Posted on 05/15/2006 10:41:02 AM PDT by Junior
NORWICH, Conn. - Brent Maynard says he weighs 74 kilograms and is 169 centimeters tall. And if you ask him for directions, he'll give them in kilometers.
Maynard, a chemistry professor at Three Rivers Community College, is a champion for the metric system, a man who helped erect distance and speed signs in kilometers and whose goal in life is to see America ditch the standard system.
But in a country that's hooked on pounds, gallons and miles, it is a lonely cause. Last October during National Metric Week he sat alone in front of Norwich City Hall wearing a pro-metric placard and asking for signatures on a petition to get the U.S. Postal Service to weigh and measure packages in metric. Six people signed it.
Maynard, 52, a metrics fanatic since the age of 14, is used to the tepid response. He founded two metric associations in 1993 in Plainfield and in York, Maine. Each has about six members.
"They're not as passionate about it as I am," he said. "They kind of just go along with it."
Like most American youth, Maynard learned metrics in high school but unlike others, he has embraced it. He's even special ordered his truck with an odometer that reads distance in kilometers and writes congratulatory letters to companies that convert to dual labeling on products.
Maynard argues metrics is simpler because it's based on powers of 10 and more effective because the rest of the world uses it in business and in the military.
But despite several laws recognizing metric as the preferred system of measurement in the U.S., it's been slow to gain footing. The U.S. remains the only industrialized nation in the world to predominantly use the standard system, also known as the English system.
That doesn't mean metric measurements haven't crept into daily life in America. Soda comes in liters, film is in millimeters and electricity power is based on watts. Most food products use grams on their labels.
The hodgepodge of units has led to problems. In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because NASA navigators mistakenly thought a contractor used metric measurements when standard units were actually used.
"It's confusing to use two systems — even for rocket scientists," said Lorelle Young, president of the U.S. Metric Association.
In Plainfield, where Maynard's association put up distance signs in kilometers, residents aren't even aware of the signs, even when they're right down the street.
Marlene Chenail, 70, lives up the street from one of Maynard's signs. She says she doesn't know the meaning behind "RI state border 8 km."
"We've never really looked at it but we know that it's there," Chenail said.
Maynard attributes the unfamiliarity to America's resistance to change and the perception that it's a foreign system.
"We seem, in our culture, awfully afraid to challenge people to think," he said.
While Maynard is one of the few adamantly promoting the system, there are others who speak out against metrication.
Seaver Leslie, president of Americans for Customary Weight and Measure in Wiscasset, Maine, said Americans shouldn't be forced to use either and argues that standard units are superior because the units are human-based and has history. The furlong — an eighth of a mile — is the distance a farmer could plow in a field and still be in earshot of his house if there was danger, Leslie said. Etymologists believe the word represents the distance a team of oxen could plow without needing a rest.
"They're very practical and very poetic," Leslie said. "They have worked for the farmer in the field, the carpenter in the shop and large contractors in industry and for our aerospace industry."
I think you mean "the extra 1.6 kilometers..."
???
Man, you give this guy an inch and he makes 2.54 centimeters out of it.
yah,unless yer dealin in long tons....;-)
Funniest post this week.
Me too. My preference for the standard system is purely emotional. I enjoy knowing that 3 tsp = 1 TBSP, and that 4 TBSP = 1/4 cup. And what about imprecise measurements like a pinch, a dollop, and (my mother's best friend's favorite) a glug?
I'm sure the metric system is useful for some things, but it's just too dry and sterile for me.
If they only taught metric in school and changed everything else immediately, we would all be comfortable with it inside a year.
If we only taught and spoke English we'd all be comfortable with in inside a year.
It really is unproductive to teach two types of measurements, two languages, etc.
Some years ago I had a lot of fun with a group of Europeans who were giving me a bad time about when we would convert. I told them that we were waiting on them to decide which metric system to use. They got into a big argument among themselves with the Dutch and Germans re-fighting WWII and the others taking sides. I didn't have to defend our system any more that night.
LOL!
say it is a system of 10's is deceptive. The gravitational constant is 9.8m/sec2. you will still have numbers like 35.4 X 729. The Europeans use a 32mm cabinet system? The list goes on. Beside it was created by the french
I'll have to disagree with you there. The standard system is basically a hodge-podge of different systems. It has its charms, but it can be rather confusing.
AMEN to that! I know I am HOT when its 95 degrees out, 22C means nothing to my body!
Nautical Miles are much better for navigation than meters. Base 10 is good, but no one is suggesting base 10 time units. (100 seconds to minute, 100 minutes to hour, 10 hours to day).
Because the earth is round 360 turns out to be a magic number
As an old friend loves to say.
"Remember, the Communists used metric!"
I believe that the MKS system is more commonly used than the CGS system now.
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