Please explain this phrase? (take II)

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Kelly Oja wonders: <<I always understood that "English" and "metric" were
the same and that America uses the "Standard" system. Granted, I will state
that I have NOT heard the metric system termed the English system that
often, but up until this thread, I have never heard the Standard system
referred to as the English system.>>

The more correct terms are "imperial" (feet, pounds, etc.) and "metric" or
"système international" (meters, kilograms, etc.). The confusion stems from
the fact that the English-language version of the imperial system was first
used in the U.K. (and was thus an English--plus Scottish and Irish--system).

The U.K. and most of the world apart from the U.S. now use the metric
system, but even in the U.S., the metric system is the primary system for
science and technology.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
(try ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca if you get no response)
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous