What's wrong with an inch?

I remember when I was young back in the 70s that there was this push for the US to adopt the Metric System, or at least get used to it. In schools I remember being taught phrases like "a meter is a little more than a yard" and "a liter is a little more than a quart". etc. I remember that speed limit signs had 2 numbers on them, the Imperial system saying something like 60, and a smaller number underneath with the metric number saying something like 100. I think I remember more items in the grocery store having both units as well (thankfully most still do). There was an obvious push to convert and somewhere between now and then the US at large just upped and gave up on switching to more sensible units of measurement. Why did they give up? What happened? Who were the chief opponents to the switch? I can imagine fields full of pitch-fork donning elderly in the midwest screaming "What's wrong with an inch??!!!"

I'd say what's wrong with the inch and the whole Imperial system of measurement in general but just about everyone already knows. Quick, in your head without a calculator or pencil, calculate the number of inches in a mile and see how long it takes and compare that to calculating the number of centimeters in a kilometer. It's just a damn inconvenient and inconsistent measurement system. We have to deal with units like inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds, cups, teaspoons, quarts, gallons, hectares, bushels, Fahrenheit, etc. and numbers like 12, 3, 5280, 16, 4, instead of a consistent 10. We often use 2 units to express a single measure, like our height (5 feet 8 inches) . In the metric system you have one single unit for distance, another for volume, another for mass, etc. and a set of consistent and easy prefixes to denote scale instead of 4 or more different units for each type of measurement that are related by a perplexing set of factors. I can understand how people can get comfortable with this but to actually "like" it???!!!

So of course the problem with this is legacy. There's a lot of items, buildings, and equipment that's built with these measurement and I'm sure they believe that it would be too costly to switch. Sadly, if they had actually gotten around to making the switch 30 years ago that wouldn't have been seen as a problem today. Now we're ever-more entrenched with this archaic and anachronistic system. Then there's the inertia of getting older folk who are so used to the old system to convert without screaming bloody murder for inconveniencing their lives with something "unfamiliar". That's what the whole education push was about and the dual system which arguably was meant to be temporary but to get people familiar with the kinds of numbers they'd have to deal with. Eventually if they removed the 60 from the speed limit people would still remember the 100, or still be able to look at their blasted speedometer. People would get used to it and one day learn to appreciate it and someday further still even gawk at other backwards nations that refuse to get with a sensible program. It's already happened on whole continents. Of course then there's the argument that it would take away from what makes us 'Merikun's and why should we follow them damned Youropeens anyways? As if this system was part of our slang that only the cool "in" people knew. Ugh.

Ironically, there isn't anything really technically wrong with the Imperial system. Any system, so long as it's well defined is usable, regardless of how wacky the numbers and units are. The Imperial system has served it's purpose, made in a time when things like distances were related to natural and observable objects, like ancient buildings measured in cubits which were close to arm lengths, and inches that were close to thumb length. Indeed, the only time I've heard praise for our wacky system was for such imprecise type things (A Swiss friend noted the "friendliness" of cooking with measurements like cups and teaspoons that were more guidlines and didn't need to be precise). But generally we live in an age where precision matters and yet still use such units.

Despite this, the Imperial system as been retrofitted to be well-defined, and therefore certainly usable (or rather, tolerable). I would still argue, however, that it should be abandoned with extreme prejudice because working with such units can be miserable and can lead to a great many ridiculous design decisions... like paper sized at 8.5x11 inches. Plus it's error-prone, annoying to convert, random, and basically just needs to go. It's sad that the US at large just gave up on the conversion 30 years ago because now I think we're stuck with it forever.

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