The Metric System

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The Metric System The metric system originated in France in the late 17th century to battle widespread commercial fraud by farmers and shopkeepers who used the varied systems of weights and measures to their advantage. The metric system became very popular by the early 1800s and many nations accepted this system. Most countries adopted the metric system because they had confusion with different systems already in use which needed to be standardized (Wikipedia). Therefore, they were forced for economic and legal reasons to adopt the weights and measures used by their trading partners which happened to be the metric system. There are only two countries today that have not accepted the metric system today, the U.S. and Burma (William, H.). The metric system is actually used in the U.S. but America has not officially accepted the metric system as the main system of measurement. The United States actually tried to switch to the metric system and made a big push in the late 1970's, but the public continues to prefer the U.S. system for most things. State governments even started posting road signs in both metric and U.S. standard measurements (miles & km, mph & km/h). Automobile odometers display speed in both mph and km/h. Most states went back to miles and mph after it was obvious there was little public support for the change. The federal government then began requiring that contractors use the metric system in most cases when contracting with the government (Oswell, R.). Schools had taught both systems of measurement, so Americans were familiar with the metric system. This results in the U.S. using both systems, and most consumer products display both metric and U.S. standard measurements. For example, you can buy a 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola, and a 1 gallon of milk. Besides having almost no popular support for the change to metric, the U.S. is a very
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