Dear Mr. Scott, This morning, while speaking on the air with astronomer-photographer Marco Fulle about his photographs of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, you mentioned a distance of "a hundred meters" to him without referring to traditional measurement units. I want to thank you for using the metric system as the sole frame of reference for your viewers. Although it is not yet the everyday measurement system for the people here in the U.S., the metric system is the legally preferred system of measurement for U.S. trade and commerce (Metric Conversion Act of 1975 as amended 1988).
Part of the reason for the postponement of U.S. changeover to metric is that the U.S. media have hidden, or "dumbed down," the use of metric units by converting them to traditional measurements for broadcast. I hope you will continue to use metric units exclusively in your broadcasts, but I also hope that you were not simply using metric units this morning because you were "speaking to a scientist." The metric system is the ordinary system of measurement for nearly every nation except the U.S., and the sooner we apply it to our daily lives, the sooner we will be ready to compete in all ways on a planet which uses only the metric system. Sincerely, Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org trus...@grandecom.net
