I read a recent article about your pro-metric activities with some alarm (See: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/science/3861944.html ).
The article was passed on to me through the United States Metric Association listserv at: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/listserv.htm
It seems that so many people, especially journalists, simply misunderstand the progress that the metric system has already made in the USA.
I responded as best I could by sending the letter below to the help desk at Chron.com in the hope that it might reach Shelley K. Wong, the author of the article.
Cheers and best wishes,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation of Professional Speakers. He is also recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
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Dear Help Desk Manager,
I am writing to ask a favor.
Could you please pass on a copy of this email to Shelley K. Wong of The Associated press? Thank-you.
In an article, Connecticut Educator Hooked on Metrics, by SHELLEY K. WONG Associated Press Writer (May 13, 2006, 10:45PM) took a position that is somewhat ill-aligned with the truth.
About Brent Maynard, a chemistry professor at Three Rivers Community College and a supporter of the metric system, she wrote:
'But in a country that's hooked on pounds, gallons and miles, it is a lonely cause.'
After I visited the USA from March to May last year I wrote the article below. The truth is that the USA is already substantially metric. Thinking that you might be interested in an external perspective on this issue, let me (with tongue firmly in cheek) explain.
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Don't use metric!
Pat Naughtin,
Geelong, Australia
(2433 words)
Might I respectfully suggest that you don't have to use the metric system?
Sit in your lounge chair and look about you, or walk about your home, and
think of the things you own or use that are metric, and those that are not.
Then you might like to go shopping while you consider the same question.
Once you have decided what's metric and what's not, simply avoid all of
those products or services where metric measures are used.
Here are a few suggestions that you might find helpful.
1 Don't use any electrical appliances whatsoever. Electricity has always
used metric units. It's a no-no. For example, don't use an electronic radio
alarm to wake you in the morning as these use the metric units: amperes,
coulombs, farads, henrys, ohms, siemens, teslas, volts, webers, and watts
(at the very least). Choose one of those old wind-up clocks, making sure
that it doesn't have a second hand because seconds are metric units too. If
you have a gas stove don't light it – the chemistry of the gas is evaluated
using metric units (moles and joules) so you won't want to cook with gas.
2 When you get out of bed, it's OK to wear slippers because these still
use the good old-fashioned size numbers developed in the time of the Magna
Carta in 1215. As size numbers are based on the length of a barleycorn,
shoes are OK to wear too. As most of my shoes don't fit too well, I suppose
that barleycorns must vary quite a lot. The pain of your ill-fitting shoes
will constantly remind you that your shoes are not measured in millimetres –
at least you can feel good about that.
3 In the bathroom, avoid using mouthwashes, toothpaste, hair care
products, and skin care products in metric containers. Be careful, as the
toothpaste might say ozs, but these could be metric sizes such as 100 mL (3
17/32 fl oz(imp) or 3 3/8 floz. (US)). This trick is known as 'hidden
metric' and it happens when metric products are re-labelled using non-metric
units to give you an illusion of continuing contact with colonial times.
Remember, if you use these products, you are still supporting the metric
system.
4 Avoid breakfast cereals because of the metric nutrition information on
the side of the packet. Beware of eggs; the eggs probably had their
cholesterol levels measured in micrograms. And as for bacon it is probably
best to avoid it. Consider this conversation, overheard in a delicatessen,
where the bacon was packed in 250 g packs:
Old Fogey: Don't talk to me about them kilo-thing-amys things missy, I think
in pounds.
Modern Ms: I don't know anything about pounds. I went to school in the 1970s
so I'm not old enough to know what you're talking about.
Old Fogey: I want half a pound of bacon.
Modern Ms: I'm sorry Sir. This pig was killed and packed in metric, if you
want some bacon, either you ask for it in grams, or you will have to kill a
pig for yourself.
And your coffee from Brasil was packed using kilograms – so your cup of
coffee has to go too. This is a pity if you've just chopped the wood and lit
the fire (no gas or electricity remember) hoping for a caffeine fix.
5 After breakfast, dress carefully, avoiding clothing from any nation in
the world except the USA. All other nations design and manufacture clothing
using metric measures. Even with garments made in the USA be careful — wool,
cotton, nylon, and polyester fibres are all measured in micrometres.
