Metrication in the United States
[3][4][5] In the U.S., the SI system is used extensively in fields such as science, medicine, electronics, the military, automobile production and repair, and international affairs.
Before reaching the United States, Dombey's ship was blown off course by a storm and captured by pirates, and he died in captivity on Montserrat.
[19] The General Conference on Weights and Measures is the governing body for the modern metric system and comprises the signing nations of the Treaty of the Metre.
A 45-member advisory panel consulted and took testimony from hundreds of consumers, business organizations, labor groups, manufacturers, and state and local officials.
The ANMC was intended to facilitate U.S. metrication by maintaining a voluntary and orderly process that minimizes costs and maximizes benefits, and to provide information, forums, individual assistance, and other services for its subscribers.
The legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry, especially small business, as it voluntarily converts to the metric system of measurement.
NASA and other organizations applied metric units in their work, but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided software that calculated and reported thruster performance data to the team in pound-force-seconds, rather than the expected newton-seconds.
Moreover, newer units introduced by engineers and scientists from the 18th century onwards, such as volts, megapixels, and kilotons and megatons of TNT, are generally formulated in terms of powers of 10.
In some northern border states, temperatures are described in both Fahrenheit and Celsius for the benefit of cross-border Canadian audiences, while web-based and mobile weather forecasts can typically be switched to metric units.
Perhaps the most common metric item sold is the two-liter bottle, while some supermarket chains also make their store brand soft drinks available in 3-liter sizes.
Nutritional food labels typically report serving sizes in both systems, but only list metric values (g or mg) for the breakdown of individual nutrients.
Digital camera sensor sizes are measured in an archaic manner indicating inverse fractions of an inch representing the diameter of an equivalent vidicon tube.
[60] Major multi-national apparel brands including Nike, Adidas, Hanes, and Levi's often sell the same inventory worldwide, with tags containing both SI and customary units.
[citation needed] There are no U.S. customary units for electric current, potential difference, or charge since these concepts were developed after the international adoption of metric in science.
Some market prices, basically of primary unprocessed materials, are quoted in customary units (such as barrels of oil, troy ounces of gold, pounds of frozen pork bellies, etc.).
Major handloading manuals in the U.S. use U.S. customary units for all pertinent measurements including bullet diameter, cartridge overall length, powder charge weight, velocity, and maximum pressure, even with European-designed fully metric rounds.
The Navy and Air Force continue to measure distance in nautical miles and speed in knots; these units are now accepted for use with SI by the BIPM.
[80] In science, metric use is essentially universal, though additional specialized units are often used for specific purposes in various disciplines (such as the parsec and light year in astronomy), consistent with worldwide use.
[81] Earth sciences, such as hydrology and geology, continue to use customary units for field surveying, due both to the legacy of many decades of data collection and to the need to work with the construction industry, which has not adopted the metric system.
[citation needed] Atmospheric vorticity is typically measured in full rotations per 100,000 seconds (a rough metrication of the day) but does not use the SI-recommended radian.
Hailstone sizes are typically reported without a fixed unit of measure; they are instead compared to familiar round or spherical items (e.g. dime-sized or golf ball-sized).
Barometer readings for hurricanes are usually given in millibars (mb), which are equal to hectopascals (hPa), or ten times the kilopascals (kPa) used in neighboring Canada; the use of inches of mercury in such applications is rapidly declining.
For a long time, liquid dosages of medication were displayed in terms of both milliliters and the customary units of teaspoons and tablespoons, which are standardized as equal to 5 and 15 mL respectively.
[87] Due to this and reported confusion with the abbreviations TSP and TBSP, the FDA now recommends doctors and pharmaceutical manufacturers use milliliter only dosing instructions.
Although the Olympics and U.S. track events have been metric for years, it is still common for sports commentators to provide conversions to help the American audience understand the measurements.
Measured distances as used in events such as shot put, high jump, and discus throw are, however, often in feet and inches, except at the national and international levels.
[citation needed] In the game of Ultimate, the size and weight of flying discs used in competitive play is standardized in millimeters and grams.
Post model year 2006 regulations also mandate an internationally standard "Tire and Loading Information" sticker which gives capacities in SI units followed by customary equivalents.
[118] In some fields of civil engineering (especially structural engineering), and architecture, large loads and forces (such as the weight of a building or the amount of load applied to a column) are measured in kips (kilopounds or 1000 pounds-force) instead of short tons-force (2000 pounds-force), which are used in virtually all other non-metric industries in the United States, as well as in common usage among the public, when dealing with large values of force.
Later, Jules compliments the intelligence of one of their victims, after he correctly surmises that French use of the metric system is what precludes the term "Quarter Pounder".
