I recently got a photo printed what I thought would be 50x40cm. Turns out it is really 16x24in. Frames - those on offer at the photo shop were all metric mouldings (edge and depth) despite imperial prints, but I needed to match an existing frame. My local framer caters to the art not photo community. No worries getting a 1 x 2 1/4in moulding, all in stock.
I doubt the ‘duo-plicity’ is going to change easily or soon since at the end of the day it is about economics.
thanks
Sitting down to read the post-Christmas sales brochures today, I was startled to discover that mobile phone screen sizes were ALL quoted in inches, not cm. I was wrong to think this applied only to cell phones - the same use of inches was right across the advertised range of TV, laptop and desktop screens. And it wasn’t just one advertiser; imperial measurement of screens was being touted by ALL the advertisers.
And yet, here in Australia, only the SI Metric system of measurement has been taught in schools since 1973. And the electronics industry converted solely to metric in 1977!
So, it seems perverse that we now have two generations of young Australians who have been taught only metric measurement, now having to grapple with an ancient system of measurement every time they update their on-screen technology! Am I missing something here??
Hi @Sparkey762, welcome to the community. I have moved your post to the existing thread which covers the same topic in detail.
Hope you find some interest or amusement in this topic @syncretic pointed out.
Fortunately our smart phones, tablet devices etc are more than happy to find conversions between both systems, despite their imperial mindsets.
Unfortunately the odds of the USA reforming its ‘imperial’ ways remain more remote than any prospects of a second term by Donald the looser Trump. Although as in politics the USA has a foot in both camps with SI units (metric based) commonly used in the scientific and laboratory communities.
Pity the metricated UK motorist still with miles and gallons.
Alas, it has. In 1975 with the process as ugly as US politics.
Opponents have called pro-metric people communists and other not-so-nice labels.
The vast majority of Americans have shown a propensity to resist it at all costs. I have yet to see legions of their politicians seeking emergency audits to understand why it is all but completely stillborn across the US, yet it is.
There are two headlined horror stories, not counting the day to day issues ever since.
and Air Canada succumbed in 1983 when AC143 was filled using a computation with the incorrect density applied between pounds and kilograms of fuel leading to less than half the necessary top up, and went empty at 26,000 ft. Canada is in a hard place next to the US and with ties to the UK.
Aviation can get entertaining.
As long as American capitalism controls the units and the US remains the largest market for manufactured things it is unlikely to change. 30 years hence assuming China becomes the dominant market and classes in Chinese may become more popular, as well as metrification finally taking over in the US the American right will be chuffed they always claimed it was a communist plot and continue to hold onto Imperial with their dead cold hands. 
No politician or party at the federal level will invest the political capital to make metrication compulsory and to provide the funds to get it done. So it will stay on the books but be disregarded indefinitely in nearly all areas of commerce and life in general.
This is one more “third rail” issue like a proper public health system and gun control and arguably not at the top of the list.
They were prohibited imports into Australia for some years - so we would get used to being footless
If you don’t know the Imperial system of measurement, then you have to learn it. It is in widespread use for many areas. Screen sizes are one example. Tyres and wheels are another with rim diameters in inches. Go out on the water and distances are in Nautical miles (slightly different to land miles) and speeds in Knots (nautical miles per hour).
Imperial bolts/threads, tools, old survey/building plans and even shoe sizes are based on or are imperial measurement units. Some of these are historical and have carried over in time, others are based on the country of manufacture or are seen as the industry standard (rim sizes for example).
If one is hung up on TV dimensions, why isn’t there the same interest in these other products.
There are possibly many consumers who wouldn’t be able to show what a length is in a particular metric unit is using their hands (e.g. 92cm), so whether it is imperial (36 1/4 inches) or metric possibly has little practical implications and may be no more than a standardisation for TVs or a marketing tool.
And in the sky.
It may come down to what is most convenient for the intended purpose. Hence international shipping air travel use the same system.
In space a whole different system.
Although it can be converted into which ever units one chooses, with lots of zeros or digits for precision. Partial to a Parsec?