6 When you go out, don't travel in any sort of motor vehicle unless it's
very old. Volkswagens, for example, have been metric since the 1930s. Now,
all cars in the world (including all those in the USA) have been fully
metric since the development of interchangeable parts for the 'world car
concept' in the early 1970s. Every modern family sedan has (about) 10 000
separate parts, each of which requires (say) 10 measurements. All cars have
been measured some 100 000 times – using metric measures – often to the
nearest tenth of a millimetre.
Let's suppose that the maker of a metric family sedan labels the odometer,
the speedometer, and the tyres in miles, miles per hour, and inches
respectively. These three labels (they're not measurements) out of 100 000
are sufficient to convince some car owners that they are driving an 'English
units' car in an 'English units' nation, and that all is right in this
'English units' world – but not you – you know about hidden metric. Don't be
fooled by this extreme example of hidden metric. Don't own, don't drive,
don't hire, and don't ride in any automobile, and it's best to be cautious
with trucks, buses, and tractors as well.
7 If you have a job to go to, it probably won't be in manufacturing
because around 40 % of manufacturing industry in the USA is already metric,
and most of the rest use imported components. The military is out too;
they've been using metric armaments for years. It's also unlikely that you
will work in importing or exporting. The rest of the world is already metric
and they are finding it increasingly difficult to trade with the USA. Since
every other nation in the world has already chosen to use metric, they say:
'Why should we bother to convert back to old measures, just so we can do
business with the USA, when all the other, 180 or so, nations have already
converted to metric?' 'You only need visit internet sites of mechanical
parts and machines tools in the USA to see the magnitude of their
measurement disaster.' So the USA imports more metric goods and services
than it can export using old-style measuring units.
8 At work you won't use computers (no electricity remember): and even
laptop computers use batteries measured with volts. Even if you could use
them, modern computers are all metric. Don't be fooled by things like the,
so-called, 3 1/2" floppy or 17 inch screens; these are simply more examples
of hidden metric. According to international standard (ISO/IEC 9529-1)
floppies are 90 mm x 94 mm x 3.3 mm, with a mass of 24 g, and the magnetic
media inside is 86 mm – not a 3 1/2 anywhere!
All other computer components come with metric specifications – all hidden
of course. In addition to the clock speed of the computer, in megahertz, and
the size of the memory, in megabytes and gigabytes, all the fasteners and
other parts of your computer, all the way down to the substrate to make the
computer chips is metric. The makers then give your screen a name in inches
(very approximately) and the software writers use default tabs and margins
in inches, and these are enough to delude almost everyone into thinking that
they are using old-style technology.
9 At lunch, don't eat anything that might be measured using calories,
Calories, kilocalories, or the correct unit kilojoules, as these are all
metric units. It's probably best to avoid dinner on the same grounds.
Clearly, now that you don't eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or (probably)
snack foods, your anti-metric program is going to do a lot of good for your
body mass index. You might not even need the job you haven't got any more.
10 By the way, it's OK to pay for lunch with a credit card. Credit cards
have been around long enough to have the old measurements of 3 3/8 inches by
2 1/8 in recognised by most 'hole-in-the-wall' money machines.
11 Back at work after lunch, you are probably restricted to working in
finance, journalism, or politics. These three are areas where the
participants are never quite sure about what's happening in their own
community, in their own nation, or in the rest of the world. As an example,
think of the USA financial world's change from 'pieces-of-eight' to decimal
currency in early 2001. The rest of the world began its inevitable
conversion to decimal currency when the USA changed in 1793 and the world
completed the change, approximately, in the 1960s. Most of the world's
citizens changed to decimal currency in about a month – it took the New York
Stock Exchange 208 years – and many (most) journalists and politicians are
still wondering how to react to the USA financiers' ill-considered haste.
When I think about it, your expertise and experience might be in one of
these three fields already. If you work in finance, journalism, or politics
make sure that you avoid things like 1 mm ballpoint pens or pencils with 0.5
mm leads.
12 At the end of the day, you had better not visit the gym. There they
are inclined to measure skin folds in millimetres and to calculate your body
mass index using your mass in kilograms and your height in metres. Don't
even watch sport on TV; all the athletes are running distances like 100 metres
or 400 metres or pole vaulting over 5 metres. Even the 10 yards used in American
football are all exactly 9.144 metres long.
13 After work, drinks are out. You need to steer away from all kinds of
soft drinks, soda pops, bottled waters, wines, and hard (spirituous) liquors
as these come in metric sizes. Even beer might be hidden metric as the
calculations used to make beer are so easy to do in metric, and so difficult
to do with old-fashioned units.
