I think the American system of using the date is strange as well, it is part English and part Chinese. The Chinese write it as year, month then day where as we state is as day, month then year so each system is logical (largest to smallest and smallest to largest) but the Americans use month, day, year (medium, smallest, largest). Why???
Why don't Americans use a proper numbering system with their mathematics? A million in both the Britsh and colonial system is the same (1,000 x 1,000) but they differ when you get higher. An American Billion is 1,000 millions (1,000 x 1,000,000) but we use a million millions (1,000,000 x 1,000,000) and so on. Get a grip chaps!
Do you know why Americans spell alluminium wrong? It was because the chap in England who wrote on the box for the first shipment we sent you couldn't spell so he wrote aluminum and you lot have perpetuated his mistake ever since