I agree, there are different approaches to the problem. When it comes to metrication should the laws and regulations lead the charge or lag them, perhaps it's time they lag.
Lead with the law change first then everyone screams, change the law to meet common practice after everyone has changed then who cares. For example we have not been successful allowing metric only labeling (although we are close). If bottlers started just labeling two liter bottles of soda 2 L would the government really fine the bottlers for not putting ounces on the package? It would only be enforced if the public became outraged at such a transgression but will that really happen? Thirty years ago it would be for sure, today likely not. I think government regulators have more important things to do than fine bottlers for not proper labeling soda bottles. Especially if we start with the smaller labels no frills and craft sodas. We just needs one brave company to say this is stupid let's take of the ounces and see what happens. Eventually even Coke and Pepsi would follow. As more non-conforming products come onto our shelves the existing law will be changed to match common practice. Who would have ever thought 10-15 years ago that marijuana would be legal in several states but it became legal and there were no mass protests in the streets. It came after use of the drug became so common place in those states that it was just no big deal and the law was changed to meet actual demand. Same thing with anti smoking laws, as the public became more aware and more accepting of the fact that cigarettes are bad for you then passing anti smoking laws was relatively easy. Note: These are used as examples and meant to express an opinion on the topic of the example. Howard R. Ressel Project Design Engineer -----Original Message----- From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of c...@traditio.com Sent: Monday, August 17, 2015 2:58 PM To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:54816] U.S. Is Metricating Faster than We Think I was reminded today that sometimes we metricators lose sight of the forest for the trees. We're always talking so much about how the U.S. is not completely metricated that we overlook the increasing number of areas in which it is becoming metricated. Some of you may have heard on the national news this morning of a moderate earthquake that we had in Oakland, California. I happened to be watching Oakland's local TV news station at the time. The experienced traffic reporter, who has been with the channel for many years, must have immediately gone onto the U.S. Geological Service site to get the information, which is available these days in just a couple of minutes. The USGS site is metric, with no conversions and no apologies. The traffic reporter stated that the epicenter of the earthquake was 1 kilometer from Piedmont, California. He did no conversion. Later, the anchormen announced that the earthquake was 1 kilometer, "or a little less than a mile," from Piedmont. Later broadcasts used the mile figure. I follow golf a little on television. I have noticed that the European tournaments, where the distance of the holes is signed in meters, are described by American commentators in meters. Occasionally, they will give a quick conversion to feet (probably with those new distance-meters that golfers use), but most of the time they stick just to meters. I haven't once heard an objection. I think that we can learn some things from these incidents. 1) Americans may be more familiar with the metric system than we give them credit for, so more of them feel comfortable using kilometers. 2) People are intrinsically lazy, so they will grab information in whatever form it comes. If it is in metric, so be it. 3) Because of the international nature of news these days, with cable channels coming into the United States from Canada, France, Russia, and the Middle East, and more people getting their news off of the internet than from U.S. TV stations, people are hearing metric units more and more as a matter of course. I haven't once heard an objection. 4) News wire services (AP, AFP, Reuters) are international in scope. It is easier for them to use metric for a worldwide audience. Sometimes they put U.S. Obsolescent Units in parentheses afterward, but less and less as time goes on. Remember when incandescent light-bulbs were replaced by compact fluorescents? There was a major conversion when this happened from watts to lumens. (Actually, watts are a metric unit too, but CFLs uses less wattage for the same luminence.) This was a much more radical change than miles to kilometers. I doubt that very few but scientists and us metricators even knew what a lumen was! Yet, I heard no outcry. There were some conversion charts and labels that indicated the equivalent wattage for legacy bulbs, but eventually these will go away, and the proper unit for luminence, the lumen, will be the only unit used. Today I noticed in the grocery store a Coke in the old-style glass Coke bottle. It came from Mexico (when Cokes come from Mexico, you know that the U.S. economy is in trouble!) As I happened to look at the nutrition label, I noticed that the bottle was marked "355 ml." I guess that was supposed to be 12 U.S. fluid ounces, but I looked all over the bottle, and I could find no ounce equivalent given. Will it be long before these bottles are 350 ml, or even 375 ml, to equate to a standard size of wine bottle? What is the moral of the story for us at USMA? I'm not completely sure at the moment. Don, Paul, and the rest will have more insight, but what I do know is that we need to rethink our approach, just as Don and Paul are doing now. The old saw about the U.S. being the only non-metric country except for two tiny Asian states is the wrong message, and -- worse -- it is false. We are metricating, faster than ever before, but the impetus is not coming from government, for the most part. There is an advantage in this. When the government does things, all the ignorants rev up the anti-metric political nonsense. When private industry and media do it, there is essentially no resistence. It just happens. In this context, I am very happy to see the U.S. Metric Association's new motto: "Advocating the Completion of U.S. Conversion to the Metric System." That nails it! Martin Morrison Metric Training and Education Columnist Metric Today
