posted in Asklemmy
Why is the USA the only country who doesn’t use the metric system?
posted in Asklemmy
Why is the USA the only country who doesn’t use the metric system?
Originally it was because the ship carrying the official metric measures from France to the US in 1793 was captured by pirates. More recently it’s because there was a near-revolt when Jimmy Carter tried to reintroduce it in the 1970s in an attempt to make the US even slightly less regressive.
Replying to @artifex@piefed.zip
That reminds me of a road in AZ that had signage in KM when I was a kid. I guess it was a part of this program and it never got changed back? It was always a mindfuck suddenly seeing kms instead of miles on road trips through the area.