Because
America seems to have great difficulty
converting to the
metric system, many
analysts and
social scientists have considered, instead of actually converting to
meters and
grams, converting the current system to embrace a the
base 10 method that the
Metric system uses.
Feet and
inches would still be there, thus the
American public need not learn new
weights and measures (however easy it may be).
Under the new system there'd be 10 inches in a foot and 1000 feet in a mile, 10 cups in a pint, 10 pints to the gallon, 100 gallons to a barrel (or hogshead. *snicker*). 10 ounces to a pound, 1000 pounds to a ton. And so on. Temperature was not proposed because it used the same measure (degrees). Whether or not freezing would be 32 and boiling would be 212 was also not discussed. Neither was speed, for the same reason. Granted, it would also have to change.
Would this be easier for Johnny Q. Public? Maybe not, but it was an interesting idea none the less. I think America itself would be hard pressed to embrace any sort of change for something so impressed on them (but none of them could tell me how much a hogshead is). Also, it would be quite expensive to implement, due to all the national changes that would have to be made. And, if this were a step to the true metric system, it would most likely cause more confusion and be more pricey than just converting to the actual metric system. It was worth a try, though.
Ideas for this write up were originally presented on NPR. However, I can't remember when. It was about two years ago.