Here's a tidbit you might throw out to your fellow students. The
Mountain View is the paper of record for Van Buren County, TN (county
seat is Spencer). The county population is about 5500 and the population
of Spencer is about 1700. The newspaper publishes once a week and it
includes a column, "Measuring Up", which has run now for several months.
Disclosure: I'm the author of the column.
The column features the metric system itself, along with its history in
the United States and elsewhere. So far the column seems to be enjoying
some popularity. To me that would indicate that American interest in the
metric system at the grass-roots level is not dead.
The fact that it is indeed used extensively in the U.S. has been well
documented on this list and in Metric Today. In the county next door
(Warren), I buy my Ol' Roy dog food in either the 10 kg or 20 kg bag
size. My medicines and electricity dealings are of course all metric and
I see many things in Kroger's and in Wal-Mart that are in "round" metric
sizes. Of course, as required, products are dual-labeled.
You might also mention that nearly all states now permit metric-only
labeling and we expect to see more packaging using this everyday.
Jim
Mike Millet wrote:
Paul,
From what I gathered, referring to it as "Foreign" in the sense of "not
American" was only done by a couple students. And I have the feeling
that the rationale of the metric system being seen as foreign was
imposed from the top down by those people's own parents :).
The rest of the students who thought of it as foreign I think were
thinking more along the lines of "weird" or "different". Although the
students who asked the questions about what a kilometer was all seemed
to be confused as to why they had to learn a measurement system that the
US (at least to their eyes) doesn't use.
A few of the older, more experienced people in the classroom used the "I
remember when they tried that back in the 1970's and it never took hold"
story as the basis for their reasoning of why it never would. In talking
to them afterwards, they saw that effort in the 70's as the last ditch
movement of the world pulling the US in the direction of the metric
system, and saw the fact that it fizzled as evidence that the US would
remain on the US Customary standard forever.
As someone in the class later put it: "They only had one chance to try
and change our way of thinking on the way we measure, and they blew it.
Now we've had such a long run of inches and feet that to convert back
would be unthinkable. Back then we were open at least a tiny bit to the
possibility, but now we're comfortable with what we have and there's no
need for change".
I'm still very impressed with the civilized nature of the discussion so
far. We haven't had any outright hostility and it's been very
interesting to see people's reaction to it across different age groups
and professions, whether they're the young college student like me or
the forty something with two kids in high school who does carpentry for
a living.
Mike
On Jan 17, 2008 9:59 AM, Paul Trusten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote:
Foreign??
Sitting here thinking, I find it interesting that nationality rears its
head in a physics classroom. Did someone in the class actually say
"foreign," in the sense of "European" or "Asian?" If so, their
prejudice wasn't based only upon the unfamiliar, but also upon some
lurking notion of nationality in the metric system. Mike, to what
extent
was that the case?
Paul
Michael Palumbo wrote:
> Did you politely explain to them that we do use the metric system
on a
> daily basis? Or do they all live in shacks in the woods with no
> electricity? ;)
>
> It always makes me laugh at how many Americans shy away from anything
> considered "foreign", as though we're not all foreigners in some way.
> I think the latest statistic I read was that only 19% of Americans
> even had passports, and of that group, only a small percentage had
> ever used them to go overseas.
>
> -Mike
>
> Mike Millet wrote:
>
>> Paul,
>>
>> Yes this is a college level course. I'd say about half of the class
>> out of probably 60 students raised their hand when he asked how many
>> had never heard of or used the terminology of the metric system.
>>
>> Some of them vaguely remembered something from grade school,
although
>> a couple who had even done track where all distances are in meters
>> said that their coaches had them run the distances in feet and
>> competitions were called in feet despite it being a 100m dash or
>> whatever.
>>
>> I'm still not quite sure how they avoided hearing about it all these
>> years. Either they never watched any Olympic sport or never took a
>> science course.
>>
>> There wasn't any active hostility in the class to the policy which I
>> take as a good sign, although several students did mention
afterwards
>> that they didn't get why they had to learn a foreign system that
they
>> would never have to use on a daily basis.
>>
>>
>> Mike
>>
>
>
>
>
--
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Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
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