[Junior]

I've often wondered if some of the standard measurements would eventually port over to metric. I can see metric gallons, and I'm told there is a metric mile (1500 meters).

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The traditional or Imperial units were all based on practical applications -- metric tries to force everything into powers of ten. When Canada converted to metric, we had "soft" conversions for many things -- e.g. a pound of butter became 454 grams (close enough). Now, we buy butter in 500 gram packages -- in effect a "metric pound", although no one calls it that. A kilogram would be too big, a hectogram (100 grams) too small. Similarly, a gallon was a good size for a jug of milk -- 10 litres would be way too big. The metric system has had to adapt to the way people actually do things.