there are what 2 or 3 other countries that haven't shifted over to metric yet and they are utterly insignificant in terms of trade. the shift will come when their position as the largest trader in the world slips away most likely.

resistance to anything international

Because Napoleon didn't make it across the Atlantic....... All joking aside, because in the US we are closer to the UK than anyone else.

I think its because we Americans didnt come up with it. Heaven forbid we use a system that makes sense but not thought of by America. i would prefer if we went to the metric system personally. I have thought about it before but never really looked into it. Could it be because so much of Americas manufacturing base still uses the old system and it would be too costly to "change over"?

>>Maybe it's just me :I have never been able to learn/remember how far you have to walk to walk a "mile", I have no idea how deep you must dig to get six "feet" under... and what is an "inch" anyway?--shackled & chained<< Man you'd really be in the soup if you had to deal with leagues, fathoms, and nautical miles! Not to mention hands, stones, and imperial gallons! We sharp-witted Yanks take it all in stride, break out the slide-rules & finger it out -- we even have our kids compete in the Metric Olympics! We're a remarkable and amazing society! No wonder why everyBODY sooner or later, want's to come to America! Let's Roll

Didnt NASA make a probe go a bit off course or hit saomething due to a mix up between Metric and Imperial units recently, I have a vague recollection of that from somewhere.

NASA uses metrics but a contractor did their calculations in US units and didn't do the unit conversions before submitting their data. "Could it be because so much of Americas manufacturing base still uses the old system and it would be too costly to "change over"?" Unit conversions cost money and by nature install numerical errors, remainders, etc. I thought the reason why the US developed it's own system was to get away from anything to do with British culture after the revolution.

Say 1000 miles, easier than 2240 kms, and so on

"I thought the reason why the US developed it's own system was to get away from anything to do with British culture after the revolution." Not quite Nan, the US "Standard" system is very British, we call it "Imperial"

Yeah, they claimed they bounced a multi-million dollar probe off Mars because scientists in one group did their calculations using the metric system and another group.. did not. It's total BS in my opinion. While I'm completely happy with being being a feet and inches guy, EVERY science class I ever had used the metric system. So I'm not sure what confused those NASA yahoos.