maxxxxx parent
There was an effort in the 70s that got shut down by the Reagan administration.
Kinda, it wasn't shot down. The US actually started down the path of conversion. The real reason that US metrication failed was that conversion was voluntary. The UK went through a similar change but metrication was mandatory for all industries. In the US most businesses and industries just decided it cost too much to change so they didn't.
https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pml/wmd/m...