• halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    America officially switched to the metric system decades ago. We just don’t use it on a daily basis, but officially the US is metric.

    In 1988 Congress passed the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, which made the metric system the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce.

    In 1991 President Bush issued Executive Order 12770, which mandated the transition to metric measurement for all federal agencies.

    • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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      3 months ago

      I remember learning all metric in elementary school in the early to mid 80s much to my mother’s chagrin (any thing I learned that was different than what/how she learned in Catholic school was bad, including a second language). Then having to relearn standard in middle school. I still have to count all of the lines on a tape measure.

      • prettybunnys@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        I was taught the metric system in US Schools in the late 80s and 90s.

        Sure we don’t use it daily but I still know it.

        I know that I need to convert to it and how to convert to it if necessary.

        For anything that’s not interacting with a human I’d use the metric system, for anything interacting with a human I’d display both.

      • JeffKerman1999@sopuli.xyz
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        3 months ago

        As a metric-raised guy I find extremely difficult following the tutorials of woodworkers that start putting 2feet 3 inches and 9/16 in the measurements that converts to 700,0875mm wich i guess is an approximation of 70cms

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Things like woodworking are exactly where the imperial system came from. Because daily usable lengths like a foot are using base 12 not base 10, it can be divided much more evenly even before needing fractions.