Why did Australia decide to change the metric system?

Answer 1

The metric system is a system of weights and measures based on 10. It is much easier to calculate anything in 10's rather than 16's, 12's, 8's, etc. 8 pints in a gallon, 4 quarts in a gallon. 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, 22 yards in a chain, 1760 yards in a mile. 16 ounces in a pound, 112 pounds in a hundredweight, 2240 pounds in a ton, 20 hundredweight in a ton. Most of the world, with notably few exceptions, uses a metric system of some description for weights and measures. The old Imperial system had some simple but understandable origins, like a foot was the length of a man's foot, a yard (or 3 feet) was the distance from the end of your nose to the outstretched tip of your finger. The only thing left to metricate is time.

Answer 2

Australia decided to change to the decimal currency on the 14 Feb 1966. It was easier to count out dollars and cents, than pounds, shillings and pents. The metric system changed as well because it is easy to count out in grams milligrams kilograms, litre, etc. They are all based around each other like the decimal currency.