Most of the world thinks in metric. The US, parts of the UK, and Liberia stick with imperial. The reasons are political, not mathematical.
If you have ever stared at a number on a form and wondered where it came from, you are not alone. Most of the world thinks in metric. The US, parts of the UK, and Liberia stick with imperial. The reasons are political, not mathematical.
Born in revolutionary France. Built on base-10 for consistency. Adopted by most countries during the 19th century.
US uses customary units (mostly imperial). UK uses a hybrid (metric for science, miles for road, pints for beer).
$125M Mars Climate Orbiter lost in 1999 — engineering team mixed pound-seconds with newton-seconds.
International commerce, scientific publishing, engineering. Errors are expensive.
Will the US ever go metric? Officially since 1975. Practically, no — too embedded.
Is metric really better? For science: yes (decimal everywhere). For everyday cooking: debatable.
If you only remember one thing from this post, make it that the inputs matter more than the calculator.