14 If you decide on a holiday, be careful if you are planning to use
aircraft or ships. Remember that navigation was all the rage from the 1760s
to the 1790s when the international metric system was first set up. So the
first metric developers based their ideas on the size of the world as a
support for navigators, and now the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) regulations are all metric and have to be dumbed down
for old-fashioned pilots. Both aircraft and ships use the satellite-based
global positioning system (GPS) to find out where they are around the Earth.
Unfortunately for your travel plans, the GPS is metric. Pilots, in both air
and water, have to go to a great deal of trouble to hide the metric measures
they use – even from themselves. They convert the GPS metric measures to
old-style units so they can misinform their passengers.
Personally, I worry about pilots fiddling with conversions on their
calculators when they should be flying their plane past a mountain that
might be either 29 012 somethings or 8 848 somethings (where's that
calculator?), but this won't worry you if you never use ships or planes
again. By the way, just a little south-east of this mountain, in Delhi, a
Russian plane (flying in metres) almost collided with a British plane
(flying in old measures); as I said, I worry.
15 If you do get away for your (walking) holiday, don't take a still
camera or video equipment as these, too, have been totally metric products
since the Kodak company, in the USA, made their decision to use B&W 8 mm
film for amateurs in 1910 and their 16 mm color movie film in 1929.
16 If you become ill, stay well away from doctors, hospitals, pharmacies
and any type of medicines, vitamins, and other supplements. Medicine is all
metric, and medications are often dosed in milligrams per kilogram of body mass.
17 At home, if you have to do any renovations, be watchful for hidden
metric measures. Consider this story: 'A few months ago, a friend of mine
(in the USA) went to buy some vinyl floor covering. He was shown some
imported material that was about 6 ft 6 3/4 in wide (My friend reckoned that
they were actually 2 metres wide, but the shop person didn't know that).
'As my friend needed a little under 2.5 metres he asked for 8 ft 2 1/2 in.
'When he asked the price, he found that the assistant had to work it out to
figure a price in square yards. Now let's see: 8' 2 1/2" x 6' 6 3/4" ÷ 9 = ?
'My friend says the assistant was there, battling with his calculator, for a
long, long, time!
'In the meantime, my friend multiplied 2 x 2.5 to get 5 square metres.
As I said, be watchful and avoid hidden metric – do the hard yards!
18 Of course television and video are out because they use megahertz,
another international unit (and you are avoiding electricity, remember). In
addition, 120 mm CDs and DVDs are out, and so are vinyl records, which have
been 250 millimetres or 300 millimetres since the 1930s.
19 And so to bed, after you measure it to make sure that it's not really
two metres long. Be cautious here, as the contraceptive pill has all of its
ingredients measured in micrograms and milligrams, and the quality of
condoms is assessed using ultra-sound waves measured in hertz, with the
thickness measured in micrometres.
20 Given the constraints mentioned in item 19, you will need to consider
where you will educate your children, as all schools, in all parts of the
world, teach SI, the International System of Units, which is also known as
the modern metric system.
It will be best if you don't measure anything at all. Keep in mind that all
the old inch-foot-pound measures are all hidden metric. The USA has defined
all of their measures in metric terms since the Mendenhall Order of 1893,
and the rest of the English-speaking world has used metric measures to
underpin their old units since an agreement made between them in 1959. This
means that inches are hidden metric; ounces are hidden metric; pounds are
hidden metric; and tons are hidden metric, too.
After all this, you might find it easier to recognise that we all live in a
metric world: not because someone arbitrarily decided it; not because it was
mandated by governments; but because, over the last two centuries, metric
measurements have proved simple in concept and easy to use. So far, this
simplicity and ease of use have convinced most individuals, groups,
companies, organisations, and all the nations of the world except the USA
that metric units are the way to go. Even in the USA, however, it seems that
some citizens have trouble recognising the progress that they have already
made toward metric and keep wanting to change things back – that's how the
Mars Climate Orbiter crashed at a cost of 125 M$ – but that's another story.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin ASM (NSAA), LCAMS (USMA)*
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://metricationmatters.com
2006-05-14
P.S. You might also be interested in an article on the 'Costs of not going metric' that you can find, as a pdf file, at http://www.metricationmatters.com/articles
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
* Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers', he is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation of professional Speakers, and a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
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