Is the USA changing to all metric?

[John From Detroit]

Most young folks that I interact with these days can work out the conversion fairly easily.
I bet even most of us Old Farts can ball park a quick conversion.

I frequently do weight and temperature, also Miles/KM Inches mmi let google do most of the time.
So many "I can never understand the metric system

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Transaction Details

Transaction ID 8LH883066S308764V Transaction date June 27, 2025

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[Jackiemac]

If you talk to a Canuck or a Brit, they know the conversions kilometers/miles, celsius/Fahrenheit, meters/feet.
Most Americans don't know these conversions, much less have the ability to use them off the top of their head.
Seems they need to know our system more than we need to know theirs.

I don't but I'm not great at the metric stuff although I should be as that's what we had at school.

 

[OldWEB]

I frequently do weight and temperature, also Miles/KM Inches mmi let google do most of the time.
So many "I can never understand the metric system

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Transaction Details

Transaction ID 8LH883066S308764V Transaction date June 27, 2025

SENDER John Davis [email protected] RECIPIENT Boots andro Cmacho Zurita [email protected]​

Transaction Details

Transaction ID 8LH883066S308764V Transaction date June 27, 2025

SENDER John Davis [email protected] RECIPIENT Boots andro Cmacho Zurita [email protected]​

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[Tom]

When I changed to metric in my post college days, it was the SI system (System Internationale) aka the rationalized metric system. In SI the base is always the same, and multipliers use exponents (using ^ because I can't find the superscript button):

Distance is in meters
1,800 metres would be written as 1.8x10^3 m.
5cm would be written as 5x10^-2 m.

Weight in kilograms
2,000 grams would be written as 2 kg.
100 grams would be written as 1x10^-1 kg.

The advantage of the use of SI (vs 'metric') is that the unit of the result is always known (m, kg, etc).

 

[House Husband]

It's my understand that the US conversion failed because, "Corporate America" lobbied our government, saying that the change over would bankrupt them. Corporate America wasn't smart enough to just change the label like our Canadian neighbors. 1 lb. of hamburger became 4535 kg.

 

[House Husband]

Hmm. Does Canada still use 2x4s (3.5" x 1.5") or did they finally change that to metric?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I function well enough in metric and have always found it easy to convert. I know the formulas as well as the approximate equivalents for everyday uses and am fortunate to do the arithmetic easily "in my head". Many things are easier in the metric system. [rant on] But how did Celsius get included in an otherwise rational system? 20 C. isn't 2x as hot as 10 C., the C degree is too large for even common measurements so you have to employ tenths or hundredths for everything, and basing 0 on the freeze point of water means many everyday things have to be expressed with negative numbers! The Fahrenheit degree is a much better choice for a temperature interval and zero ought to be where Lord Kelvin put it (at absolute zero)! [rant off]

 

[Tom]

Trying to get the conversion to metric was an uphill battle, and I'd have to share some of the stories in person.

One of the challenges at that time was getting engineers to "think in metric"; They'd always continue to think in their existing system and convert the measurements directly, e.g.

7/32" would be converted to 5.5625 mm
9/32" would be converted to 7.14375 mm

... instead of 5.5 mm, 7 mm, etc which of course would require completely different thinking.

 

[bigbAZ]

When did ADOT change I-19 from KPH to MPH? Or did I misread?

Oops my bad, I just Googled it and Google says they are still there. I haven't noticed them the last few times I've been that way so I thought they were gone! I edited my post with a strike-thru of the erroneous info.

 

[DonTom]

2 x 7 is 14-- pretty simple...

Yes, in that case. Still best to not have to think about it at all when trying to get a job done.

Let's face it, it was always VERY STUPID to reduce the fractions on SAE tools.

That is the main reason I prefer to go to 100% metric.

I think every motorcycle I own is all metric anyway. But I am not sure about my Harley Road Glide Ultra. I often use metric tools on SAE bolts as long as they have a good fit. Such as 13mm for a half inch. A half inch is 12.7 mm, usually 13 mm is close enough. Sometimes I think the only difference is the stamp.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

Latitude and longitude are divided in degrees (°), minutes (') and seconds (“). There are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute (similar to measuring time). I'm not aware of a metric version of this.

