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."
>>We have metric in Canada
If you head toward Canada you'll see signs with distances in both units: Montreal 100 mi./160 km
and of course once you cross the border, there are reminders
that speed limits are in metric (km per hr)
For a few years I remember TV and radio stations doing temps in both styles but after awhile, US stuck to just Imperial.
(And digital bank thermometers would give temps in both styles
but other than maybe up nr the Canadian border, that has
also stopped, from what I can see)
And yup, your US bought car does have the km per hour
in small print under the mph. (I don't have a digital readout on my speedometer but I assume they have a button you press which would give you km p.h. etc.)
One reason, America still leads aerospace. And there is a HELL of a lot of data in Imerialist Dog units. God Bless US!
Yes, but we're illiterate in two systems.
SD
Are you sure the Doctor didn't mean that he was half stoned? :-)
"There's something intuitive about measuring force as being analogous to mass (not so with Newtons and Kg)"
Intuitive maybe, but wrong. Force and mass are two entirely different things, as I'm sure you're aware. A unit like a lb(mass) or Kg(force) is an ambomination as far as I'm concerned.
Exactly. Halving and doubling are really possible and practical tasks. If I gave you a pile of flour or a container of water and asked you to divide it into 8, this would be a lot easier than dividing it into 10.
SD
Remember, football is a game of centimeters?
That is possible. It was the 60's.
But his handwriting is clear as day: "1/2 stone" under "weight."
I make my daughters mad by giving weight in stones.
(For those who do not not, a stone is 14 pounds.)
But highly useful abominations. Real life tends to intrude on the perfection of idealized systems. Nearly every item in the grocery store gives the weight in pounds and the mass in grams as equivalents.
SD
"Exactly. Halving and doubling are really possible and practical tasks. If I gave you a pile of flour or a container of water and asked you to divide it into 8, this would be a lot easier than dividing it into 10."
So why doesn't a foot have 16 inches, or a yard 4 feet? Ok, ok, I know that 12 is a good number because it can be divided evenly in so many ways. But that's the whole system - an inconsistent mish-mash of multiples that confuses the heck out of most people. Then again, most people probably can't understand the metric system, either. Let's face it, most people just aren't that bright ;)
I was in Saudi recently. We had some Norweigian engineers with us. Never been to the desert before and were worried about the temp.
We were talking about the weather --- going to be 110 (F, of course) outside.
They were in a complete state of panic until they figured out we were talking F. Then they still freaked because it was too hot for them.
in for a penny, in for a pound
And communists have sex, too.
That being said, even in the sciences, there are different units used in different disciplines. Metric, acually known as SI units (Systeme Internationale - yes, the metric system was officially named by the French) can be broken into the 'kilogram-meter-seconds' and the 'gram-centimeter-second' subdivisions, plus all the esoteric units derived from those two systems!
It is much easier to calculate using the metric system.
There were 12 Apostles. ;-)
SD
Exactly, both systems are intuitive to people who grew up with them. I'm a little in-between because it changed over when I was about 8 or 9. But I know without the need for any mental conversions that 30 is verging on uncomfortably warm and 35 is uncomfortable, and 40 is pretty much unbearable (for a northern boy like me, anwyay, LOL).
"With the exception of two or three liter soda bottles, I've done fine without it."
If you are an engineer like I am, the English system is impossible.
You're right, actually, I'm lucky to have a background in both systems. And when I studied engineering we were force to work problems in both system, sometimes even with mixed units.
The MKS system does result in some rather useless units - like the Pascal, for example. One Pascal is a ridiculously small unit of pressure, so that you end up having to use kiloPascals for just about everything in the real world. Of course you could say the same thing about the kilogram, which is so commonly used that it is considered a unit in its own right.
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