Editing United States customary units (section)

==History==
{{See also|Imperial and US customary measurement systems|Comparison of the imperial and US customary measurement systems}}

The United States customary system of units of 1832 is based on the system in use in the United Kingdom prior to the introduction to the British [[Imperial units|imperial system]] on January 1, 1826.<ref>"English units of measurement". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'' 6th ed. 2001-2007. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080714214207/http://www.bartleby.com/65/en/Englsh-u.html archived copy].</ref> Both systems are derived from [[English units]], an older system of units which had evolved over the millennia before [[American independence]], and which had its roots in both [[Roman units|Roman]] and [[English units|Anglo-Saxon]] units.

The customary system was championed by the U.S.-based International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights and Measures in the late 19th century. Some advocates of the customary system saw the French Revolutionary, or metric, system as atheistic. The president of an Ohio auxiliary of the Institute wrote that the traditional units were "a just weight and a just measure, which alone are acceptable to the Lord". His organization later went so far as to publish music for a song proclaiming "down with every 'metric' scheme".<ref name="Gardner">{{cite book |author=Martin Gardner |title=Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X0HCAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA180 |date=May 4, 2012 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-13162-7 |pages=180–}}</ref>

The U.S. government passed the [[Metric Conversion Act]] of 1975, which made the [[metric system]] "the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce". The legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry as it ''voluntarily'' converts to the metric system, i.e., [[Metrication in the United States|metrification]]. This is most evident in U.S. labeling requirements on food products, where SI units are almost always presented alongside customary units. According to the ''[[CIA World Factbook]]'', the United States is one of three nations (along with [[Liberia]] and [[Myanmar (Burma)]]) that have not adopted the metric system as their official system of weights and measures.<ref name="CIA_World_Factbook">{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/references/weights-and-measures/ |title=The World Factbook |publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]] |location=Washington, D.C. |chapter=References - Weights and Measures |access-date=April 22, 2021}}</ref>

[[s:Executive Order 12770|Executive Order 12770]], signed by President [[George H. W. Bush]] on July 25, 1991, citing the Metric Conversion Act, directed departments and agencies within the [[Executive (government)|executive branch]] of the [[United States Government]] to "take all appropriate measures within their authority" to use the metric system "as the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce" and authorized the [[United States Secretary of Commerce|Secretary of Commerce]] "to charter an Interagency Council on Metric Policy ('ICMP'), which will assist the Secretary in coordinating Federal Government-wide implementation of this order." Implementation has been limited. ''See'' [[Metrication in the United States]].

U.S. customary units are widely used on consumer products and in industrial manufacturing. Metric units are standard in the fields of science, medicine, and engineering, as well as many sectors of industry and government, including the [[U.S. armed forces|military]].<ref name=CIA_World_Factbook/> There are anecdotal objections to the use of metric units in [[carpentry]] and the building trades, on the basis that it is easier to remember an integer number of inches plus a fraction, rather than a measurement in millimeters,<ref>Robyn Williams (February 8, 1998) [http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/trouble-with-the-metric-system/3552102 "Trouble with the Metric System"]. Australian ''Radio National'', Ockham's Razor.</ref> or that foot-inch measurements are more suitable when distances are frequently divided into halves, thirds, and quarters, often in parallel. The metric system also lacks a parallel measurement to the [[Foot (unit)|foot]].<ref name="Tenner">Ed Tenner, (May 2005). [https://www.technologyreview.com/2005/05/01/39811/the-trouble-with-the-meter/ "The Trouble with the Meter"]. Technologyreview.com.</ref>

The term "United States customary units" was used by the former [[United States National Bureau of Standards]],<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=1960 |title=Units of Weight and Measure (United States Customary and Metric}: Definitions and Tables of Equivalents |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ejpUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 |location=Washington DC |publisher=United States National Bureau of Standards |page=1 }}</ref> although "English units" is sometimes used in colloquial speech.<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=Policy for NBS usage of SI Units |page=18 |date=January 1971 |journal=Technical News Bulletin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Efah8_3glg4C&pg=PA18 |volume=55 |issue=1 |location=Washington DC |publisher=United States National Bureau of Standards }}</ref>