People in the U.S. have no idea what the sizes SI units are. I used to teach high school science, usually physical science. I did a lesson that pointed this out to the students. I had each kid write on a card the following:
How far from home I am in km and in miles
How tall I am in feet and in meters
How much I weigh in pounds and in kilos. (optional)
The answers were amusing. One kid would say he’s 3 miles from home but 3000 km from home, another would say she’s 125 lbs but 100 kg, and another kid would be 5’6" and 3 1/2 m tall.
Americans are afraid of the system because they don’t know the units. Or do they?
Every U.S. currency bill has a mass of 1 g.
People walk around all the time with 500 ml bottles of water. That’s a half a kilo of water (bottle mass not included), which is a bit more than a pound.
Speedometers all show 50 mi/h is 80 km/h which means one km is 'purt near 5/8ths of a mile.
Temperature? Get over it! Switch and learn what digits are comfortable! (16 C = 61 F can help)
Kids had no troubles using grams, meters, and centimeters in class. We also used newtons when we did the work sections. It’s just that the units aren’t reinforced in daily life. When 2 L soda bottles were introduced one sales gimmick was that they were selling 2 L for the price of 2 quarts. It worked. Maybe the food industry could sell half kilos for a pound price. It’s only a 1.8 ounce difference.
I think the main thing that makes it “unworkable” in the US is the uniquely dysfunctional nature of the federal government, which is the only entity empowered to implement it. Same reason universal health care appears to be “unworkable”, even though the rest of the industrialized world manages to have it working just fine.
Makes me wonder if it’s just a coincidence that Myanmar and Liberia – America’s last remaining partners in the rejection of the metric system – don’t have universal health care, either. But, to their credit, both countries have programs aggressively working towards that goal. I think Myanmar is targeting full national health care by 2030. The US is aggressively working to prevent any such thing from ever happening here. Bit of a digression, perhaps, but I think a large part of the failure of metrification in the US is cultural, including a culturally-driven intentional crippling of the federal government.
Unsure of the origin, but this one has been going round for decades.
The Farmer’s metric complaint.
It all started going wrong back in ’66 when they stopped pounds and brought in dollars.
Overnight my overdraft doubled.
Then the rest of the bloody metrics came in.
They brought in millimetres and we haven’t had a decent fall of rain since.
They brought in kilograms and my sheep haven’t been cutting as much wool.
They brought in Celsius and we’ve had some of the coldest winters in memory.
So I got jack of it all.
With daylight saving I reckon I was working 25 hours in the day so I tried to sell up.
But then I found we are using kilometres now and I’m too far out of town anyway.
Wow. OK you’re not a big fan of the USA. I don’t agree with your assertion that the Feds are the only entity empowered to implement it (metric system). Here in the US, the people have a say too.
I was about to turn 14 when Canada officially switched to metric. It was a bit odd for a bit, but everyone got used to it. And as a bonus, I was apparently exactly the right age, because I’m bimeasural (yes, I just made that up!) and can basically think in either.
My conclusion: countries should change back and forth ever few years, to keep people nimble.
The OP asked “How do you feel about converting to the metric system”. I ask why should we? I’m not talking about science or technology standard units, that’s already been done a long time ago. I’m talking about how cold is it, or it’s 10 miles away, so we’re out 10 min going around 60 mph.
Here in Australia, the people had a say too. Indeed still do.
We listened to the experts, took on their advise, elected our representatives and told them to get on with it.
Wrong. I’m a huge fan of the USA. Which one big reason that I’m a vocal critic of its worst shortcomings.
Whenever I see anyone make this sort of comical distinction between “the government” and “the people”, it’s usually an overture to a torrential downpour of libertarian hogwash. The government, at any level, ** IS ** the people. A properly constituted government is just the organized, institutionalized form of the will of the people, empowered to act in their collective best interests.
The adoption of national standards is possibly the most compelling example of the need for a federal government to regulate, educate, control, fund, and enforce the necessary initiatives to make it happen. Standards and their benefits are the exact opposite of a bunch of individuals all making their own decisions.
When talking about the metric system, folks always focus on the powers-of-ten thing, but that’s only like fourth on the list of the advantages of metric compared to “customary” units.
Third most important: It’s global. The significant majority of the planet uses metric. One nation bucking the trend just makes things harder for everyone.
Second most important: It’s what’s called a coherent system. If I take a mass times a distance squared divided by a time cubed, I get a power. If I take the metric unit of mass, multiply by the metric unit of length, squared, and divide by the metric unit of time, cubed, I get the metric unit of power. But if I take a slug times a foot squared divided by a second cubed, I don’t get a horsepower. All of the metric units fit together in this way, while almost none of the “customary” units do.
But most important of all, it’s a standard. If you say tell me something is a meter long, I know how long it is. If you tell me something has a mass of one kilogram, I know how massive it is. But if you tell me something is a mile, do you mean a statute mile, a survey mile, or a nautical mile? Is an ounce weight or volume? If weight, Avoidupois or Troy? If volume, Imperial or American? Imperial or American pints? Short or long tons? Is a pound a unit of force (corresponding to the slug for mass), or is it a unit of mass (corresponding to the poundal for force)? Or is it, God forbid, both of those at once? There used to be over a dozen different inches, for crying out loud.
You’re grossly misrepresenting the previous conversation. I cited cultural factors that were preventing the US from adopting the metric system. I drew parallels with those same cultural factors blocking the adoption of UHC, an area in which the US is also tragically unique and alone, yet it’s one where it could be a global leader if it chose to be. It’s not about the metric system per se, although that is in fact quite important for many reasons, but I was addressing the underlying cultural reasons that it’s been rather irrationally rejected while the rest of world has all standardized.
