[Odin]

最初の投稿者：wriot

I don't get it? America's founding fathers wanted America to be based upon imperial units? ....

No, that is correct. In fact there was a serious effort by Benjamen Franklin and a number of other "founding fathers" to make the metric system the standard of the land. However, the prevailing philosophy was that is was not the role of government to force the people into any one religion, language, or even system of measurement. So there was no official system in the U.S. for 120 years. The Mendenhall Order of 1893 actually made the metric system the official standard of the US. Although, it has been the official measurement system since that time, the government still maintained the position it had no rights to force it upon the population.

This is why the so called "American system" is formerly called "United States customary units". They are used simply because it is the custom to do so. The official standard of the US is metric!