Britain said it was taking steps to return to the traditional system of imperial weights and measures

This is all a bit exagereated! what is actually happened is that the UK governmet has said that it will no longer be illegal (which it was and ppl were prosecuted) to use either imperial or metric weights and measures!
 
hermetic said:
This is all a bit exagereated! what is actually happened is that the UK governmet has said that it will no longer be illegal (which it was and ppl were prosecuted) to use either imperial or metric weights and measures!
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The way things are worded, it seems to me that the British want to "$h**" on the EU in retaliation for some slight. While I do agree to an extent, I am a US citizen so really don't have a "horse in that race". Having been a US citizen since before there was a united states, I really don't care to enter such a race. I'm not that geriatric, my ancestry goes back to 1620, from England.

Whether to use Imperial or Metric is purely at a theoretical level. I am of the "geriatric generation" but use either one interchangably. More or less. . . If I am working on something from a metrified nation, such as a bicycle manufactured in China, I think in metric. If I am working on my hobby of archaic US made machinery, I think in Imperial. I have Imperial and Metric tooling. It is a PITA to switch back and forth, but I do it. I don't have any children to get confused.

The bottom line, I see the British coming around to our(US) way of thinking. It doesn't happen very often, but does occasionally. Without delving into my personal politics, I am a little obstinate (bull headed) just for the sake of being so. One of my passtimes has for years been to "stir the $h!tcan" just to be stirring up animosity. I personally feel that we should have gone Metric back around 1820 when Tommy Jefferson was pushing for it. Then it would have been a non-issue. But it didn't happen then, and we are paying the price now. My position is to "make the best of it" and be prepared for whatever comes.

.
 
WobblyHand said:
Not exactly. The question is more, why go back? Britain did go metric. It's a fact. It was a costly effort. It took time to implement. What purpose does it serve to revert?

I have no dog in the show. Have relatively complete set of tools for both. Use both systems as appropriate.
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The UK is about as metric as the US. They still sell beer in pints and use highway signs with miles. They use metric where it made sense to make the conversion. Despite common knowledge the US is not the last hold out against the metric system.

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savarin said:
www.statista.com

Infographic: Only Three Countries in the World (Officially) Still Use the Imperial System

This chart shows countries which still (officially) use the imperial system.
www.statista.com www.statista.com
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Which is false right at the beginning of their article where they say the UK is "stuck in the middle" still using pints and miles.

The US is officially metric, the older US customary system (not Imperial which has many different units) having been defined by metric units since 1893. The US requires metric labelling on food, and many industries are metric. I'd be curious how they determine that the UK is metric and the US not when they both use miles on the highway.
 
The reasons are political and have no place here. Suffice to say it's a circus move from a PM that doesn't know how to do anything else and we'd probably better leave it at that.

The phrase "you can't reason somebody out of an opinion they didn't reason themselves into" applies to the conversation around why.

As an amusing aside, this neatly sums up my thoughts and feelings on imperial measures:

 
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