The United States, Liberia, and Myanmar
September 24, 2007
According to this site, the countries in black are those that have not officially adopted the metric system.
Clearly, most of the world is way off on this…5,280 is a perfectly logical number of a smaller unit to equal one larger unit…I mean, c’mon. Get with it world!
Metric4US also has a link to this rather humorous anti-metric website. That’s right…an anti-metric system website…don’t you just love the internet!?
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7 Comments
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Rejecting the metric system has become a badge of honor, a symbol of our determination to do things “our way”, no matter how illogical or out of step with the rest of the world. It is very American, and I don’t see why it will change any time soon. Beyond confusing Europeans and screwing up a Mars mission, what harm has come of it?
*grins*
Tradition + stubbornness + contrarian = America
Btw, your blog reminds me of my two great semesters in college Geology. Learned a lot from the department at UT Austin with (searches ten year old memory: Dr, Ernie Sprinkle and Dr. Leon ____). Very passionate and approachable department with tons of fascinating stuff you never hear about in popular culture. I’ve forgotten most of it now, but your postings unearth a fair amount of fossilized interest long since buried beneath the inexorable pyroclastic flow of the ages.
Also, your blog title reminds me of a Geology bumper sticker I remember seeing in the faculty parking lot: “Hate Geology? Tuff schist.”
Well, the UK should be in grey at least – distances are still measured in miles, and just try getting grocers to sell things in anything other than pounds and ounces.
They teach metric units in school of course, so in a typically British way we all just end up getting very confused.
Chris S – UT Austin has a fantastic geoscience department…I know a few there or who went there…very good faculty
Chris R – America is somewhat similar…I remember learning metric as a kid in grade school instead of English…which is why to this day I still can’t remember how many ounces are in a cup, or how cups relate to pints…although I can easily visualize how much liquid a pint is (from other experiences)
According to this nifty history, metric has been “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce” since 1988 (er, except maybe that status lapsed during the periods when the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act was expired). We just haven’t taken any steps to get rid of competing traditional units (though those are all legally defined with respect to metric units, and have been since 1893).
I am so mad. The anti-metric website isn’t loading.
Rejecting the metric system has become a badge of honor, a……
Sorry, but this is really ignorant opinion :-D Dont you think, that this is a little more, than a fight about national suverenity ? :-) Such a thing like worldwide system for ALL measureable things would be a huge jump for humanity and research… If whole world would have the same system (face it, metric is just most widespread, not that is someway better than other systems)
So if you think, that strongest country on the world is refusing the metric system is something cool, you have to be a really stupid :-D