And it comes from France - in 1791 after the French Revolution. It's a Socialist Artifact
The “mètre étalon” is a small shelf of marble installed beneath the arcade at 36, rue Vaugirard, right across from the Senate at the Palais du Luxembourg. It’s one of 16 that were installed after, on March 26, 1791, the Académie des Sciences defined the meter for the first time. The only other to survive is at 13, de la Place Vendôme, although unlike the Vaugirard meter it’s been moved from its original location.
The Standard Meter. The French originated the meter in the 1790s as one/ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole along a meridian through Paris. ... The U. S. Congress legalized the use of the metric system in 1866 on the basis that one meter is exactly equal to 39.37 inches.
i find the fact that 1DM2 = 1 Liter of water quite a nice hint that the metric system makes sense, not even talking about the fact that it's in decimals, easy to understand and easy to learn and convert between mm, cm, dm, m, km, etc. and the equivalents in water, after all water is a major
ingredient (element) on this planet. ( know it's a molecule, the term element is from the old times when fire, earth, water and air were elements)
similar things one can sey from Celsius versus Fahrenheit, Kelvin make sense because it starts at absolute zero and Celsius makes sense because it's again related to natural "elements" like freezing point for sweat water etc.
Fahrenheit, or the old german "Elle" oder the "feet" are so bad measures because if i'm not totally wrong my feet do not have the same size like most others 46, 6-7 depending etc. while my wife's are 36, very much of a difference to use feet as a valid measurement tool LOL (partly kidding)
so the americans, once they are the only ones sticking to old fashioned stuff feel tyrannised ?
i think they are the falling tyrants that tell us with whom we are allowed to do business and a lot more.
sometimes i can't believe anymore that 50 years ago i wanted to join the U.S.-Airforce LOL how naive many were at that time.
EDIT: ohh... sorry here come a few smilies so that it fits the humor thread haha..