This does bring up an issue I'm curious about. In the US at least one of the universal standards for construction is studs 16 inches on center, and all lumber is dimensional and based on the foot and fractional inches.. If you were to go to a modern country that is metricized what unit would you find their building supplies in?
hi SC,
The building industry is one one of those grey areas, new buildings are being 'sized' using the Metric system.
Trying to get replacement parts for repairing pre-metric buildings is a pain, all the the new stock is in metric dimensions.
So if for example you want to replace a section of 'old' roof/rain plastic gutter you have to somehow match the join between the two types. This matching applies to lots of other items.
I believe that the change from Imperial to Metric was the correct decision as was the change to our monetary units to the decimal system.
In the U.S. as least you have some sanity it the monetary units, even though you persist with the Imperial measures.
Imagine the U.K. as well as the Imperial units, we had:
Farthings, 4 to a penny
Half pennies
Pennies...... 12 to a Shilling
Three penny bits... 4 to a Shilling
Six penny pieces... 2 to a Shilling
Shillings... 20 to a Pound
Florins.... 10 to Pound
Half Crowns... 8 to the Pound
Ten Shilling notes
Pound Notes
5,10 and 20 Pound Notes
Not to mention Guineas [ 21 shillings]