The Metric System

Thinly veiled indeed but I don't agree it "failed miserably". I'd call it somewhat successful.

Maybe in supermarkets, but the milkman who delivers to my house delivers 2 pints of milk

Really? Because he voiced his opinion?

"The rest of the world does it" really means nothing. Peer pressure? Just because everyone else is doing it, that doesn't mean it's right, does it? Don't make me cite examples!

The old glass bottles wow, I've not seen one of those for ages. I remember buying Orange Juice in them too. I just checked at it seems doorstep delivery is still an option even for me.

Doorstep delivery... well - I have a cow or two wander past my house the odd morning but the only thing that's been left behind is better for putting on my roses than on my cereal

I agree, but I think the truth is a little more human than the relative merits of each system. On that issue, I may address some of Phil's ... err ... facts later. But the UK faced and is still facing the very same resistance. It's perfectly understandable, but it's no more logical than US resistance and surely no less deeply felt by many.

For all the blather about why Imperial is better, or vice versa the posters who have been the most honest are those reacting angrily as if they're somehow under 'attack'. It's a needless reaction given the subject but it comes closer to the true reason; broadly speaking people don't like change, and many Americans (as they have demonstrated) don't react well when their comfort zone is threatened - 'top' dogs don't see a need to learn new tricks.

Come on peeps, for many of you it's as simple as not wanting to give up a system you're comfortable with - there's no shame in that but at least have the spine to admit it, instead of creating all these convoluted 'reasons' why imperial is 'better' - it's simply not. The UK has been there and done that - it's not so bad once you re-adjust, really very painless. Besides, there's no need to give up your 'cups', just shift the emphasis - I do it all the time.

I say this tongue in cheek for the most part, because I really couldn't give a tinker's cuss what system the US uses - my only gripe being that much of the reasoning against it (besides the cost) is IMO and with all due respect, bollocks.

Why the hell did u let being Swiss go to become American?? The Swiss rock!

Swiss Cheese > American Cheese, as well.

Well, the 'imperial' system (using 'imperial' loosely) may take more intelligence to use, but that's only because it's unintelligently designed.
As a design, surely the metric system is indeed more intelligent.

I can't remember the last time I saw a milk float. Or a cow come the think of it - no wait yes I can. In Africa last year - a sad (yet interesting) tale of emergency detours into the bush to dodge police checkpoints, considerable mooing and much gore.

I'd forgotten all about that - actually some of it's on video which seemed vaguely amusing at the time, but with hindsight would have made excellent evidence!

QFT

Pretty much everyone over 60 here still discusses property values in vieux francs!! The franc was revalued in 1960!! And what is more the revaluation was just 100 to 1 (100 old francs = 1 new franc).

I see the franc to euro change being treated no differently either. All prices in all shops are still listed in both euros and francs - Ireland's supermarkets stopped mentioning phunts before the end of 2002 (as far as I know). People here are only just getting to grips with euros after 6 years! And that's just the younger people. It's crazy BUT is does prove the point that the old system does not have to disappear just because a new system is introduced. Loads of people in the UK still reference everything in imperial, there is just a requirement for merchants to give the metric value as well.

Perhaps - though the origins of the 'imperial' system are (just as?) intelligent in their own way. (Though perhaps you mean the corelation of the base of the units of distance and mass?)

Either way - a country favouring one system over the other as its official system of measurement does not make its citizens any more or less intelligent than the citizens of any other country.

*raises hand* i'm one of those stupid americans

but seriously, we should probably get with the times and start teaching the metric system at the elementary level. it'd be a lot easier than constantly doing conversions.

Intelligent Design, huh. They got to you too!

Canada converted in 1970. The old system was officially scrapped, which probably lead to the "I'm not learning that damned Metric shit" backlash from the older folks. Although us Gen-Xers know metric very well, we still use Imperial quite often. It's common to say that, "Kingston is 200 miles from Ottawa," or, "I am 175 pounds." In fact, most Canucks likely don't know their metric height or weight off hand--Common weights and measures are still mostly touted in Imperial.

Saying, "I am one hundred eighty three centimeters tall" would seem pretentious around here.

So, I guess you Canucks are officially superior, but in practice, you are as stupid and arrogant as us Yanks?