Thanks Pat for your list of metric examples used in the US.
You are quite right that elected officials are holding the recognition of
the SI back and making it difficult, expensive and confusing to operate while
industry and others move ahead.
Regards, Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 5:01 PM
Subject: [USMA:42408] A thin veneer of dishonesty
On 2009/01/23, at 7:55 AM, STANLEY DOORE wrote:
During the 1970s, the NOAA National Weather Service planned to make
conversion to the SI and to begin purchasing observation sensors and readouts
in metric. So the NWS is ready to convert to metric in the public arena when
The Congress and the President desire.
Weather forecasts have been computed in metric since the late 1950s so
changes in output need to be made for presentation to the public. Aviation
uses metric in international aviation now. Going metric in weather, including
satellite images, would simplify and streamline the whole operation. The
weather information system is ready to go metric.
Stan Doore
Dear Stan,
The more I look at metrication in the USA the more I see that the USA is now
so substantially metric that all that remains is to remove the thin veneer of
dishonesty. Let me give some example. I will start with yours.
1 The NOAA National Weather Service now collects, records, and calculates
using SI metric units, then reports to the public in old pre-metric measures.
2 Nasa designs builds and flies spacecraft using metric units for measurement
and then reports their successes or failures in old pre-metric measures for the
public.
3 All cars, trucks, tractors, and motor bikes are designed and constructed
using all metric units then the tyre pressure, the speedometer, and the
odometer are then dumbed down to psi, mph, and ml.
4 Computers have their circuits, cases, and screens designed and made using
nanometres, micrometres, and millimetres and then they are not only sold as the
17" model but software default settings are provided in inches that are
subdivided in halves, quarters, and eighths of inches.
5 International trade is carried out using the International System of Units
(SI) because that is the only way to deal with all other nations. Then the
market figures are dumbed down for the citizens of the USA to old measures such
as barrels with variable capacity and constructions such as MMBThUpmon (million
million British Thermal Units per month).
6 Much military training in the USA is designed and presented using metric
units because military hardware is increasingly all metric and military
personnel serve in nations outside the USA that have already upgraded to the
metric system many years ago.
7 All medical services are soundly based on body measurements and test
results that use the metric system. The dishonest people actively seek to
change the mass of babies from grams to pounds, ounces, and fractions of
ounces, and to change millilitres of treatment into teaspoons and dessertspoons.
8 Last, but not least, almost all length measuring is done using the metric
inch (of exactly 25.4 millimetres), the metric foot (of exactly 304.8
millimetres) and the metric mile (of exactly 1609.344 metres). Meanwhile,
almost all mass measurements are carried out using the metric pound (of exactly
453.5924 grams).
Basically the USA is — right now — almost all metric but some citizens choose
to hide this fact from themselves using techniques that are basically
dishonest. The sad part of this thin veneer of dishonesty is the cost to all
citizens in the USA, see the article, Costs of non-metrication in the USA at
http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
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 for more metrication information, contact Pat
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