muon2
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« on: August 10, 2012, 12:28:20 PM » |
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Metric units become common in the US when two things are true: there's a market-based reason to use metric units, and the public is sufficiently exposed to the units to have an intuitive feel for them. As someone who uses and teaches measurement, I can say that both metric and imperial are equally arbitrary systems, but that's a different debate.
The liter as a unit of volume came into the US decades ago for beverage containers. The 2-liter bottle replaced the half-gallon for soft drinks, and the 750 ml bottle replaced the fifth for liquor. Today if you ask some one if they want a liter of water most Americans would have no trouble answering that question with a good understanding of what they would get. Note that unlike soft drinks and liquor, milk doesn't have an international market and it's still sold in imperial units.
OTOH, there's no equivalent international market for temperature in consumer products. Thus the first prong of my test has never been established. News organizations and other media can co-list C and F but, unless the public has a reason to consume something that is only denominated in C, the second prong isn't going to happen. And since the two systems are equally arbitrary from a consumer standpoint there's no reason to switch.
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