I do find this funny. Thanks for the joke. Now facts:
1. The British didn’t develop the metric system. It was invented and largely developed in France, it was adopted formally in science in 1790 and adopted by France in 1795.
2. The British developed the imperial system, which is the system that was used by America and Britain. The Americans made some deviations from imperial but most base units and terms are shared.
3. Metric wasn’t adopted by the UK until 1965. Even then, imperial continues to be used in many places. Road signs and packaging weren’t mandated to metric until the end of the 20th century and even in the 21st century the UK still had standard road signs.
4. A UK government report made in 2015 reported that 60% of UK citizens 18-24 couldn’t give their own weight in metric, and 54% didn’t know their height in metric.
The UK switched to metric in order to improve commerce and collaboration with neighbors and other countries. It simplifies import and export of goods and improves the ability to compete in global markets. The US doesn’t have as many close neighbors as the UK, and doesn’t face the same markets and market pressures. The US never formally adopted metric, but it is very much like the UK in that most sciences use metric, and over decades metric has become more standard in fields like manufacturing and machine work. The US also does use many metric measurements in daily life. Most vehicle engine displacements, even domestics, are given in CC or cubic liters. Many fluids, like soda, are sold in liter increments.
The US infrastructure from the metering and pricing of petrol, to the size and volume of construction materials is set up for standard units. Existing structures and signage are made in standard measurements. And the US tends to have older structures on average than much of Europe, which saw massive amounts of new construction post WW2. So not only is the cost of conversion and the disruption a concern- but upkeep of existing structures and even things like railways which were built on standard measure could become problematic on metric. The US does seem to be slowly moving towards metric, but it is being done as more an evolutionary process than a sudden and abrupt shift.
Just some further info on point 3. (The following I've said so many times on here) Road signs are in yards and miles, petrol is sold by the litre but cars are sold with "miles per gallon" information.
Pubs sell beer in pints but wine in ml. Milk is sold with both the pint and litre measurement on the bottle.
Babies weights are announced in pounds and ounces. Most people I know weigh themselves in stone and pounds and give their height in feet and inches. But swimming pools are measured in metres. Fabric is usually sold by the metre also.
TVs are measured in inches but furniture websites list both metric and imperial measurements.
Wow. I didn’t know a lot of those. I appreciate you sharing those. Most US cars are MPG and fuel is on gallons. Speedometers are usually MPH and KPH (newer digital cars are usually “global” and can switch between.) electric cars are given in Kilowatts and such- most electrical measures are metric and not joules. US pubs often serve pints- though they aren’t always an actual pint. Milk is usually gallons, half gallons, quarter gallons, and more rarely pints. Non “individual packaging” soda is usually sold in 2 liter sizes. Many drinks are served in liters. We primarily do weights and heights in lbs and inches. We don’t really use stone. It is common for swimming pools her to be measured in meters for any sort of sports pool, recreational pools are usually feet or yards. Depth is USUALLY but not always in feet. Fabric is yards, TV’s are inches. Furniture is more or less the same. si is more common but metric is often given- especially on foreign made stuff. (American) football fields...
... are measured in yards, but track and field like running and jumps tend to measured in meters. Marathons and races are somewhat split up- but it is increasingly common for them to be measured in kilometers and most people will know a race by kilometer distance- but it’s common when running as an individual or for fitness assessment to be measured time/distance for miles ran. Medicines and legal/illegal drugs are commonly measured or dosed in metric. It’s still more common to use SI for cooking. Our automotive tire sizes- as is pretty standard- width is in millimeters but diameter is on inches. Electronics tend to lean to metric hardware and dimensions- but things that go on shelves or take floor space are often listed in Si.
1. The British didn’t develop the metric system. It was invented and largely developed in France, it was adopted formally in science in 1790 and adopted by France in 1795.
2. The British developed the imperial system, which is the system that was used by America and Britain. The Americans made some deviations from imperial but most base units and terms are shared.
3. Metric wasn’t adopted by the UK until 1965. Even then, imperial continues to be used in many places. Road signs and packaging weren’t mandated to metric until the end of the 20th century and even in the 21st century the UK still had standard road signs.
4. A UK government report made in 2015 reported that 60% of UK citizens 18-24 couldn’t give their own weight in metric, and 54% didn’t know their height in metric.
Pubs sell beer in pints but wine in ml. Milk is sold with both the pint and litre measurement on the bottle.
Babies weights are announced in pounds and ounces. Most people I know weigh themselves in stone and pounds and give their height in feet and inches. But swimming pools are measured in metres. Fabric is usually sold by the metre also.
TVs are measured in inches but furniture websites list both metric and imperial measurements.