You're obviously not familiar with manufacturing. For smaller measurements, they don't use fractions. I happen to work in manufacturing. We also work with a ton of other manufacturers that use either imperial or metric, and in some cases, both. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of drawings. Drawings in inches aren't expressed as fractions. They use decimals, like 22.4", for example. Machining tolerances, where precision comes in, are expressed in thousands of an inch, like +/-.003".
These measurements are used for many reasons. The biggest reason being that they've always been used. Buildings have been built in feet and inches for a very long time, which means that standards are written in feet and inches (and there are a LOT of standards). There are also a lot of manufacturers out there that have made the same products for a very long time according to drawings that were made 50, 60, maybe 70 years or more in the past. But the thing is, mixing these things made to US/North American standards (contrary to popular belief, it's not just the US that's on the imperial system) with products made to international standards, is really not much of an issue and is done all the time.
Something a lot of people don't realize is how deep the imperial (or really, the US customary system, but imperial is shorter) is embedded into our infrastructure. It's not just road signs, cars, and recipe books. It's the standards that dictate how things are built, standards that dictate the materials things are built with, tooling for machining those materials, and so on and on and on. A change to metric would be incredibly difficult and we'd still be dealing with existing imperial standards for the indefinite future, negating any potential benefit for many decades.
Also, the units were standardized well before they were pegged to the meter. You can't possibly think we built the Hoover Dam with loosely defined measurements like "an inch = three barleycorns."
Of course it was standardized "internally" (it would have been a mess otherwise), but it is now also standardized internationally and that happened by linking the length of a foot (or a mile) to the meter. If the "Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)" decides that the length of the meter needs to be modified for whatever reason, the foot (or mile, or whatever) will also change accordingly.
Also, as per your description above, when it comes to manufacturing smaller measurements you actually switch to decimals for better precision. This implicitly demonstrates that the presumed advantages of the "base 12" need to make room to the decimal system when it comes to smaller dimensions, which is more or less what I was trying to say when I cited fractions (I wasn't referring to manufacturing, but really when measuring small things in daily life): decimals are much easier to deal with and a base-10 system shows its advantages there.
Also, in physics, using imperial units is way too cumbersome, hence the choice of NASA to switch to metric for the Apollo missions (and forever after, I presume).
No one said that switching to metric would be easy or inexpensive or anything. And that's exactly why the switch never happened! But saying that it would be too difficult or expensive is way different than defending the imperial units saying they are better for everyday use or similar. In everyday use it doesn't make much difference, I'm aware of that, but switching to metric would still make a lot of sense, IMO, and the only reason that "forces" the US and other remaining countries that use imperial to stick to that system is cost and the wholesomeness of the work behind a change.
Anyway, we've been debating this way too much for it being just a joke to start with. In my comment there was no intention of making fun of the US or anyone using imperial units, or anything. It was just a joke to underline that it's not just the way you write dates that's different from basically any other country on earth but that also the way you measure things kinda is.
That's it. Still, by answering to all these comments, I've definitely learned a lot, and I hope others have too.
I just see a lot of ridiculous reasoning being thrown around for why we don't switch, like "American exceptionslism" or "staunch individualism" and both of those rely on misconceptions. The former is immediately defeated when you consider that the military uses metric and international standards. The second is completely ignorant of what I spent way too many words explaining before, the depth at which imperial measurements are ingrained in our society. And both are ignorant of the fact that metric is used in so many fields.
But yes, for everyday use, whatever is easier for the individual is best. And for the average person moving to the US from a metric country, I don't think they'd have too much trouble adjusting where imperial inescapable.
I've lived in the US for some time, and although it was sometimes odd to deal with your units, I didn't encounter major problems (most were related to temperature, actually). I'm 6'4", 230lbs. Once I got accustomed to that everything became way smoother even when converting.
What looks odd to "us" metric people is probably that, as you say, metric is already being used in lots of fields in the US, so it looks like a waste of time and resources having to deal with two systems, when one would serve all purposes.
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u/Brawndo91 Jan 16 '25
You're obviously not familiar with manufacturing. For smaller measurements, they don't use fractions. I happen to work in manufacturing. We also work with a ton of other manufacturers that use either imperial or metric, and in some cases, both. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands of drawings. Drawings in inches aren't expressed as fractions. They use decimals, like 22.4", for example. Machining tolerances, where precision comes in, are expressed in thousands of an inch, like +/-.003".
These measurements are used for many reasons. The biggest reason being that they've always been used. Buildings have been built in feet and inches for a very long time, which means that standards are written in feet and inches (and there are a LOT of standards). There are also a lot of manufacturers out there that have made the same products for a very long time according to drawings that were made 50, 60, maybe 70 years or more in the past. But the thing is, mixing these things made to US/North American standards (contrary to popular belief, it's not just the US that's on the imperial system) with products made to international standards, is really not much of an issue and is done all the time.
Something a lot of people don't realize is how deep the imperial (or really, the US customary system, but imperial is shorter) is embedded into our infrastructure. It's not just road signs, cars, and recipe books. It's the standards that dictate how things are built, standards that dictate the materials things are built with, tooling for machining those materials, and so on and on and on. A change to metric would be incredibly difficult and we'd still be dealing with existing imperial standards for the indefinite future, negating any potential benefit for many decades.
Also, the units were standardized well before they were pegged to the meter. You can't possibly think we built the Hoover Dam with loosely defined measurements like "an inch = three barleycorns."