Dear Terri E Williams, The USA is the only nation in the world � to quote your letter � 'who do NOT use the metric system'.
However, all is not as simple as this statement seems. The entire foundation of the measuring system in the USA is based on metric measures. Let me explain: When you measure a line on your page, you do it with a ruler. The ruler was marked at the ruler factory to have accurate marks. In the USA, the factory checks its accuracy with NIST � the National Institute of Standards and Technology � and they have based their calibrations on metric measures since the Mendenhall Order of 1893. You can check out NIST at http://www.nist.gov/ There are a few nations who are so poor or who have ineffective governments that do not have measurement laws. Technically, you could say that these are people 'who do NOT use the metric system' but this is again misleading. These nations actually do use the metric system because all of their neighbours have metric laws and use the metric system, so they have little choice. Nations that are usually named in this category include Liberia, Libya, and Myanmar (formerly called Burma). To complicate the issue further nations like Australia are officially metric: the government requires all measurements to be done in metric; all building is done in metric; everybody buys all their groceries in metric; yet many home cooks still have their mother's and grandmother's recipes in pounds and ounces. To summarise: The USA is legally metric but practically it is not. Liberia, Libya, and Myanmar are not legally metric but practically they are. Australia is legally metric and it is practically metric in all of its internal and external commercial dealings � but it is not entirely metric � old things are still sometimes done in the old ways. Good luck with your project. Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia on 2002-08-26 00.37, Terri E Williams at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Trying to find information for a class project - need to know name of two > countries - not including the U.S. - who do NOT use the metric system. > Thanks to anyone who can help. > terri >
