this post was submitted on 01 Apr 2024
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The US does in fact teach the Metric System in schools, it just doesn't get used for much outside of the Sciences, Firearms, Alcohol, illicit and Prescription Drugs, and Soda.
We see far more metric measurements than we actually notice every day. Almost every item in your grocery store shows both US Customary and Metric measurements right next to each other on the label. And we buy whisk(e)y in 750ml bottles.
But I would argue there is probably little reason to stop buying butter by the pound(454 grams) vs switching to selling butter in 500 gram packages. And no one misses buying whisk(e)y by the fifth rather than in 750mL bottles. Even when traveling no one really cares how many miles or kilometers it is from New York City to LA. All anyone really cares about is "how long" will it take to get there. Nor does matter if you measure your dick in inches or centimeters - it's still gonna be too short according to that woman you picked up at the club last weekend. I honestly suspect we are going to keep using a bastardized mixed system for a very long time for common everyday usage while doing "official" things metric.
The real question is: Where did all those 9/16" wrenches disappear to during the "good ol' days." And why can't I find that bloody damn 10mm socket today? What is up with that?
We really need to just slowly leech it into everything.
That's pretty much what we're doing. If you look the list of things that use, or at least have, metric measurements is actually pretty long. Most of the fuss gets kicked up because of we still use Miles / Feet / Inches and for mass we use pounds.