Yeah, I'm sure the same thing would happen in the US. It would only be the younger generation that would adopt it. But until it's forced, the younger generations keep getting addicted to the Imperial system and become one more generation that will never change. Even though they are all now taught the metric system in school at the same time they learn the Imperial system, because they don't use it in their day to day lives they never really learn to think in metric terms. Gasoline, milk, and water is sold by the gallon, everything is sized in inches, temperature is reported in fahrenheit, distance is in miles and speed limits are in MPH. Until all these day to day things are forced to be converted to metric, the younger generations will keep growing up to be one more generation that will refuse to convert.
Even though the advantage of metric is small, and the conversion cost very large, there's an on going cost associated with supporting the dual system that is time and money wasted every year you put off he conversation. Mechanics have to have two complete sets of tools, children are taught two systems in school, manufactures that try to support multiple markets have to produce produces that are compatible with multiple standards (from rulers to printers, to paper sizes to mechanical standards etc).
I think it's inevitable that the metric system will be the world standard (and it already is in many fields like science and medicine) and all of us still in the dark ages will have to convert at some point, so the longer we put off the conversion, the more time and money we are wasting supporting the dual systems, and the more we continue to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com /
snipped-for-privacy@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com /
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com /
snipped-for-privacy@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com /
Click to see the full signature.