Re: But it wouldn't have hurt .....
Except of course that if the story had been done in metric, myself and many other brits wouldn't know what you were on about!
I'm 30 so learnt metric in school, and use it for most things, BUT there are some measurements which are just more suited to Imperial measurements, which is why most of the population still use them. For instance I have no idea what my height, weight, waist measurements are in metric. An inch is a large enough measure to be a useful approximate, where as a centimetre is just that little bit too precise in my opinion.
It's not like the America's only use Metric themselves anyway, the roads are still in Miles, and watch any US show when they refer to someones weight, and it'll generally be in Pounds, not Kilo's. (can anyone explain why stones aren't used?). Haven't heard anyone referring to waist lines so don't know which is used generally... though the way the UK and US are going, Metres will soon be more appropriate! :-)