Do most Americans really find the metric system easier to use than the customary system?
Perhaps not! For those of us who support U.S. metrication,the ease-of-use advantage of metric has been dogma, but I find myself doubting whether or not the U.S. public finds it to be so. The public may perceive the customary system to be easier to use than the metric system because of: 1) Familiarity with the customary system. However awkward the mathematical relationships might be among inches, feet, and miles, or ounces, fluid ounces, quarts, and gallons, and no matter how much we like to say that many Americans do not know many of the details (the number of feet in a mile or the difference between wet and dry measure), a large number of the American people seem to believe that the system is familiar to them. They will even preface the phrase "American units" with the phrase, "good,old." Familiarity breeds consent. 2) Lack of knowledge of the metric system. Too often, the phrase "metric system" appears in U.S. articles and in American discourse as an object of immediate resentment and derision. It is attacked before it even gets discussed. It is like the habit of refusing to eat a food one has never even tried. It's a case of contempt prior to investigation. USMA has urged U.S. schools to teach only the metric system, but the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has not yet agreed to this. Word is not really out about metric. 3) Monosyllabic names for many customary units. Our opponents sometimes raise this as an advantage of the old system over the metric system. I think we should pay attention to this opinion. Inch, foot, yard, rod, mile. Ounce, pint, quart. Two exceptions might be bushel and gallon. Compare this to "millimeter," "centimeter," or "kilogram." Of course, metric is far more logical and coherent, but--and I hate to admit this---logic and coherency may just not be at the top of the American shopping list for measurement needs. These obstacles to public acceptance of metrication can be overcome. Universal metric education, driven by political,academic, and industry leadership in the U.S., is the best solution. Once metric education becomes a fact of American life, the barriers to the acceptance of metric will come down. But, I think we need to recognize the obstacles. Doing so will ease our current impatience with the lack of progress. Paul Trusten, R. Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
