[USMA:36549] Re: the preferred system

[Phil Chernack]

Why do people keep insisting that Americans don’t understand or know metric measures.  If prodded, most Americans will admit they know how long a meter is, how much a liter is and even how much a gram “weighs”.  I would hazard to guess that most Americans know meters and millimeters more so than other lengths.  Liters are a no-brainer.  Unless you have been living in a mine shaft for the past 35 years, you know how much a liter is.  The areas that need the most help are long distance (km), mass (kg) and temperature (C).  If somehow we got these units into more and more daily conversation or had an application (such as soda bottles for liters and pharmaceuticals or nutrition for grams) to use them, they would get ingrained into the colloquial usage.   The flip side is that most Americans don’t really understand customary measures as well as they think.  Ask most how many pints are in a quart or quarts in a gallon and you will probably get a variety of answers.  It gets even more complicated when you add fluid oz to the equation.  One area Americans probably are better-versed is length.  Most know that 12 inches are a foot and 3 feet are in a yard.  What people have the problem with is converting on the fly.   Phil   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 7:13 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:36547] Re: the preferred system   Hi there phma and group: This post does bring up a good question about where to draw the line of metric measures. It would seem to me like there is a great big gap about what could be and what really is measured with metric means.  Come one come all does not apply in metric maters and that is sad. The doors of ignorance will always be open until metric rules any and all of the  increments in our lives.  I know that I am opening myself up for some ridicule from this group by asking this but here it is: If the metric system is all of that as many people would say it is then why is it not every where and about every thing?   I mean here it is  2006 and I am still using shoes that are a size ten and a half and i drive to the store looking at a speed ometer that would have me think "miles" per "hour" Gee the paints that i have on even look like flinstone sizes. Is the SI system even geting a fare shake in the US? Will the SI system ever be able to suport the ever growing need to mericate? Thanks for letting me vent some of this. I just might learn something from the replies to this.        Tim "Time to advance the mind" n a message dated 3/23/06 7:54:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Subj: [USMA:36359] the preferred system Date: 3/23/06 7:54:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: usma@colostate.edu Sent from the Internet The Metric Conversion Act calls the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures". Does that mean that if someone makes a thermostat, speedometer, or anything else that handles different measuring units, it must default to metric? My thermostat defaults to Fahrenheit; the thermometer I recently mentioned doesn't have a default but uses Celsius internally; and the bike computer I just bought defaults to miles but requires the wheel circumference in millimeters. phma