Hacker News Reader

Comment by Symbiote | Hacker News Reader

Conservative Americans are a powerful political force in the USA, and see any attempt to change to modern / European / scientific (take your pick) units as an attack on their traditions / America / ancestors. Therefore no one can even suggest it.

This clearly wasn't always the case, but the polarisation of American politics continues to increase.

It's similar in Britain, except there was more progress there before Conservative people took it as an attack on tradition and made it political, and more pressure (legal and practical) to conform with the rest of Europe.

View on HN

This is ridiculous. The only imperial measurements in the US are on road signs (miles over km), the weather, and some stuff in the grocery store. Almost all research done by universities (including weather and climate), the military, NASA, etc. is done in metric. I see a lot of crazy stuff espoused on Fox News but metric vs imperial isn't one of them.

LMFTFY:

The only meyric measurements in the US are in science.

And there's like 4 different units for pressure IIRC.

> The only metric measurements in the US are in science.

I think that is what I said when I said all research done in universities, the military, NASA, etc. is done in metric.

The point I was trying to make is that the US is more metric than most people think about and has nothing to do with "conservatives". The parts for my car are in metric, the wine I buy is in 750 ml bottles, medicine I take is in metric, 2 liter bottles of cola, illicit drugs (grams or kilos although I don't take that!), etc.

Yes there are different units for pressure but the one used by the university I work at is metric.

The roads, weather, most stuff in the grocery store (and the clothing, electronics, construction materials, office supplies and vehicle stores), restaurants and bars, everything in the kitchen, construction standards and most laws are >99% of what the average American deals with.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com