Do we need to learn metric and imperial?

Two contestants on The Weakest Link thought that cwt was cue weight and half a gross was 6 !! Since America use imperial above metric, are our schools failing kids by just teaching them metric?

Do we need to learn metric and imperial?
we should all learn both of them, I can't understand what all the fuss is about we were taught both systems at school and that was 55 years ago. and stop knocking the americans they are right to go their own way,unlike us who accept punitive laws from the EU for something as innocent as selling a pound of tomatoes.
Reply:No The metric system is world wide. Its only the backward United states that continues to hang on to imperial measurements.


The metric system is far more accurate and concise in measurement. Most Americans are resistant to change and dumbasses that can't grasp the fact that it is they who are out of sync with the rest of the world!
Reply:Firstly, there are more countries out there besides the USA...and other systems of measurement. Should our children be taught to know what a knuckle is or how to measure it?





Secondly, I don't think it should be taught in schools beyond what it is. If a person lives in a metric country, not knowing what imperial measures are is not a bad thing. I didn't know what cwt was, but I live on metric.





Having said that, I know some imperial measuring so that I can communicate with my Gran and Mum with ease as they both grew up learning imperial.





Finally, the Weakest Link is not a good way to determine how smart a nation is, it's a tv game...
Reply:Basics of one. Details of other!
Reply:I learnt metric at school and never use it. All my adult life I have used feet and inches because they are more practical. Because there are 12 inches in a foot imperial measures can be divided by 3 and 4 and yield whole numbers. With metric you get a lot of 0.25 and 0.333333333 when you divide.
Reply:Private schools are not failing to educate children and they do it in metric only. Europe churns out some well educated 'metric only' teenagers ...


So America has nothing to do with it really ...
Reply:Fair question, but I don't think it's necessary. If you're an engineer and you work with Americans, you figure out imperial as you go along; it's just part of picking up the jargon of your profession. School was never going to teach me whether 100,000 pounds per hour of steam was a lot or a little.





Metric beats imperial in every respect except geometric progressions. If the metric system could find some way of matching the logic of having screw and bolt sizes in a progressive series of fractions, it would be perfect.
Reply:Who cares......U have to learn both anyway. Why question them.
Reply:You should learn both. Many things in the UK are still marked in imperial regardless of regulations.
Reply:We do need both.





In my last job I had to deal with American specs., all of them in feet and inches, with no metric equivalents.





I had to convert measurements like 55 ft, 9 %26amp; 7/16 inches into metres before we could do anything with them.





Until the USA drags itself, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century we're stuck with having to know both.