Thread: Why do we use the english system?

When I was teaching at Sienna college over the summer, some of my students asked me how far 30cm was we were doing some robotics stuff.

I thought schools were supposed to teach both english and metric systems? If they have any interest in doing anything related to international business or science, they have to learn to think in metric.

Metric is so much fucking easier, why do most americans think in the english system? 12" = 1 foot, 16oz = 1 cup, 5280 feet = 1 mile why? Everything else is base 10.

English system??

In England we call it the imperial system.

And the only people who think it is better than the metric system are old and stupid.

ive never heard it being called the english system, noone uses that system anyway. exept for as xei said old people.

over here in britain we also use the metric system.

I know that, everyone uses the metric system.

Reworded: Why do us americans use the english system?

I agree that only stupid people think it's better than the metric system.

Yeah I thought it was called the imperial system too.

Personally I like a mix, only because I'm conditioned to know what a foot is, and how far a mile is. I think sometimes, the metric system confuses me because I can never remember the order of the milli, kilo, centi bla bla bla...

I will always prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius though. I feel it's a more acturate measurement. That's just me.

When it comes to cooking, I think I would be lost without my Cup measurements... I was when I was in the UK taking the cooking courses.

It really was pathetic.

Why can't we just use both and be happy? Rather than hate one or the other, use both.

I use the metric system as much as possible (though sometimes it makes me feel pretentious...). I really don't understand why we don't, and since we've put it off so long it would be pretty hard having to convert fucking everything over.

I didn't really learn much metric through school, which is kind of sad because it reflects on our complacency as a nation.

I can't use both, way too conditioned to use the metric system.

Scientists actually use Kelvin for temp, not Celsius. I think celsius is easier, water freezes at 0, the human body is 37 degrees, and water boils at 100.

Well you know, I remember being in the UK and weighing myself using STONE, not kilograms or whatever it is. I would actually get on the scale and be like "ok, what the fuck is 8.2 stone in pounds?!"

So the imperial system is still used over in the UK as well.

At least Wikipedia says Stone is part of the Imperial system. It still confuses me.

well actually come to think of it, i dont just use metric. because i measure milk in pints, and speed on a road in a car in miles per hour. and other stuff aswell, but thats the main ones. so i guess im not all metric

We're used to it. Before there can be widespread teaching of the metric system, the generation that teachers are needs to have gotten used to metric. Anyway, tdkyo is correct, it's not yet worth it to change everything to Metric at once, and we are slowly changing more and more things from imperial to metric.

Originally Posted by ninja9578

I think celsius is easier, water freezes at 0, the human body is 37 degrees, and water boils at 100.

Really? I think fahrenheit is far more useful for temperatures that the average person will encounter on a daily basis, how a really cold day is zero, human body temperature (at least, by Fahrenheit's original, inaccurate calculations) and a hot day are usually at about 100 degrees (sometimes a lot more, but not for most places). Boiling is boiling, and any other temperatures that you would need for cooking can be remembered by the foods you cook. Only scientists or people who work with high temperatures would need to use Centigrade (and like someone above said, they usually use Kelvin anyway).

I like English better than Metric. The dimensions are much more scaled to the human being. Especially on the small scale of feet and inches. They are better suited to designing buildings, which is what I use it for. Plus, a system based on 12 is more convenient and divisible than a system based on 10. I wish we had 12 fingers

When it comes to the larger scale of miles/acres, it just gets silly.