen to all that stuff the day after they pass the conversion laws or whatever it would be? Change the labeling? wait for the old stock to clear out? Thatâs an effort (meaning money) that nobody calling for converting is offering to compensate for. And you think every carpenter is going to start looking at the other side of the tape measure when heâs measuring the length to cut on his now 5.08x10.16âs (formerly 2x4âs)?
I could deal with metric liquid though - Iâve never liked the pints quarts and cups, just give me liters I can actually measure that out easier and combine or divide it in my head without needing paper or a reference to some chart.
I used to be a big metric booster when I was younger, but as I age I find myself fonder and fonder of the anthropocentric and binary qualities of the old system, rather than the geocentric and decimal qualities of metric.
I think itâs time we brought back the fathom (1.8288 meters).
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Good to know, thank you. I stand by my meaning that this kind of argument:
âThroughout history we have measured things by ourselves,â Marciano says. âWe are really losing something with metric.â
Doesnât hold up to scrutiny when the one everyday thing people are familiar seeing freezing and boiling does so at 32 and 212 degrees (?).
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Kelvin or Rankine make even more sense. It eliminates negative numbers entirely.
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You buy 1728 eggs at a time?
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Weâre also the only country that ever lost a $125 Million Mars Orbiter because some luddite contractor was using English units of measurement instead of metric.
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Only Imperial Pints will do. Otherwise you might as well just drink a half liter. Like a poncey git. And donât get me started about 12 ounce bottles and cans, or god forbid, a 12 ounce draft. Sometimes Iâm embarrassed to be an American.
@SpaceGhost: just an FYI, a â2x4â is not actually 2 inches by 4 inches. 
@Thomas_Monson: And every time we try to use the metric system for space exploration, it doesnât go well.
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Theyâre still better than Canadian âpintsâ: whatever the volume of the largish glasses on hand is.
While the law does require that bars be honest as to the volumes of products that they sell, almost no bar managers seem to know either that the law exists, or if they do know that, how big a pint is. If we could settle on the British (20 imperial ounce) pint, or even the meagre US (16 US ounce) pint, that would be great. Here most bars make no claim as to the size of their âpintsâ, which could be anywhere from 12 to 20 oz.
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Are you talking about landings on the moon, or crewed landings on the moon?
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I kinda know that but i figured for arguments sake most people donât think of that when they hear 2x4. 1.5x3.5 for anybody interested (so that would make them 3.81x8.89âs. Have fun dividing by that in your blueprints!)
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In California we have tried before and failed miserably. It was also a half assed approach and not true metric, for instance we would think or want 10 feet so the dimension would be 3.048m. This is not working in metric this is converting to metric a true metric distance would be 3 meters and thatâs it no correlation with feet.
The ultimate reason why metric fails in USA? because laborers are used to inches.
Unless we can retrain an entire workforce comprised of ethnicities that are from the west or southwest it aint gunna happen in the US anytime soon.
So the argument boils down to:
a) weâre used to it (English units)
b) weâre too lazy
c) weâre too stupid
?
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I remember reading a book on the first American Ace of WWII. He enlisted in Canada before the US joined the war and flew Spitfires.
Later when the US joined, he transferred to an American Unit, but he took the Metric gun sight from his Spitfire to replace the one with yard on his new Mustang, as it was easier to calculate ranges by 10s.
To be fair, all unites of measurement are a bit arbitrary, though metric is much easier to do math with.
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What utter tosh. Halves perhaps. Feet? Rubbish. Thatâs only because itâs what youâre taught.
We have 10 fingers, the perfect base for metric.
Besides, isnât your currency metric already?
See, not so hard.
As for acres ploughed in a day, well thatâs entirely dependent on the fitness of the farmer and his mule.
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They can keep their new-fangled, steam-powered âImperialâ gallon. In the US of A weâll stick with Queen Anneâs wine gallon thankyouverymuch.
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Not buying it. First, laborers donât exactly have a lot of political sway. Second, a huge portion of laborers in the U.S. come from countries that went full-metric ages ago. Third, having two systems means that most laborers just have to carry around a bunch of extra tools (like two sets of socket wrenches).
The truth is that the U.S. has been using metric for many measures for generations. The U.S. Military measures ammunition in millimeters and ground unit movements in kilometers (âklicksâ). The sciences are almost entirely metric, as is much of the food industry. Our currency has been divided into metric units from the beginning. We just havenât been able to go fully metric on things like units of distance because there are so many curmudgeons out there who oppose any deviation from the things theyâve grown used to.
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The US is actually using the metric system even while using âEnglishâ units. An inch is 2.54 cm. Not approximately â thatâs the actual definition these days. If, say, the Irish can be said to be using the metric system while still serving beer in 568 ml glasses called âpintsâ, the same thing is true of the US.
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Usually 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_temperature
For closed systems with a limited number of possible energy states the absolute temperature scale goes 0â>infinityâ>negative infinityâ>0
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