Is it time for the US to adopt the metric system?

[Sasaki Kojiro]

The metric system is inescapably superior to anything the irrational anglo mind has come up with.

For four reasons:
1 Clear, well defined standards of measurement
2 Decimal
3 Uniform
4 International, codified

1 Horsepower, feet, teaspoons, stones. These standards of measurement worked well in the worldview of the Stone Age. When the largest distances that needed measurement could be covered by counting steps. When the largest objects weighed could be covered by lumping more stones on the other end of a scale. When a horse was the largest generator of power. Or, when the smallest objects that needed accurate measurement didn't exceed the width of a thumb.
In the modern world, these standards have lost their relevance. Rational, scientific standards of measurements are needed.

2 The most compelling argument: we count in a decimal system. Hence, measurements need to be decimal too. It is in the end not that important whether a centimeter or an inch is a base unit. What matters, is that ten centimeters is a decimeter. One hundred a meter. Etcetera.
This works much simpler than 12 inch to a foot. 3 feet to a yard. 5280 yard to a mile. For example: how many inch are there in 12.278 miles*? The simplest of questions, yet one can't work it out without pen and paper or a calculator. Unlike the metric system: in 12.278 kilometer there are 12278000 meters, or 1.227.800.000 centimeters.
*See point four. Meant here are Imperial miles. Not nautical, British or your aunt Polly's miles.

3 Likewise for all othe bases of measurement. If a thousand gram is a kilogram, then one thousand meter is a kilometer. Etcetera. Nothing could be more rational.
(The obvious exeption is time. The real units of time are not a second, but a day and a year. For this, the old system, including counting in 12 and sixty, has been retained.)

4 Currently, even while sharing a related language, Britons and Americans don't understand each other's units. Never mind when one considers Arabs, Chinese, Russians, Greeks. So there needs to be an international system for communication.
Because France won't accept any foreign system, this international system logically will have to be French. This is the Système International d'Unités, currently adopted by all countries save the three culprits mentioned earlier.

Do you use the qwerty keyboard?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Do you use the qwerty keyboard?

Nope.


Well sometimes. Mainly AZERTY.

To be fair, I know what you're saying. Custom can beat logicallity. However, the difference between ABCDE and QWERTY isn't that great. Even on an alphebetical keyboard one would have to get used to the layout, to typing blindly.
Nothing beats a decimal system though. Again, the difference between the units in themselves - yards or meters - is not the real difference in practicality. The use of a decimal system is. This ought to be the death blow to all other systems.

[Strike For The South]

I'm going to ask this once more. Is there anyone who doesn't know how to use both? Drop me off in France right now and I know exactly how far Paris is and how much bread, cheese and wine I need to buy when I get there.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Nope.


Well sometimes. Mainly AZERTY.

To be fair, I know what you're saying. Custom can beat logicallity. However, the difference between ABCDE and QWERTY isn't that great. Even on an alphebetical keyboard one would have to get used to the layout, to typing blindly.
Nothing beats a decimal system though. Again, the difference between the units in themselves - yards or meters - is not the real difference in practicality. The use of a decimal system is. This ought to be the death blow to all other systems.

QWERTY is designed to make you type slow so that the old typewriters wouldn't get jammed. There are other keyboard layouts designed for speed and for reducing repetitive stress injuries. AZERTY is a stone age system (but it's not worthwhile switching).