Map of countries officially not using the metric system

Wow, I thought we were the only ones. I guess USA isn’t the only country that doesn’t use the metric system. ;)

There is nothing amazing in this.

The US really does use the metric system – everywhere that it actually matters.

The UK is a mess but is officially using the metric system.
If the UK ever switched to driving on the right it would be phased in – one month it would be lorries, a month later cars…

Ecuador measures weight in pounds in almost every business and daily transaction.

Australia uses cm for TVs. Some people still tells their height in feet. @Stefing what does driving on the right has to do with the metric system???

Hum, India is like UK for the distances (miles), for instance.
This graph is meaningless…

No excuse. The world is global, the measurement system is metric. A triumph for the Napoleon and the French.

In New Zealand we are now mainly metric. Some people still use feet and inches for their height, but even this is dying out. Screen sizes are weirdly in inches, but I suspect this is a USA influence.

It very ignoring to have shows like “Myth Busters” still using imperial measurements. What are they talking about? The use BTUs (British Thermal Units) for f*** sake. FTW! The next generation will not have a clue.

The USA finds it hard to change anything though, not just measurement systems. Take global warming – they’re still one of the biggest polluters and still do almost nothing to prevent it.

Chris, how about you use what you want and everyone else uses what they want? You can continue to feel superior and we will just live and not worry about units.

back in the 70′s it was all about moving to the metric system lol

now it’s about keeping the imperial system so they can sell more tools lol

“Or a more realistic example how much is 1/3 inch and 5/16 inch? How much time does it take you to calculate these?
In metric system it takes like 3 seconds.”

I don’t understand. 5/16″ in metric? Takes the same time as converting the metric equivalent to inches. But you’re missing the bigger picture — if you want to drill a 5/16″ hole, you don’t convert to a decimal. You go and get a 5/16″ drill. If you need a piece of metal 5/16″ thick, you can buy precision ground stock at that thickness.

@Ramius How imperial system is human? And how metric system is not human? Can you bring an example? I think not. The maximum you can say that it is human for you because thats the system you got used to when you were a kid. For me measuring meters and centimeters with my body just as simple than for you measuring iches a feet.

@lyesmith

It’s the same as buying a banana at a restaurant for $1 or at the supermarket for $0.20, you’re paying for the convenience. 1 yd^2 = 9ft^2, so unless the yard2 costs 9x as much as the foot2…you’re being ripped off.

Going back to the example of the cup – if you need 240ml of liquid for oatmeal, do you go to your graduated cylinder and measure down to the ml? No, you take your 1/2L container and fill it up about half way. Same thing with the cup, most people just garb a coffee mug and use that to approximate.

I don’t understand the premise behind the debate here. If you’re building something which requires accuracy and precision like a building or a bridge, just choose a set of units that your suppliers will be able to handle and stick with it. Engineering is done based on calculations anyways, and most reference books will have fundamental constants in both sets (PSI, Pa, etc). Lathes and mills can use both by just hitting a toggle, you can buy imperial end mills with metric shafts and metric end mills with imperial shafts…

But I don’t really care if my baker uses cups or liters, as long as his bread is fresh and the cupcakes soft. So, all this talk about units only matters when it comes down to situations where accuracy is important. Metric is great where you want to add significant figures without going to decimal or fractional units, but the problem is most people don’t have the ability to make the necessary measurements to the needed precision anyways.

@Nicholson “.

“Look at all the different things upon which the meter has been standardized – wavelengths of light, fractions of the circumference of Earth, etc”

I have to disappoint you. in 1959 USA and the British Commonwealth standardized the imperial system.

1 yard is exactly 0.9144 meter
1 inch is exactly 25.4 millimeter
1 pound is exactly 453.592 37 grams
1 gallon is exactly 3.785 411 784 liters

Yes the imperial system is now standardized on the very same thing that the metric system. Why because there were literally thousands of different units. The length of 1 foot was varied from city to city. It is actually the metric system the older one. Thats the one that was first standardized and not the imperial system.

I have 5 cup n the cupboard each different sizes. You have “customary cup” “legal cup” “imperial cup” and “metric cup” each different. When you read “one cup” which one you will use? When I read 240 ml than it is 240 ml no more, no less.

How much “cup” is one fluid ounce? is it a customary fluid ounce or imperial fluid ounce?

You use mile and not one but three. You have statute mile (1760 yard) survey mile (5280 survey feet) and nautical mile (1852 meters or 6076.12 feet)

You have inch, 12 inch is a foot, 3 foot is a yard 2 yard is a fathom, 1760 yard is a mile.
You have pound which is 7000 grain or 16 ounce. A long ton is 2240 pounds a short ton is 2000 pounds

On the other hand in metric system you have gram for mass, meter for length, square meter for area, cubic meter for volume. That’s it. If you want smaller or larger units you divide or multiply by the power of 10. Essentially you pushing around the decimal point the number itself does not even change.

