The United States gets more isolated in units of measurement

[lpetrich]

Gov’t Pledges Commitment to Adopt Metric System | Liberian Observer

Commerce and Industry Minister Wilson Tarpeh has said the government is committed to adopting the metric system to promote accountability and transparency in trade.

...
Minister Tarpeh who spoke at the celebration of the World Metrology Day in Liberia, organized by the National Standards Laboratory on May 24, explained that the government is aware that if it does not adopt the metric system, local manufacturers will find it difficult to benefit from the various ECOWAS trade agreements.

ECOWAS = Economic Community of West African States


Is Myanmar Finally Going Metric? > ENGINEERING.com noting Myanmar may finally adopt a standard measurement system | Coconuts Yangon

Myanmar does not have an official measurement system. Government websites use either imperial or metric units, and sometimes both. In 2011 and 2013, the Ministry of Commerce announced that it was preparing to adopt the metric system, but this never happened.

...
The deputy minister replied that the ministry is working to design a "metrology bill," which will establish standard measurement units for the country.

I have not been able to find anything more recent, however.


With Liberia and Burma going metric or likely doing so, that leaves Samoa, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau -- and the United States -- as the only nations that are not committed to adopting the metric system of units. But some nominal adopters have gone only part of the way, like the United Kingdom and Canada.


The United States had a push to adopt the system in the late 1970's, but it fizzled out. It seems to me that it was a casualty of the end of the Sixties reform era, much like the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion.

More recently, Lincoln Chafee included a proposal to convert to it in his running for President in 2015 (Switching to the Metric System Is Officially a Presidential Campaign Issue -- Mother Jones, Chafee: Go bold, go metric - CNNPolitics) He is a former US Senator from Rhode Island.

 

[WAB]

Yeah, but think of the devastating effect it'll have on rock lyrics.

"I love you, baby, the way you come through in a pinch.
Makes me want to give you my love, yeah every centimeter..."

"I love you baby, yeah, I really like your style,
Imma come to you baby, if I gotta crawl every kilometer..."

"My heart is real heavy, baby, since you ain't been around.
Yeah, my heart feels so heavy, like it weighs a hundred kilograms..."

 

[bilby]

Give 'em 25.4 millimetres, and they will take 1.61 kilometres. At least, according to a recent article in Rolling 6.35 Kilograms magazine.

I doubt America has in in them to do the hard 0.914 metres needed to make this happen.

 

[James Brown]

We made the conversion to metric when it comes to soda bottles. Why can't we do it for anything else?

 

[DrZoidberg]

USA is already metric in the academic world. Imperial measurements are only found in old studies.

I also think it's funny that USA so stubbornly clings to a unit of measurement so closely associated with the British empire. Guys, you had a revolution not to have to put up with their shit. Break free, from British opression!

 

[bilby]

USA is already metric in the academic world. Imperial measurements are only found in old studies.

I also think it's funny that USA so stubbornly clings to a unit of measurement so closely associated with the British empire. Guys, you had a revolution not to have to put up with their shit. Break free, from British opression!

Even funnier, they get short measure. The British had 'adjusted' measures for use in the colonies, as a form of stealth tax; So while a pint in the UK was the volume of 20oz of water, in the US it is only 16oz.

At school, we learned the mnemonic "A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". I still don't know whether to laugh or cry that American children are taught the barefaced lie "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round". It's pure propaganda, still alive and well more than two centuries after it ceased to serve the nefarious purpose for which it was created.

 

[Bomb#20]

More recently, Lincoln Chafee included a proposal to convert to it in his running for President in 2015 (Switching to the Metric System Is Officially a Presidential Campaign Issue -- Mother Jones, Chafee: Go bold, go metric - CNNPolitics)

I'm sure that got him a lot of grassroots support.

At school, we learned the mnemonic "A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter". I still don't know whether to laugh or cry that American children are taught the barefaced lie "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round". It's pure propaganda, still alive and well more than two centuries after it ceased to serve the nefarious purpose for which it was created.

Had to stare at that one a while. How the heck does "A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter" qualify as a mnemonic? "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round" makes sense. "Pound" rhymes with "round". Then I got it -- you speak some weird dialect. Sure, the metric system is superior, and sure, it sucks that Americans are too lazy to change, but at least we bloody well speak English!

 

[Elixir]

I heard that Trump is getting ready to attack Liberia and Burma for stealing our system.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I still don't know whether to laugh or cry that American children are taught the barefaced lie "A pint's a pound the whole world 'round". It's pure propaganda, still alive and well more than two centuries after it ceased to serve the nefarious purpose for which it was created.

But that ditty never meant that everyone on the planet used pints and pounds.
It means that wherever we go, if we have a pint of water, it weighs very close to a pound. Even if schoolchildren flock to the streets to point and laugh at our measuring cup, singing "liter leader; liter leader; liter leader;..." for annoying hours on end, it's still a pound of water.

Then we use that and our traveling scale to weigh out coffee beans or pimentos, or whatever the local economy uses for barter...

 

[Bomb#20]

Even funnier, they get short measure. The British had 'adjusted' measures for use in the colonies, as a form of stealth tax; So while a pint in the UK was the volume of 20oz of water, in the US it is only 16oz. ... It's pure propaganda, still alive and well more than two centuries after it ceased to serve the nefarious purpose for which it was created.

Do you have a cite for that theory? According to Wikipedia, in the 1700s Britain had three competing gallons in general use: a wine gallon, a beer gallon, and a corn gallon. The colonists took them all to America. In the 1800s the U.S. standardized on the wine gallon and Britain independently standardized on the beer gallon. I don't see how this can be a nefarious plot to shortchange colonists -- I'm pretty sure an American pint of wine got them drunker than an Imperial pint of beer.

 

[bilby]

Even funnier, they get short measure. The British had 'adjusted' measures for use in the colonies, as a form of stealth tax; So while a pint in the UK was the volume of 20oz of water, in the US it is only 16oz. ... It's pure propaganda, still alive and well more than two centuries after it ceased to serve the nefarious purpose for which it was created.

Do you have a cite for that theory? According to Wikipedia, in the 1700s Britain had three competing gallons in general use: a wine gallon, a beer gallon, and a corn gallon. The colonists took them all to America. In the 1800s the U.S. standardized on the wine gallon and Britain independently standardized on the beer gallon. I don't see how this can be a nefarious plot to shortchange colonists -- I'm pretty sure an American pint of wine got them drunker than an Imperial pint of beer.

I don't have a cite; It's something I remember from a long-ago conversation with an historian friend of mine, and may well be purely mythical. It might even be outdated propaganda in its own right.

 

[Underseer]

We made the conversion to metric when it comes to soda bottles. Why can't we do it for anything else?

Because Thomas Jefferson had a fucking hissy fit with the metric standards committee.

 

[steve_bank]

There are exceptions, engineering is almost exclusively metric. Mechanical dimensions for electronic parts are in millimeters, sometimes inches are also shown.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

We made the conversion to metric when it comes to soda bottles. Why can't we do it for anything else?

I remember that change over. A local radio station with an afternoon talk show was flooded for weeks with outraged squid billies bitterly complaining that they would be cheated out of a nickel by the nefarious soft drink companies. Plus other bizarre nonsense of that ilk.

At that time I was working a job that involved a fair share of trigonometry. Doing trig with feet, inches and fractions of inches is a waste of time. Metric allows dumb ass Americans to loudly parade their ignorance.