Metric/English

[Gepk1640]

What happened to the English measurements? For those of us in the USA you might as well just not list anything. Metric has no meaning to us at all. I get the Free Ones is not a US website but I would think that the US is big enough to justify keeping the English measurements.

 

[Pornfan99]

Uh .. one still buys: 1) milk by the gallon; 2) ice cream by the 1.5 quart; 3) oil by the quart; 4) gasoline by the gallon; 5) bulk food "by the pound;" etc.

 

[John_8581]

Do we still have automobiles in America that use metric tools?

 

[Xombie3000]

I'm American and I like Metric

 

[tvstrip]

America loves their guns, and (apart from the Magnum) look at how they measure gun caliber. So they're definitely familiar with metric measurements of length.

 

[Mr. Daystar]

Ok, first of all, when you say metric or English, what you mean is metric or standard (SAE). By using the word "English", you put my brain straight to "British Standard, which was different them metric, and as far as I can remember, was what you needed to wrench on old Triumph's (car & bike), or BSA's, and Norton's, or any thing made in Great Britain I suppose. Now that I've said that, I'll say this. My 2007 Harley has metric bolts, my '78-1/2 AMF Harley had a couple of metric bolts. My wife's Honda, built in America, has metric bolt's. A lot of things still have both. As far as measuring goes, I grew up with inch's and yard's,, and although I can comprehend how metric has some advantages, I don't want to relearn, which is likely why America still doesn't go all in on metric. Football would be a whole different game, that's for sure. As far as guns go, the military and NATO have a lot to do with it, and so does the diameter of rounds. A .40 S&W, is actually 10mm in diameter, and there is also a 10mm caliber, both are semi auto cartridges. But different length cases mean they have to be labeled differently, for safety reasons, because they are VERY far from interchangeable, so things have to be precise

 

[DrakeM]

Canada went metric in the 1970s. I'm old enough that in grade one I was taught inches and pounds but grade two switched to centimeters and kilograms. I still recall an April day in the mid-70s when I first heard the temperature in Celsius on the radio. So 45 plus years later how metric is Canada? The answer is mixed. Temperature is Celsius, speed and distance are kilometers, liquids are in liters and millimeters, and rainfall and snowfall are milimeters and centimeters - Fahrenheit, miles, gallons, ounces, and inches are gone. I've got a full set of SAE wrenches and sockets, but never use them because nearly everything is in metric. However, we still buy things at the grocery store in pounds and think of our weight in pounds; kilograms never caught on in stores because they make things look too expensive but everyone seems to understand weight in grams. When asked my height, I recite feet and inches which my doctor dutifully converts to centimeters for his charts. When talking to people about short distances they will still estimate in feet and inches because they are just more human measurements but when I measure lumber, I use centimeters because it is so much easier to do calculations.

USA, this could have been you had you let Jimmy Carter do his thing - the best of both measurement systems - metric for most and SAE for casual stuff where convenient.

 

[tvstrip]

Canada went metric in the 1970s.

I have no source than my personal opinion, but I bet metric temperature caught on in Canada because the standard for outdoor temperature is how many degrees you are away from water freezing

 

[Duke Klingenpooper]

I use metric as a noun, but I know that it also applies to a number system of dots and stuff and that one of my favorite things, being a American, is guns and they are measured in the numbers that use dots and the larger numbers after the dots are the guns with more kick. Which is consistent, bigger is better. Than littler. If you have to choose. But yes I probably use metric numbers even though I hate killomwters and CCs and dots in my numbers generally. Quart of milk. Is that metrics? I drink a lot of milk. It's mucus producing, I know, but it's good for spooge production too. Bigger is better, again. Metrics. That's my metric - do it go big?