Eli5: how come tires use marking from different measurement system. Metric for the width, imperial for radius and percentage for height? (like 205/50 R16)

Question

Eli5: how come tires use marking from different measurement system. Metric for the width, imperial for radius and percentage for height? (like 205/50 R16)

In: 422

Answer 1

Everyone seems to be answering what the ratios mean and not what OP asked. I don’t really know either so I’d like to know the real answer myself. But a good guess would be because America uses imperial whole most everybody else uses metric and they’re not going to change all their products for one country. So we have wheel size imperial because that stays common and the consumer knows that number easily, and the aspect ratio of the actual tire gets to stay in metric for the manufacturer.