Thus said Doran Barton on Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:54:34 MDT: > I don't understand it. Most of the people I know who are not college > educated think the metric system is stupid and difficult to learn.
Most of the people I know who are college educated don't understand the metric system. Only chemists and physicists seem to have a firm grasp. But the majority of majors don't help a person know anything about the metric system. The problem is lack of use. Since nobody uses metrics, nobody understands it. Even though mathematically we may understand how superior it is, without the touch of experience to build upon, people resort to mathemtical calculations to figure out that 1kilo of wheat is 2.2lbs, etc... How did you learn the English measurement system? You used cookbooks, instructions, and other examples in real life to learn. Just like you learned English. Sure you studied it at school, but school didn't teach you how to speak, only how to write (and possibly speak) with correct grammar. The same is true of learning just about anything; experience counts for a lot of the assimilation of knowledge. > There are definite advantages to converting a society from english to > metric, but it WOULD be a revolutionary change in the U.S. would take > years or decades to implement. This is true. People are basically lazy and won't change unless forced too or unless given good enough reasons to do so. Its sad but true. This is also why the majority of people use Windows---habit is a strong force. > I would say, yeah, it's worth it, but there are a lot of (stupid, > uneducated?) people involved in public policy in this country who > won't see it the way I do. I'm not sure that public policy is really the way to make people learn metrics, but I for one wouldn't mind if the road signs changed from MPH to KPH. Try this for fun. Switch all your scales and digital tools in the home to the metric scale. See how long before your significant other barks at you about it. Andy -- GnuPG ID 0xA63888C9 (D2DA 68C9 BB2B 26B4 8204 2219 A43E F450 A638 88C9) [-----------[system uptime]--------------------------------------------] 5:42pm up 72 days, 2:20, 1 user, load average: 1.00, 1.00, 1.00 .-----------------------------------. | This has been a P.L.U.G. mailing. | | Don't Fear the Penguin. | | IRC: #utah at irc.freenode.net | `-----------------------------------'
