Americans invented car culture. Weve had car-based shows (Route 66, and too many others to list), car movies (Bullitt, ditto), car songs ("Life In The Fast Lane", ditto again) and there are car cable channels (Velocity), radio shows (Car Talk), magazines (Hot Rod). Helpfully, we also pay less than the rest of the world does for gasoline, but that can partly be attributed to the highest vehicle ownership per capita in the world, plus the worlds most extensive highway system and a plethora of major cities with extensive suburban areas. Every time a national politician suggests that America switch over to mass transit (like most of the rest of the world), the editorial comments start to fly fast and furious, and it's clear that Americans would rather build a road than a train, subway or streetcar.
23. Our Measurement System
Visitors to the U.S. that are used to the metric system can find the U.S. system confusing, if not downright baffling. Instead of kilometers, Americans use miles; pounds over kilos; gallons over liters; degrees Fahrenheit over Celsius. The helpful metric system is built on base ten, which makes all of the major units of measurement divisible by tens: a kilometer is 1,000 meters; a kilogram is 1,000 grams; a liter is a 1,000 milliliters; and the Celsius scale goes from freezing (0 degrees) to the boiling point of water (100 degrees). In contrast, the U.S. system has several different bases ranging from 12 to 16 and worse: an American mile is 5,280 feet; a foot is 12 inches, and it takes three of them to make a yard. A pound is 16 ounces; a gallon is four quarts, or eight pints, and water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. Confused yet? Youre not alone, as even the brilliant minds at NASA have trouble with it; the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost when its computer software was programmed to use non-metric measurement units instead of metric units.