The statue and survey miles are NOT the same. Statue mile is 1,609.344 m and survey mile is 1609.3472 m. Not much difference but just might be enough to miss the Mars.

“ship going due south at 60 knots will travel 1 degree of latitude every hour.”

How is this helpful? 60 is just a number. do you know a ship that goes with 30 knots/hour all the time? It is easy to make up numbers. Earth circumference is ~40000 km long plane traveling at 1000km/hour goes around 40 hours. But then you use mile on one side of the shoreline and nautical mile one the other side of the shoreline.

“The problem is *mixing* them.”

Yes!!! Thats my point exactly.

I would not give a crap if a yard would be 10 or 100 inch, and a mile is 10 or 100 or 1000 yard. AND everybody would use the same system in the world. But is is not like that.

Everybody using metric except US. And in US you are mixing customary, imperial, and metric system.

And this is what you do in the US. Different field of expertise using different units. Some are based on metric, some are customary but defined as metric. Some are just customary. Mixing two or three expertise for a project creates nightmare. Selling american goods outside US becomes a nightmare. Why would anybody buy an american built product if they have to order a replacement screw from the US. Of course there is a solution start mixing units in the same factory or a more convenient one, move the factory outside US. Now thats just ideal for everybody. People outside US get jobs, and you can keep your measurement system.
Well on the second thought. Go on! Keep up the good job!

Do you know what the best measurement system? The one that you’re used to. US don’t change from imperial to metric because this.

The problem is mixing them, of course, and this is the point of SI and the metric system: if the whole world use the same standard system, you can talk about measurements without worry about the other people will mess things up, whatever they are. This is why science uses it.

Really, the “metrication” is slow, but worthwhile too.

PS: sorry any grammatical error…

guys i only have one question…. in the US, when someone says “a ton” it is 1000 kilograms right? if so then why?!

Inverse of this map can be seen on the wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system

cites this article (http://www.nist.gov/pml/wmd/metric/upload/1136a.pdf) as the source of the information that only 3 countries have not adopted the metric system.

“I have no idea how tall someone is if you say they are 5 feet 4 inches – I can convert it , but there is nothing logical, intuitive or “human” about it.

Right – because there is nothing intuitive about a measurement that is derived – ORGANICALLY – from a part of the human anatomy.

Poppycock

I suppose using hands to measure the height of horses doesn’t seem intuitive to you either. Tell the French that measuring with their thumbs (“pouce”) isn’t the least bit intuitive.

Yes I realize that people have differing sizes of feet, hands, and thumbs. However, if you tell someone who is unfamiliar with the specifics of ANY measuring system that a horse is 14 hands tall he will have a much better idea of how tall that horse is than if you told him it was 142.24 cm.

Yes, metric is far superior to customary systems where standards are critical and conversions of units are frequent: science, industry, commerce, &c.

But only a db would insist that “5 degrees” is somehow superior to “41 degrees” as a reply to the question “how cold do you think it is today?”

For QUOTIDIAN life the customary system is just as good a metric, and some might argue that it is in some ways superior since is arises organically from the environment around it.

And of course, UK roads are designed and built in metric, and road-side markers on motorways and main roads show distances from the origin in, er, kilometres. Oh, and tram speed limits signs are in km/h. And quite a few walking or cycling signs are in metric. 

Here in Australia we use metric and Australia switched in two years back in the early 1970′s and if you ask any australian how hard was it to switch they will say it was very easy and i have spoken to people in there 60′s,70′s,80′s,90′s and they have no problem when they switched and cars came only with km/h speedos and i have herd of people with old cars that have miles on the speedo on 100 mp/h thinking they are going 100 km/h and it is very common for them to get picked up for speeding like with old sports cars. we mesher tv screen in inches and we use psi for pumping up tyres and i used kpa to pump up the tyres on my mothers mercedes and nearly blew up the tyres and since then i threw that tyre gage into the rubbish bin and now i will only get tyre gages in psi only or both on it. we use hp on engines power some people talk in kilo watt and i have no idea how any hp it is and i ask someone to tell me so i know what they are talking about but we do use feet and inches on someones height. we use celcus for temperature 

In the US, 1 ton is 2000 pounds (lbs). 2000lbs ~= 907kg

It is derived from the tun, the term applied to a barrel of the largest size. This could contain a volume between 210 and 256 gallons (800 to 1000 L), which could weigh around 2,000 pounds (900 kg) and occupy some 60 cubic feet (1.7 m3) of space.
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton

In the UK the ton is defined as 2,240 pounds (1,016 kg)

What! Mercedes is made in Germany. The Germans are completely and utterly metric. They wouldnt be caught dead using PSI. Pascals are the only logical option.1 Pascal = 1 Newton of force over 1 square metre. Thus 1 Kilopascal = 1000 Newtons of force over 1 square metre ;)

I am almost 50, I remember being in elementary school with the teachers telling us the day is coming when we will switch to the metric system.