My son told me his girlfriend broke up with him for being un American

[Duncanpup]

He told me dad I saw it coming from a kilometer away.

[Omnipresent]

1. ...

[niyad]

2. Snicker.

[CentralMass]

3. 😁

[Diamond_Dog]

4. That took me a few seconds

[Doc_Technical]

5. Some people are untrustworthy,

you give them 2.54 centimetres,
they take 1.60934 kilometers.

[getagrip_already]

28. just remember...

28.4 ml of prevention is worth 454 grams of cure.

[Marthe48]

6. And you're appearing where?

[Duncanpup]

11. I'm your opening act.

[Marthe48]

19. Well played

Very well played! lol

[keithbvadu2]

7. Back around the 1960s, there was consideration of America going metric.

Back around the 1960s, there was consideration of America going metric. There were great cries of communist, heathen, and such. Too bad. Metric is so much more logical and easy to use.

Fear of change and something new.

Now we buy two liters of soda and two quarts of cranberry juice.

Should have stuck with the old system of cubits.

[twodogsbarking]

8. The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 is an Act of Congress

that U.S. President Gerald Ford signed into law on December 23, 1975. It declared the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce", but permitted the use of United States customary units in all activities.

[AdamGG]

20. I was 11 then, our teachers spent a lot of time teaching us metric

In a progressive suburban Boston school district for a year or two, then it just went away.

[BumRushDaShow]

25. "then it just went away."

Well not completely.... if you take "500 mg extra strength Tylenol" (or equivalent) or buy a 2-liter bottle of Pepsi (or equivalent)!

Similarly, "standard/'king'" cigarettes are "~85 mm", the "100s" are "100 mm", and the "120s" are "120 mm".

I remember in high school we were "promised" it would all transition over by the 1990s!

[DENVERPOPS]

27. Actually, if you recall

our Metric system education at that time in the 60's was purely aimed at us kids, to memorize complex formulas for the conversion. There was no education, that I remember, on how to USE the metric system, and how simple it made measurements to be calculated.

The only protests I remember were protests by the U.S. Corporations not wanting to switch out all their english measurements.
U.S. Corporations that produced and used items, like bolts, nuts, packaging, automobiles, etc etc fought like hell to resist the changeover...............It was assumed that if we just transitioned over to the metric system with all new production, everything would transition over to the Metric System in the relatively new future. LOLOLOL.......Here we are, sixty years later...........
The only thing I can see that has caused any usage in the United States to use Metrics, was the influx of foreign cars, which used metric nuts and bolts and required metric tools to work on the vehicles. The tool corporations, at least thought that was a good thing, but only because they would make a ton more money selling both English and Metric tools. It opened a whole new world of sales potential to them.

Scientific and all medical fields were using it 100% long ago.........and for good reason, they were using the system that was being used around the world, except for the U.S. and Canada????? And, it was much easier to do calculations than to use the English system.

Me? I am still trying to figure out how to convert Fahrenheit to Centigrade all these years later. Hell, I have never been able to remember the formula for that......something like take 9/10ths and add or subtract something???????

The most we have accomplished as far as I can see, is listing both measurements on everything, and of course making the tool manufacturers a new profit center......

[AdamGG]

30. Fahrenheit is more precise than Centigrade

which is why I like it better. 1 Centigrade degree equals nearly 2 Fahrenheit degrees. The conversion is easy if you remember that 0 Celcius = 32F and 100 Celcius = 212F (freezing and boiling point of water.

[Historic NY]

22. How'd that work out....

the only thing I missed was the Imperial Gallon, when I went for fuel in Canada.

[lastlib]

9. I agree with the last sentence.

I mean, geez, almost EVERYBODY has a forearm! A built-in measuring tool!



I still hate that futhermucker Reagan for killing the switch to metric (and a few million other things....)

[NNadir]

10. As a practical matter, at this point, almost all scientific work, even among Americans, is...

...conducted using the metric system.

The English system of units would be superior if humans had 12 fingers rather than ten. This would have led to humanity choosing a base 12 numbering system, which is more useful since 12 has the factors 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas the base 10 system has only two, 2, and 5.

[aggiesal]

15. 1, 2 & 5 n/t

[NNadir]

16. OK, 1.

[aggiesal]

17. Well, you did use 1 in the base 12 system. n/t

[NNadir]

18. Yes, I did. I stand convicted as charged.

[Marthe48]

23. The hardest thing about metric is converting from English

I took drafting courses and made things in the school machine shop. Converting from 1" to 2.54 cm and so on, was harder than making a screw using metric measurements.

BTW, I am proud to say that I made a working screw, and not a single one of the dimensions was correct. The world is better that I found a different career! lol

[barbtries]

12. lol

i like that one

and i did not expect it. for some reason i thought it would turn out she was Q

[LudwigPastorius]

13. I hope he told her to take off, eh.

[sdfernando]

14. Funny you should post this

I was in a meeting at work just a few days ago discussing fiber cabling for some new equipment installations at our data center. I was asked what the longest length we would need to connect to some network switches. I responded we would need 20-meter cable for that. My boss asked me why I all the sudden started I started speaking European. 😂 😆 😝

[mercuryblues]

21. hindsight is 6.096/6.096

[CaptainTruth]

24. Fun Fact: The US officially adopted the metric system during the Carter administration.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Edit to add, looks it was official under Ford, what I remember is:

"America began testing road signs in kilometers under President Jimmy Carter, who supported efforts to go metric."

[CaptainTruth]

26. This girlfriend, how did he meter?

[KS Toronado]

29. Under the centimetre tree