Why the USA uses a different metric system?
- Published August 26th, 2007 in /dev/random
Honestly, I don’t know. Everything here is different from the rest of the world. Everything. Do they get any benefit from it? I don’t think so. Let’s see what’s different. USA version on the left, almost everyone else on the right (with due exceptions like South Korea).
- 110V vs 220V
- Mile vs Kilometer
- Pound vs Kilo
- Gallon vs Liter
- Letter vs A4
- Inches vs Centimeters
- Feet vs Meters
I’m probably forgetting something but I’ll update it as I cross against them.
Ounces vs grams. And it’s more yards vs meters, feet is more vs half a meter. At least they drive on the right side of the road.
And then mistakes like these happen:
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
Nothing like reading from the “source”
wikipedia on US customary units
After all, due to our English pals most of the world doesn’t use SI units…
There is just one metric system (the meter in the name etc etc). You probably wanted to say a measurement system.
And I get you another: Centigrade VS Fahrenheit.
it’s simple we just have to look back to history… they inherited it from england. the voltage is another story, i was told once in Staines: during last WW, in order to complicate life to germans, in case they where invaded, they made up a different voltage value from the rest of europe… that’s what i was told :)
It’s all Britain’s fault! :o)
Hi!
What about 12-hour clock vs. 24-hour clock? Probably, this is the one that annoys me the most: I think it wasn’t inherited from England and I don’t see a reason for this notation.
About Letter vs. A4, personally I think its easier to read documents (and magazines) in Letter format (or near its dimensions/proportions). E.g. I love MAKE: magazine’s size.
- SDH vs. sonet(the “world” uses SDH in fiber optic links USA use sonet)
- How about GSM vs. CDMA
Two more:
- what day is this: 9/1/2007? Here is a hit: it is not January…
- what about cooking? “Please add a cup of water”. http://www.google.com/search?q=cup+to+liter
Diogo said: “After all, due to our English pals most of the world doesn’t use SI units…”.
No, actually, only 3 countries in the world haven’t yet adopted SI: the US, Liberia (which was founded by US slaves that were freed) and Myanmar.
Somewhat late post, but I was “gone” from the feeds for a while! ;)
Anyway, now that I’m in the US, I was actually discussing this issue today with my coworker designer here at work, as we use millimeters for the printing measurements, and he does agree that using the metric system across all areas of life would be a whole lot more accurate and useful…
And we’ve been joking about this: “At least we drive in the RIGHT side of the road” ;) hehehe
PS: As a matter fact I’m looking for a 110V>220V converter for my wireless mouse’s charger (never thought a latest generation Logitech MX Revolution would come with a 220V ONLY charger… ARGH). Do ya think Walmart has them?? (online website search didn’t help…)
Wal-Mart has everything :-)