Upvoted because you taught me something I didn't know. I guess I need to buy tools more often!

The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them.

Also contrast a US gallon to an imperial gallon. Not the same thing so American standard is likely also more correct than "imperial".

@LightnessRacesinOrbit But they don't use the British Imperial system. US fluid ounces, pints, gallon, hundredweight, tons are all different from Imperial.

@DavidRicherby: The nomenclature is from that era and that influence, though. I don't think there's much room to dispute that the US "imperial" system has [slightly] evolved out of the, well, imperial one :)

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: Not to mention that the "Imperial" system has itself evolved. In spite of the existence of official standardization for measures, this is similar to the different evolutions of English-language dialects on opposite sides of The Pond. Those in the "mother" country sometimes think that their way is the real way or the original way, with the other way being an offshoot. (A similar "imperial" attitude can be found in France wrt Québécois.) In fact, neither is the same today as their common root (which admittedly was in England). Relative isolation leads to differences.

@Drew which countries refer to England as the "mother" country? Asking as a curious Aussie.

@Drew: I never said one way or the other way the "real" or "original" way. You're casting aspersions.

@AndrewGrimm: All ex-colonies are related to their ex-mother country. The modern incarnation of what was that particular mother country is no longer a "mother" country, of course - its former colonies are all "former" (or are there still some official colonies left?). Hence the quote marks where I referred to the modern "mother country".

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: I never said you did. Please read what I said. I was not referring to you at all, but to those who sometimes do think that way. It is a fact that some do - no casting of aspersions. This is so, whether the former mother country is Britain, France, Holland, Spain, etc. You will find some there who really think that their dialect is the "real" or the "original" one. (And such an imperialist attitude is understandable, if unfortunate. It's a casualty of former empire/colonialism.)

I hope that Americans of your generation realize that your inches, feet and yards are nowadays defined in terms of SI units ;-)

I have never heard this terminology ("standard") used. And I've bought a lot of tools over the years. If you're buying something like wrenches they're typically stamped "SAE" or "metric". If you're buying, say, a drill, the chuck would have a "half-inch capacity".

@MassimoOrtolano How do you imagine that being relevant to ordinary Americans in everyday life? Why would they be aware of it, and even if they were aware of it, how would they act on that information? What would change for them? A mile is the distance between one tick of my odometer and the next - that's all the definition anyone needs in real life.

Since this is now a discussion, @Oldbag, you're generalizing. I'm a baby boomer who is in favor of using the metric system. I've used both, and use the metric system more than the US Standard. I, too, remember the big push in school.

@DanielRHicks - Not a terminology - just a way of distinguishing between two different types of implements using common language - like, for instance, measuring tapes. (Or, measuring cups. Or, bathroom scales.)

@anongoodnurse - sigh There's one in every crowd. ;) (Thanks for validating my memory, though.

@AndrewGrimm: as a "curious Aussie", surely you know that Brits are referred to colloquially as "poms" because it stands for "Prisoner Of Motherland"? ;)

@flith that sounds suspiciously like a backronym, but I know Aussies used to refer to mother England, and wanted to know who else does so.