Do Americans use metric system?

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And that's exactly why I'll never go metric. At my age now pushing 80, I've already outrun any changes being forced upon the rest of the herd of sheeple out there. Standard - Imperial forever, which won't be very long now as I'm much closer to the finish line as opposed to the starting line.
 
The U.S. has used metric spark plug measurements since shortly after the Model T. One of the old spark plugs I have was a U.S. pipe thread.
 
One of the main issues that I like about the Imperial System and kind of dislike (a little) about the SI system, is in the relatability of the units.

I suspect that the Imperial system developed over time, and as such alot of its unit seem to be based on easy to understand items. Specifically,

  • a hand is about equal to the width of an average hand (not including thumb) and is defined as four inches
  • a foot is about the size of a typical foot and is equal to three hands or twelve inches
  • a yard is roughly equal to the distance from your nose to your outstretched finger tips, and is defined as three feet
  • a statute mile is roughly the length of 1000 Roman Soldier paces (or 5,280ft) (ie if you marched 1000 paces you would be 1 mile away)
  • a fathom is roughly the distance from a persons fingertips on one outstretched arm to the other, and is defined as 6 ft
  • a cup is roughly the size of a typical drinking glass (or "cup")
  • two cups make a pint
  • two pints make a quart
  • four quarts make a gallon, which is a reasonable sized volume that can be carried in a pail by one person
  • a psi is defined as the pressure over 1 pound over one square inch, and normal air pressure is equal to about 14.7 psi
  • however the history of the definition of a pound is kind of muddy and vague but to some extent seems to trace back to Roman times

As such, eventhough some of these units may seem a bit arbitrary they all kind of represent something that a typical person (especially in the past) could relate to, and I've seen people use their own feet to roughly pace of a distance in "feet" or use their hands to measure smaller distances, or even pullout some fabric (from nose to fingertip) to roughly measure out about a "yard" of fabric.

In the SI system though, while the intentions seemed good, the actually implementation at time got kind of weird. Specifically,
  • although a meter was initially meant to be based on the diameter of the Earth (at the Equator) if I am recalling correctly, the reality is that the Earth isn't really round, and it was later redefined as "the distance light travels in a vacuum in exactly 1/299,792,458 of a second", which to be honest is kind of weird and really doesn't physically mean much to me, other than "its a little over 3feet, or 1 yard"
  • a gram was originally defined as the mass of one cubic centimeter of pure water at -4 degrees C (where is is at its maximum density, but is now just defined as 1/1000 of a kilogram
  • a Kilogram was previously defined as the weight of some standardized Platinum-Iridium cylinder, but is now somehow related to some scientific constant value called the Planck's constant which is equal to 6.62607015 × 10-34​ m2​ kg / s
  • a Newton is defined as the force of 1 Kilogram of mass accelerated at 1 meter per second squared
  • a Pascal is defined as the pressure of a single Newton over an area of 1 meter square, which is a very small value, with normal air pressure being about 101,325 Pascal
Overall then, for me at least the Imperial system feels more relatable, and I can easily visualize how terms like "12 lb" or "20ft" or "17inches" mean to me, whereas for SI units alot of times I kind of have to change them to Imperial units to better understand what they really represent. Specifically, while I can easily see me carrying a "gallon" container of something, it isn't really clear to me what a cubic meter of something is until I convert it to Imperial, and then I realize that I sure won't be able to carry that equivalent of "264.172 gallons" with me in a single trip.
 

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The later definitions replace physical objects that were the standard measure.

The METRE was based on the distance from the equator to the North Pole through the line of longitude that passed through Paris.

While the Earth isn't perfectly round, there were also small errors made in the measurements that were used to calculate that distance.

The metre is just as arbitrary as the foot or yard, just that it is based on something more reliable than the size of a person's anatomy.

The gram was defined for 1 cubic centimetre of pure water at the melting point of ice, which was originall tought to be 0°C, but was later found to be 4°C.

The standard unit of mass was changed to the kilogram later.

The kilogram was defined as the mass of 1 litre of water at 4°C.

The kilogram was always 1,000 grams and the gram was always 1/1,000 of a kilogram. KILO means 1,000.
 

What is an average hand?

I am about 1 foot taller than a coworker. My foot is not a foot long, hers isn't even close.

Prior to adopting the metric system, the French had their own foot, which was slightly longer than the UK foot.
Which is why the British mistakenly thought Napolean was short.

Same with the yard.
The distance from fingertip to fingertip is roughly equal to a person's height. So my fathom is slighly longer than the official fathom, and my co workers is about 5/6s of a fathom.
Cups, pints and gallons are different between the UK and the US. Does that mean that the Britis can carry more than people from the US?

Today, all imperial measurements are defined in terms of metric units.

For instance, the pound (mass) is defined as 0.45359237 kg.
And the foot is defined as 0.3048 metres.
 
I have always debated the idea that the meter is derived from the circumference of the earth. Who measured the diameter, who decided where the equator was, where did they think the North Pole was before the explorers found it. Modern studies have found that the diameter of the earth varies up to three feet. plus or minus 1 1/2 feet, over several years so the measurement varies by three feet or 1 meter. I don't think precise measurements were possible then. Perhaps the secrets of the Pharaoh's builders were used, as we now know the pyramids were celestially aligned.
 
GrauGeist said:
Then there is a butt-load.

While it's a popular slang term for getting a lot of stuff, it is an actual liquid measurement.

One Butt is about 120 gallons, or two wine barrels.
A wine barrel is roughly 60 gallons.
Click to expand...

Hence the place where the butt-sized barrels were stored was the buttery (it's NOT the place where butter was made). Also, the most trusted servant who looked after those critical and valuable supplies was known as the butler.
 
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