No US State could claim to be officially all metric; none are significantly so.
If you wish to go by governments, I think three or five conditions or states must be represented. The middle is "muddled" or "completely confused" and this summarizes the US and the UK. The end points are completely metric and completely Imperial or Customary. Certainly on the metric side, an intermediate state is required for nations which are going metric and have a time-bounded plan, but aren't there yet. I don't think such a state exists on the Imperial/Customary side -- perhaps it could be used for nations thinking about going metric but have taken NO steps yet (US prior to 1866). If you look at individuals in the US, they may be substantially metric in their work life, but they will be at best dual in their personal lives. It is simply too hard to be completely metric in your personal life. Many "consumables" require dual labelling and you can look at whichever units you wish. However, random weight packages, whether meat, deli, or produce, only require Customary (optional metric weight is permitted but insufficient, it is RARELY used). The same is true for bottled beer, while wine and spirits must be metric. A few goods are exempted from the Customary labelling and metric suffices; this would be near-universal if permissive-metric-only passes. The UPLR allows (in 48 of 50 States) the Customary to be dropped on State regulated net contents, but I have not seen ANY use (there may be isolated exceptions). Highway labelling is almost universally in miles. Metric is permitted by the MUTCD, but many States have said "no thanks;" others have used it only in a handful of demo projects. I doubt any State has more than 1% of its highways marked in metric, many have zero. In new vehicles, speedo/odo must be miles by law; I'm not sure it is illegal for the owner to change it out. Gasoline is universally sold in (US) gallons although liters were legalized in the 70's, and I believe are still legal in most States. Based on their work, some percentage of the population is comfortable with metric and would have no learning curve and raise no objection if the US went "hard metric." That might be 20-40%, estimates vary widely. Others would at least have a learning curve and may object to various degrees. I would argue that step 3 is the worst place in the process to get stuck. Although details differ slightly for the US and UK, I would argue thats where both are stuck. The UK has more actual use of metric but absurd cases where it is actually illegal. For the US, there is less actual use, but at least it is legal. Neither of us have a government with a will to finish the job and be done with the muddle. Pat will blame it all on centimetres, but I blame it on the lack of a time-bounded plan, and lack of politicians with courage. Don't muddle in the middle. ________________________________ From: Stephen Humphreys <barkatf...@hotmail.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 10:14:58 AM Subject: [USMA:46377] Re: Some recent figurers I think it's wrong to use people as the basis for the figures because it assumes that all US citizens never use metric and all UK subjects never use imperial! It should be based on governments - I think - where the state might have an official position on 'being all metric'. Am I correct in saying that the US is 'officially' metric on this basis? ________________________________ CC: usma@colostate.edu; secret...@metric.org.uk From: pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com To: usma@colostate.edu Subject: [USMA:46372] Re: Some recent figurers Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 18:22:17 +1100 On 2010/01/06, at 06:12 , lorelle...@aol.com wrote: > >For years we have been using the figure 95.4% based on a population of 5,719 >billion. Numbers change over time and you may have the up to date figures. >> >>Not to cast any doubt on your figures but I wonder how accurate population >>numbers can be in unsettled places like Burma and Liberia. A few years ago I >>was looking up something about Myanmar. I discovered there were two Web >>sites --one for Burma and one for Myanmar, both claiming to be the official >>site. Dear Lorelle, At your instigation I have rechecked my figures. You are right my initial figures were a little shonky (see below). Here is my latest effort: World population 6 830 586 985 (Estimate 2010 January 7 by U.S. Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html ) USA population 315 534 716 (U.S. Census at www.census.gov ) Burma population 50 000 000 (Estimate based on data from U.S. Department of State at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35910.htm ) Liberia population 3 441 790 (2009 July estimate from CIA World Fact Book at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2119.html?countryName=&countryCode=®ionCode=ž ) Non-metric nations Burma 50 000 000 Liberia 3 441 790 USA 315 534 716 Total 368 976 506 Calculation 368 976 506 ÷ 6,830,586,985 x 100 = 5.4 % Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe. In a message dated 1/5/2010 4:17:46 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com writes: >Dear All, >> >> >>I have just calculated as follows: >> >> >>World population 8 850 000 000 >>USA population 304 000 000 >>Burma population 50 000 000 >>Liberia population 4 000 000Total (Burma, Liberia, and the USA) 358 000 000 >>or 4 % >> >> >> >>96 % of the world population predominately use the metric system. ________________________________ Use Hotmail to send and receive mail from your different email accounts. Find out how.
