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US metrication should be:
2. Educational. Actually closely
related to point one. That 20 kg cake would be the beginning of education in SI,
which should extend to
every American. Institutions of learning must
banish all but SI from their works, and start treating WOMBAT as a second-class
set of units, a fading legacy. Usage, not conversion, must be emphasized.
The old Metric Information Office chart, detailing the inanimate-object
perceptions of the familiar units (what the length of a meter is like; what the
weight of a gram is like, i.e., a paper clip; the liter we know well now!!),
should be ubiquitous, like those signs seen at checkouts detailing the
security features of the new US paper currency. But certainly, there
must be a place in our SI education for dis-disinformation. Often, metric
opponents attack SI by claiming that the metric student must "memorize
dozens of new units" just because of the number of Greek and Latin prefixes
denoting multiples and fractions of the units in question, when in
fact this knowledge is gained logically, not by rote. If anything, US
metric education should include a thorough demonstration of why our
present units are a way of measuring badly (it was demonstrated to me in very
dramatic fashion back during my pharmacy studies, when I had to solve
problems using apothecary units, then solve similar problems using SI. Gag me
with a spoon---why can't everybody use SI to
measure everything? I screamed.)
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 USA 432-694-6208 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "There are two cardinal sins, from
which all the others spring: impatience and laziness." ---Franz Kafka |
