"jj" wrote in message ...
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g.
using Celsius? How do people feel about it?

jj

Actually, The US _has_ gone metric. All those "US Customary Units"
are actually bizzare derivatives of metric units, at least legally.
The US was one of the original signers of the Treaty of the Meter.

For the whole sordid/amusing story of why the US didn't adopt the
metric system, both initially, and during the abortive attempt in the
1970's, read "Measuring America" By Andro Linklater (Penguin/Plume,
New York, 2003) ISBN 0-452-28459-7,
Library of Congress cat # E161.3 .L46 2002

Actually, even the Frenchies and other Europeans resisted the metric
system after it was introduced, but their 19th century authoritarian
governments (Does "Napoleon ring a bell?) made it happen. And even
today, Europeans apparently have some non-official, but core
convenient, units in common use: the German "pfund" (500 grams), and
German and Scandanvian plumber supposedly measure pipe diameters in
"thumbs" or "inches."

My guess is that the Americans won't convert in common use until the
American Empire collapses and they won't be able to dictate to
suppliers like they do today. Until then, I don't see America going
metric in comman usage even though Americas, in reality, a metric
country.

Abe.