????
I always give Latitude and longitude in 100% decimal degrees. The only format I am willing to use with all my maps, GPSes, etc. None of that minutes and seconds stuff for me. Minutes & seconds has its purpose, but not to me, not ever. When I see such, the first thing I do is convert it to pure decimal degrees, such as where I went to charge up my Zero DSR/X electric motorcycle today while I had lunch.

I charged up at:

N39.367377° W121.108231°

Where was I? Anybody here should be able to give the exact location from that.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

1 lb. of hamburger became 4535 kg.

You must mean 0.4535 kg!

1 lb is exactly 0.4535920 kg.

I wonder if our hamburgers will then be sold by the 0.5 kg. Pretty simple. Times two will be close to one pound (1.1 pound to be exact).

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

basing 0 on the freeze point of water means many everyday things have to be expressed with negative numbers!

0°C is freezing and 100° C is boiling (at sea level). I would say that makes more sense than our Fahrenheit just based on that, even if we do often need to go into negative numbers with °C.

You prefer +32 as freezing and +212 as boiling?

As soon as you see a "-" you know it is below freezing when in °C.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Chef Duane]

????
I always give Latitude and longitude in 100% decimal degrees. The only format I am willing to use with all my maps, GPSes, etc. None of that minutes and seconds stuff for me. Minutes & seconds has its purpose, but not to me, not ever. When I see such, the first thing I do is convert it to pure decimal degrees, such as where I went to charge up my Zero DSR/X electric motorcycle today while I had lunch.

I charged up at:

N39.367377° W121.108231°

Where was I? Anybody here should be able to give the exact location from that.

-Don- Auburn, CA

Hmmm... N39.6 carry the 1 divide by W231 less 4 then 3 steps east degrees Kelvin.. uhmm.. aha!!!

Willow Springs Lodge off Golden Chain Highway 39 between Sebastopol and North San Juan.

Either that or somewhere in Pacoima.

 

[DonTom]

Willow Springs Lodge off Golden Chain Highway 39 between Sebastopol and North San Juan.

Yep! That was it, they have a charge station there as well as a few good restaurants--and kinda out in the middle of nowhere. Very nice ride today in perfect riding weather in the hills.

You can see the charge station on Google maps, if it is scaled in a few times. Just enter or paste in the "N39.367377° W121.108231°" in Google Maps for the location in "search google maps" and it will bring you right there.

You can see my bike charging up there here on Plugshare.

I just came from Oregon House, CA before there. Total of today's ride was 123 miles.

A few days ago, I went with a group of five Energica electric motorcycles (includes my 2023 Energica Experia) through Yosemite, started from Stockton, CA and ended in Reno via Hwy 395. That was 325 miles total. Probably the best single day ride I have ever been on. That was a very fun day.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[DonTom]

Either that or somewhere in Pacoima.

How can you get Pacoima from "N39.367377° W121.108231" ?

Pacoima is at: N34.26616° ,W118.42209° Not even close.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Chef Duane]

How can you get Pacoima from "N39.367377° W121.108231" ?

Pacoima is at: N34.26616° ,W118.42209° Not even close.

-Don- Auburn, CA

Humor, Don. Humor.

 

[DonTom]

Humor, Don. Humor.

OIC.

"There are only a few good judges of good humor, but they do not agree with each other."
-Josh Billings

 

[NY_Dutch]

And when will they start driving on the correct side of the road? I hear one country managed to do such. Most of the world, by far, drives on the right side as we do in the USA.

-Don- Auburn, CA

In the US Virgin islands, they drive on the left side of the road, but almost all the cars are brought in from the US mainland, and are left hand drive. Very confusing for first time visitors...

 

[NY_Dutch]

A number of years ago when I was in England overseeing the construction of some industrial machinery, I overheard an older electrician tell his helper to cut him a piece of wire "about a meter 4 inches". I guess his conversion was not quite complete yet.

My motorhome is built on a Ford F53 chassis with a Triton V10 engine that's built with metric hardware. The rest of the chassis has SAE hardware. The chassis was built in Mexico, while the engine was built in Canada.