Can You Use Metric System?

It's been legal to use the metric system since 1866, and metric became the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce in 1988. Metric system use in the U.S. lies along a continuum where some measures are entirely in metric and others are entirely devoid of it, at least at the consumer level.

Why does the United States not use the metric system?

The biggest reasons the U.S. hasn't adopted the metric system are simply time and money. When the Industrial Revolution began in the country, expensive manufacturing plants became a main source of American jobs and consumer products.

What can be measured using the metric system?

The metric system uses units such as meter, liter, and gram to measure length, liquid volume, and mass, just as the U.S. customary system uses feet, quarts, and ounces to measure these.