Americans, did you learn metric system in school?

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Did you learn metric system in school and use it a lot?
I'm Canadian and I was wondering if you used metric system in, say, physics.

I remember in physics if you use metric system the units fit nicely with the SI units no matter how much you fiddle around with formulas and equations. So do you use metric system in physics or do you use other systems where the units fit in nicely?

Just wondering...

Yes.

Yeah, I learned it early on in grade school. But I don't remember really using it extensively until my physics class in 10th grade.

When I was in elementary school (in about 1965) there was a push to move the metric system into the classroom. We all were given instruction in it. That next year it was off the curriculum and I never saw it again until I got into my high-school science classes (circa 1971). As we were not required to take science classes, but only took them as electives if we chose at that time, I wouldn't say that the metric system had any uniform place in the schools back then.

My daughter, who went to school in the 1990s early '00s, is familiar with it from her required science classes. That's the only place it was used, though.

I used the metric system in high school physics and a mix of metric and english in metal shop. In college I used mostly metric. Metric is much nicer for doing any basic calculations. Most of my physics thinking is in metric, although a lot of my everyday driving etc. is done in english units. I am always having to convert between the two.

Can I hijack this thread?

I am a non-American but I claim to be more customized to the United States customary units than my country's SI units. I still say I am gonna buy three pounds of pork and one galloon of milk. I always think I live twelve miles from downtown and twenty miles from the airport. The weather here is always in the nineties. I cannot think of Celcius. Sigh...

Chemistry and physics were entirely in metric. By the end of those two classes in high school, I felt as if I had some intuition to what metric measurements "meant". When we memorized mnemonics and had to remember deci- versus deka- in earlier science classes (in other words, we never made measurements in metric, nor did problems in metric - we just learned trivia) there was no real learning of why we care about metric.

I was taught about it with certain unit of measurements or volume, etc. Most of the time the metric system was used in my schooling was when the measurements were either too large of numbers or too small of numbers for the American system. So like if you had 6 feet it would be changed into 2 meters for some reason. Or 3 inches were changed into 7.6 centimeters. I really don't get why, but whatever. That's Illinois for ya.

This sounds so idiotic!

Ya, the Illinois teaching system is so annoying

I have only really used metric in high school science classes. It is extremely annoying because I prefer metric (except for temperature) and several times last year we would be working with the exact same formulas in both physics and calculus but had to remember twice as many constants as physics used metric and calculus didn't.

I did. I use metric measurements when I need percision, such as with experiments or economic analyses. But when it comes to everyday stuff, I use the English system. It's just what I grew up with.

I see what you did thar.

Yeah. I use the metric system in all my science courses. And I was pretty familiar with it by the end of highschool.
In every science class we used metric - except for some things in physics.
Its so much more easy to use. It really does lend itself to science - and it plays nicely with scientific notation.

But I am forced to use Fahrenheit, inches, gallons and lbs in everyday life.
But when I'm at the grocery store and need to compare prices to figure out the relative price per equal unit in two diff packages of food, I whip out the metric and can do it in my head very quickly.

I can better judge metric volumes by sight since I use those units so often in lab. Graduated cylinders, FTW!
And I'd say I can visualize holding a few grams of something than holding an ounce.
Cooking though, I use cups. Just since that's what the recipe talks about, and thats how my measuring cups at home a re marked off. And that works out fine too. But, for precision, I much prefer metric.

As temperature measures go, I like to use Kelvin. But no one uses that outside of science. We don't care if it's 273 or 275 K outside, we just know that water freezes. So I guess that makes sense that we use Celsius.

Fahrenheit, though? Hideous conversion and weird numbers. No me gusta.

Says who? I love those nineties in Singapore. Degree Celsius sucks!

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No it doesn't. Negative numbers mean solid ice and the rest are other phases.

We were taught both...They taught us how to do calculations to convert metric to imperial and vice versa. I keep a conversion chart with me so I can do the conversions at anytime...especially work so I can hep customers if they confuse the price for pounds with the price for kilograms or grams.