We’re taught both metric and US customary units in school. I prefer metric for most things, to the point I have a metric-only tape measure among other things.
However, I’ll die on the hill that Fahrenheit is superior for ambient air temperature. 0 degrees to 100 degrees neatly encompasses the range of average surface temperatures seen throughout the year in the contiguous US.
Mostly metric, but I’ve lived in metric land long enough that temperature and distance are intuitive now.
TBH, it’s a foolish “argument” to have as some hard dividing line when electric voltage, plugs, which side of the road people drive on, money, language, alphabets, shoe size numbers, for a while video format, the size of printer paper, the age where adults can drink alcohol, car safety specs, governance systems, whether or not eating horse meat is OK, the day on which Christmas falls, marginal tax rates, flags, what we call headache medicine, what medicines are over the counter, and standard fuel grades, among a million other things, are also varied globally.
Hard disagree. These other things being varied are different in one very very important way.
Science is metric. Even in America it’s not controversial to use metric in science, it’s mostly required.
And we have come to understand the world in so much amazing detail, as well as the universe at large because we can understand each other when we need to explain the knowledge we are unlocking with science
If we all have that common base we have proven that we are much much much more capable when we do. So the metric system IS the better choice because it’s what we use when we NEED to be using the same frame of references.
If we can remove the burden of having to relearn basic units of measurement when you have an interest in higher learning, why the hell would you want to waste time having to learn that as an adult?
Anyway that’s my argument for metric being clearly a better direction. Because it’s what built the modern world and is one of the few things that humanity got right(even if there are still hilariously ridiculous things inside it to poke fun at!)
That’s my argument anyway, I do hope I have convinced you though I dont expect to. And I think it’s really more of a matter of when are we just going adopt it and give those that come after us that benefit
I live in both worlds, metric and imperial. I know one is objectively better. That’s not what I’m saying.
What I’m telling you is that the world is full of convoluted, arbitrary standards. Even the length of 1 meter or 1gram was arbitrary to start. Using 100 divisions of liquid water’s STP points is very arbitrary. Science uses what it wants. Great. Science used to demand people speak Latin or French, too.
What you’re also missing is that 99% of Americans do not care one bit that people going to university need to learn something else. They also learn fancy words! They learn how to use the weird v on the calculator! They’re expected to learn strange esoteric nonsense (per the average person). That’s work for them.
Whatever the large, large number of people on the left side of the IQ bell curve learn as kids is what will stick because many undereducated people deal with a lot of fear and living life around loss aversion. Changing something like units of measure is a fundamental element of their experience in life. To change that triggers huge loss aversion biases. Idiot patents will wage culture wars so they can raise kids just as stupid as they are. You don’t even understand this is a psychological issue.
Go look at the panic around the redesign of the US dollar I’m 1996. I forget who said it, but “Americans are creatures of habit.” We treat our post-WWII “traditions” like they’re older than the sun. It’s a conservative country, and this change of any sort is fought tooth and nail.
You’re trying to use logic to make a case against an emotional and cultural artifact. Disagree all you want. Shout it from the rooftops. Doesn’t make it so, or even you “right” or me “wrong.” There only wrong is if you think it’s a choice the average person makes any more than they choose their name.
And that list should have educated you on how many actually practical things there are that are potentially easier or more practical to change (LOL) before worrying about metric units, like it’s some holy war for science. Science don’t care about your feelings. It doesn’t need you to convince random people online of anything. Go DO science instead.