It’s Time For the US to Go Metric on Gizmodo

[Phil McKerracher]

http://gizmodo.com/5972438/its-time-for-the-us-to-go-metric

Includes an interesting comment "Have you actually been to a country that's converted? I've been to the UK. It's a f*ing mess..."

[Phil McKerracher]

Here's a link to that petition. It closes Jan 30th.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-metric-system-standard-united-states-instead-imperial-system/FndsKXLh

[Julian Bradfield]

On 2013-01-06, Phil McKerracher <use...@mckerracher.net> wrote:
> http://gizmodo.com/5972438/its-time-for-the-us-to-go-metric
>
> Includes an interesting comment "Have you actually been to a country that's converted? I've been to the UK. It's a f*ing mess..."

It's only a mess because we haven't fully converted. We like it that
way - it confuses the foreigners, both Americans and rest of world!

[Dr J R Stockton]

In misc.metric-system message <slrnkejc6...@home.stevens-
bradfield.com>, Sun, 6 Jan 2013 17:14:04, Julian Bradfield
<j...@inf.ed.ac.uk> posted:

The USA has made a few feeble attempts at conversion (US fundamental
science, but not technology, is of course metric).

UK is effectively fully converted, except for shopping and driving.

Every other country has converted at some time, apart from Burma and
Liberia and those countries where Metric was in use at the time of
countrification.

--
(c) John Stockton, near London. Mail ?.?.Stoc...@physics.org
Web <http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/> - FAQish topics, acronyms, and links.
Correct <= 4-line sig. separator as above, a line precisely "-- " (RFC5536/7)
Do not Mail News to me. Before a reply, quote with ">" or "> " (RFC5536/7)

[brian...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, 6 January 2013 13:22:18 UTC, Phil McKerracher wrote:
> http://gizmodo.com/5972438/its-time-for-the-us-to-go-metric
>
>
>
> Includes an interesting comment "Have you actually been to a country that's converted? I've been to the UK. It's a f*ing mess..."

I agree with the second sentence. However the UK never did complete the conversion, roads are Imperial, everything else is metric, except those which are not. It is a mess as you say. It is factually illigal in UK for anyone to errect a metric sign on a public highway, that all has to be in miles, yards, feet and inches. Except for height and width which may be dual. Take your examples from those countries that have done the job properly, Ireland, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia have done the job very well.

[Klaus von der Heyde]

brian...@gmail.com wrote:
> Take your examples from
> those countries that have done the job properly, Ireland, South
> Africa, New Zealand, Australia have done the job very well.

And how's the state of affairs in Canada, eh? :)

It seems hard to justify the expense of changing the street signage.
Maybe miles etc. will be seen more and more out-of-date in a couple
of years, when everyone is used to metric units everywhere else.

Klaus

[metric...@yahoo.com]

Voluntary full metrication is illegal in the US. It would cost nothing to make it legal.

US state laws permit full metrication of food, except in Alabama and New York. US federal laws (e.g. the FPLA) makes it illegal to show "500 g" or "2 liters" without showing ounces or pints.

Some US companies break the law and reduce cost by selling to customers with metric-only labels. The US NIST and some companies are lobbying for a change in the law. See:
http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/pack-lab.cfm