Posted on 08/22/2013 6:49:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I’ve met a lot of people and learned a lot while traveling Europe the past several weeks. Of all the things I have had to explain to fellow travels as not only an American – but a Texan – by far the most frustrating thing is our stubborn refusal to embrace the metric system. I can confidently argue the finer points of how the use of y’all and the plural form all y’all are descriptive and have a place in the American lexicon. I take pleasure in explaining the intricacies of chicken fried foods.
But the metric system is another matter. “I don’t understand why y’all don’t use the metric system” is something I’ve heard too often. I don’t argue with them because there is no technical argument for why we haven’t adopted the Système Internationale – our refusal is based on emotion and familiarity.
Our choice of unit system is perhaps more important now than in recent years. Science is conducted using the language of SI units. If we want to have a scientifically literate populace, we should make sure that scientists and non-scientists speak the same language. In terms of national competitiveness, Americans are competing on a global market of information now more than ever. We are at a disadvantage by not speaking the international language of science at a time when we are struggling with truly global issues like climate change and resource depletion.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government arm that sets standards and measurements to support American competitiveness, concludes that “the current effort toward national metrification is based on the conclusion that industrial and commercial productivity, mathematics and science education, and the competitiveness of American products and services in world markets, will be enhanced by completing the change to the metric system of units. Failure to complete the change will increasingly handicap the Nation’s industry and economy.”
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Whatever. We are the best, don’t like it, too bad. I will not bow to any other culture, unlike our pResident.
Go and correct your kids.
“I guess using the imperial system has become a symbol of American defiance against the rest of the world.”
Uh, that is what makes us real “’Muricans”, isn’t it?
I have no problem with that thinking! ;-)
Metric is so french it makes me sick. We did not go to the Moon using metric. We did not win WWII using metric. I can use metric, and I can use imperial, but the Euro-apes can’t use imperial. I laugh.
So what's a 12 point saw called in metric? What's a metric set of pliars? What's a metric framing hammer?
We know it, nobody is failing in science because they don’t know the metric system, we just don’t use it for everyday stuff. Because we don’t want to, and anybody that doesn’t like that should feel free to be elsewhere.
In my world, rods are the ideal unit of measure. There are 320 of those little fellas in a mile and 160 square ones in an acre. No Frenchman has ever devised a more adequate system of measurement for laying out fields.
American businesses use metric measurements when it suits their economic purposes, as they should. The government already controls enough of our economy - we need no more czars in our lives.
I remember being told in fifth grade that we had to learn the metric system because everything in the U.S. was going to shift over. That was a long time ago and the only time I remember it really being pushed on us was at the gas pumps, how did that work out?
To use the American standard system you have to have fundamental math skills like understanding and using fractions. In other words you need to be able to think.
I am appalled at how many people can’t make change in their head. So that the metric system really doesn’t work for them either.
I don’t what they are talking about. It says 6.6 liter right on the hood of my American truck!
This again?
Which metric system — MKS or CGS?
And, how about the confusion between kilogram/mass and kilogram weight (mass * g (force of gravity)? (when you buy stuff they weigh it).
MKS — meters/Kilograms/seconds. Energy is expressed in Joules, e.g.
CGS — centimeters/grams/seconds. Energy is in Dynes.
physicists like cgs because the speed of light can be estimated at 10 to the 10th centimeters per second.
RE: It says 6.6 liter right on the hood of my American truck!
Have you checked if the truck was made in America?
AND, if my memory serves me right,the whole edifice of metric measurement (the meter, or metre) is based on a mathematical mistake in calculating its size.
I agree. Metric makes much more sense than the English system. There was an attempt to move us to the metric system back in the 70s-80s...I never understood why it stopped.
I had to think on it:
(25.4 x 10) + (25.4 x 2)= 254 + 50.8= 304.8 mm
That's 305 mm , or, shift the decimal to the left, 30.5 cm, more or less, which is good enough for me.
Metric works fine for nuts and bolts, but carpenters have little use for a system that doesn't allow clean division into thirds. Besides, fractions are easier to work with than decimals. I use feet and inches for anything larger than 25.4 mm, but have had to go metric for the small stuff. A lot of plywood is actually metric: "1/4"" designating an actual thickness of 6mm--.4mm shy of a true 1/4 inch-- and so on. (Nobody who accepts a 1-1/2 x 3-1/2" board as a "2X4" can complain about that.)
Maybe we should adopt the metric system and institute a base-12 number system. That would make everyone happy.
Anyway, I always come away from these arguments a little better educated. Thanks for making a useful intuitive connection: one foot = 305 mm (or 304.8 for sticklers). I think I can remember that.
And once we've resolved this, let's talk shoe sizes.
Why do you think proposing a BETTER measurement system is liberal?
Hos about the fact that most Americans don’t much like being told what they must do?
“I don’t understand why y’all don’t use the metric system” is something I’ve heard too often.
I doubt that's something the author has heard even once, unless the Europeans have taken to speaking Texan.
I've lived overseas, worked in scientific fields, etc, etc. It really isn't that difficult to use both. It's an annoyance keeping two sets of socket wrenches, but meh. For temperature I prefer the finer granularity of Fahrenheit, but meh.
It's all arbitrary. When doing marine navigation, nautical miles are superior because one nautical mile is exactly one minute of latitude. Lat/long is not metric.
Neither is time. The same arguments in favor of the "easier" metric system apply to the clock as well, but strangely the enthusiasm for metricizing does not seem to extend that direction. Yes, it really would be easier. Yes, it really would be a pain to convert.
Personally I can't work up a passion for this, because being the same as everyone else really isn't high on my list of priorities. Now excuse me, I gotta fraction of a parsec to walk to get coffee.
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