Would you puree a fine tenderloin, stuff it in hot dog skins, just so it
would fit the long bun?
IFB we are not a metric nation because "using the metric system" has been
so often introduced to young minds as a conversion thing. Even looking at
the signage on our superhighways, one might say the the designers used a
calculator instead of moving the cruddy post. I graduated from a Canadian
college when that country was using only English units.
It is fine to exercise proportional reasoning by randomly poking a hole in
a plastic cup for each student to establish individual volume units, use
these to fill a single same container and then make a conversion table of
everyone's "unit" to everyone elses without ever using a "standard unit" at
all. But, I always taught that a measurement should be made in the units
one intended to use and conversion was needed only when one forgot or was
unable to do that. My classroom tapemeasure had both English and Metric
scales on it, to further make the point that one was unlikely to land a job
as a "converter."
As I entered the classroom after a short military career, it seemed to me
that this nation would become metric, if by no other means, by virtue of
the metrics found in military and other government surplus -- a staple in
my classroom and lab. But, this is taking much longer than I imagined 40
years ago.