>>Why is it that the USA is the last nation on Earth to change to the metric >>system? It can't be because the people of the USA are not capable of making >>this change...
>I believe that it is the hubris of great powers that makes them slow >to convert to metric. The other day something occurred to me. The conversion of the United States to the metric system is the first time that we have tried to convert the hegemon, the leader. No wonder it is slow and difficult to get the change going. Back in the 19th century, while Britain was the dominant country of Europe, the other countries were converting one by one. In the twentieth century, once the United States had taken Britain's place, the conversions continued, and even the U.K. has made great progress. Now that we are the only ones left, it is our turn and it is proving difficult. I think that shouldn't be too much of a surprise that we still haven't come around. After all, we are so big that we can often just do things our own way, and we have a lot of inertia. I don't think we will avoid metric indefinitely, of course. Metric has become the lingua franca for measurement in scientific and international endeavors, much more than even English is. This means that people will come across metric and use it if they want to take part in a lot of things. I sure did before I got involved with USMA. I think the cultural and economic influence of the rest of the world will increase, particularly the influence of Asia because of their sheer numbers and their long-term prospects (which I think are better than Europe's in some ways). A lot of times the adoption of a technology or the spread of information follows a stretched-out "S" shape. It goes slowly at first, then there is a long period of steady change, and then the last few bits take a while to finish up. Carl
