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."
Funny!
The communist ate food and breathed air, too...
I believe you. I just don't like it!
'Scuse me while I put a pinch of salt in my casserole.
Give 'em 2.54 centimeters and they'll take 1.61 kilometers.
SD
As does our military. It takes some getting used to, and you can't do it with half-way measures like 2 liter bottles and the smaller kilometer per hour ring on speedometers.
Do you advocate a change from our decimal currency?
Yeah, and the use of imaginary numbers helps immensly in the calculation of certain electrical circuits.
Doesn't mean I need to use it for buying bananas. Thinking people use the best tool for the job. A system of units is a tool.
The US is lagging far behind the rest of the world in math, partially due to our antiquated system.
Nonsense. Kids need to learn the fundamentals of math and science. Finding a volume or area in (square) yards or meters doesn't make a difference.
SD
Well said. I lived in a metric country for many years. I know the metric system and I can use it, but I have never really liked it.
"is always asking me to make conversions from metric to standard for her."
google does that
type in "convert 4 liters to gallons" etc.
1 ounce = 28.349523125 gram. Please measure accurately. I love casseroles.
I knew of a professor who insisted that students work problems in units that they made up. The one I remember a student used was furlongs per fortnight. There were others just as good.
I was told the same thing when I was in elementary school in the late 70's.
"You better learn the metric system now, because very soon that is all we will be using."
Oh yea, I was also told, "Soccer will be bigger than football soon."
I wonder what ever happened to those old hippie teachers?
Bump for the metric system.
"The US is lagging far behind the rest of the world in math"
Not really. Such studies are skewed because the US has a 1-track system. Almost everybody that stays in the system goes to "high school."
In other countries the "slower" (academically) kids are peeled off and go to technical schools. They are not tested in the studies.
The kids are alright.
An emotional attachment? Sure, why not? I do too, despite having largely been educated since Canada's metric system changeover. Temperatures above freezing I still don't quite have a feel for in metric units. Of course, in Canada we used the original "standard" system before we changed to metric, not the American version of it. A pint is 20 oz, not 16. Talk about confusing, two systems of measure with different definitions for the same units.
In any case, I'm amazed that anyone who's worked or studied in science and/or engineering can deny the elegance of the metric system. So many things fall together nicely without needing arbitrary constants. A litre of water weighs a kilogram, exactly (OK, close enough, anyway - there's been some technical redefinition of the units over the years). A force of a Newton will accelerate a mass of a kilogram at exactly 1 m/s^2. A degree celsius and a degree Kelvin are exactly the same, and the distance between the boiling and freezing points of water is an easy to remember 100 degrees. I could go on but any of you have have studied this stuff know what I'm talking about - the units were designed to easily derive from one another - Watts, Joules, Newtons, Kilograms, metres, seconds, it all ties together. And it's all in nice neat powers of 10, no 12 of this in that, and 16 of this in the other, and 5280 of this in that, and so on.
Yeah, the Imperial/standard system is great for nostalgia and trivia questions, but it is far from the simplest, most logical system of measurements. To me it is as silly as the U.K.'s old system of money with all it's ha-pennies, pennies, farthings, thrupence, shillings, florins, half-crowns and so on. Why didn't the US (or Canada, or much of anywhere else for that matter) adopt that confusing mess instead of the simple decimal currency systems we do have?
This site has a nifty little freeware program for all kinds of conversions. I have used it for years.
http://joshmadison.net/software/convert/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.