Predictions for when the US will switch completely over to metric?
Predictions for when the US will switch completely over to metric?
When do you think we'll accomplish it? Certainly not in the next four years, IMO. If we're lucky, we might be able to do it within like 20 years.
Do you think it's related to Boomers at all, and newer generations might be more willing to push it through? Here's a Boomer Death Clock that says about 35% of them have passed away by now.
not really ever, nor should it. it would cost billions upon billions of dollars for every industry to switch to a metric format for, i am being literal and accurate, zero benefit.
us customary units are fine, they are defined by the SI physical standards and so are just as consistent, precise, and functional. this sort of desire also misunderstands what unit systems are actually like in practice. cgs or mks or xyz are just a surface display, every industry, metric or us customary, has dozens of units specific to the processes relevant to that industry, that are insane and annoying and unintuitive. switching to a metric format does nothing to alleviate what is actually annoying about units (which isnt actually the units but the dimensions). there are some cases where it might, but ultimtely unit conversions are so incredibly trivial that it doesnt ever matter that much. but re designing every calibrated tooling or device and drawing to use a new format? unfathomable time, effort, and introduced opportunities for error, insane costs, wastes of time. eventually in some indeterminate future enough industries will have had to redo most of their standards enouch times that they may be mostly metric anyway, but that's probably quite a ways away. many decades, a century, hard to say. some industries still use units that are hundreds of years old.
tl;dr it's not boomers it's industrial momentum and isnt even useful to anyone to change.
Right after the UK switches to driving on the right.
We'll follow it up by fixing the polarity on all our electrical drawings.
Bold of you to presume that we ever will:-).
My guess would be never. I’ve been in construction for 20 years. Even the new kids coming in use feet inches, yards, etc. All the architects and engineers in construction also use imperial. I just don’t think it will ever happen.
The only real defense of our current system is that in construction, it's easier to divide 12 inches into thirds than metric. Seems like a pretty weak rationale still, and we should also just switch to dozenal anyways
I wouldn’t give imperial that much credit. I think momentum is the only reason. Workers are trained to think in imperial because the older person training them thinks in imperial. And so it continues.
Why would there be another push?
The units in place are perfectly functional. There's no lack of ability to use SI/"metric" measures, particularly in fields where it matters. It would be absurdly expensive to shift everything all at once, and doing it gradually means switching to dual systems in common life first, so it would be doubly expensive.
Hell, there's not even significant benefit to everyone using the same units of measure, and there's significant benefits to knowing how to use both decimal and fractional systems of computation. So the only gain for the average person would be not having to hear people whine about the subject. You'd still have to learn how to do fractions because it's a fundamental skill.
I still don't get why people even care other than their own laziness. And that's regardless of whether it's an american whining about dealing with SI units they aren't used to, or other people whining about the U.S. not jumping on board. It really isn't something that matters, and if you're too damn lazy to learn how to convert units you use regularly, that's on the individual. It's basic math, not calculus. Fuck, if someone is too lazy to learn it, we have devices that will do the work for us. It's such a non issue. If you're in a field like medicine or engineering, you'll be using whatever is standard for that field in any professional interactions, and those units are likely different than what you'll run into in someone's home.
I really hope sometime in my life. But this country just voted traitor trump back in and waive their flags of absolute stupidity, so I’m not gonna get my hopes up too much.
As a mechanical engineer, it is incredibly frustrating having 2 systems that I have to use daily. Even though every company I’ve worked for has been a metric company, I often cannot get the part I want in metric easily / quickly / cheaply. Full support of switching ASAP
We missed an opportunity to switch to km when all the “55 Saves Lives” speed limit signs were replaced.
We will never abandon freedom units
It won't happen. Not in the next hundred years.