Why do americans use miles

Critics of the metric system which was created for easy reference accuse it of being arbitrary in return. The United States is the only real stronghold of the imperial system in the world to-date.

Here, using miles and gallons is the norm, even though scientists do use metric, new units like megabytes and megapixels are metric as well and runners compete for meters like everywhere else in the world. In both countries, metric measurements are used alongside imperial ones. But the countries have said they want to switch over to the metric system or are in the process of doing so. The U. Yet, the whole plan never quite caught on. The UK is the country stuck in the middle of both systems, being the birthplace of the imperial system itself.

Here, metric is partially adopted but miles persist, and people routinely refer to pints, miles per gallon, pounds and even stone in their everyday lives. Some imperial measurements are still around in former Commonwealth countries like Canada , India , South Africa or Australia as well, where people might refer to their body height and weight in imperial units or put together a cake recipe in cups and tablespoons before shoving it into an oven with a Fahrenheit scale.

Then again, some products are persistently imperially measured around the world, irrespective of the country. Jeans sizes measuring waist and length separately really are just inches, and piping and screen sizes are also referred to in inches almost everywhere.

Finally, pizza pies measured in inches have been spotted in mostly metric countries like Australia and Canada. Most of the rest of the world adopted the measures in order not to fall behind in the global economy. There is no question that a uniform global system of measurement helps cross-border trade and investment. For this reason, labor unions were among the strongest opponents of s-era metrication, fearing that the switch would make it easier to ship jobs off-shore.

Which it did. Is global uniformity a good thing? Not when it comes to cultural issues, and customary measures are certainly a part of our national culture. But to have brains trained in the thirds, quarters, sixths, eighths, and twelfths of our inches and ounces, as well as the relentless decimals of the metric system can only be beneficial, in the same way that learning a second language is better than knowing only one. That ours is a dual-measurement country is part of our great diversity.

The original version of this story misstated a common size of wine and spirits bottles in the U. It is milliliters, not 75 milliliters. Zocalo Public Square is a not-for-profit Ideas Exchange that blends live events and humanities journalism.

Contact us at letters time. June 30, July 1, KenCollins0 Plus. July 2, Then there would be a third major world power using miles! July 3, Filiper2 Here in my country we only use KPH. It's easy to understand and to do calcules if needed.

Deyan Also, it's never kph or another monstrosity like that. Learn a language in just 5 minutes a day. For free. Get started Login. They have parsecs, and only physics eggheads know what parsecs are, so everyone's on even grounds. Last edited by imgivingfreestuff ; 12 Aug, am. Didn't the Americans try to convert to metric in the 70s but the whole thing bombed pretty badly? I didn't realize imperial units rustled so many metric jimmies, it's like they don't know all of our science classes use the metric system.

The imperial and US customary systems of measurement are two closely inter-related systems of measurement both derived from earlier English system of measurement units which can be traced back to Ancient Roman units of measurement, and Carolingian and Saxon units of measure. Because Murica. Crispy View Profile View Posts. We're special. We do what we want. Zubenelgenubi View Profile View Posts. They got so caught up in hating the British they refused to use the better system.

Last edited by Spawn of Totoro ; 12 Aug, am. Per page: 15 30 Date Posted: 12 Aug, am.