Why is it that the USA is the last nation on Earth to change to the metric system? It can't be because the people of the USA are not capable of making this change, as the people of the USA have demonstrated at least their equality, and often their outright leadership in so many areas of human endeavour. It's hard to believe that they are not capable of catching up with the rest of the metricated world.
Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia
I believe that it is the hubris of great powers that makes them slow to convert to metric. France did not complete its conversion until 1840. Germany converted in 1865. The Soviet Union in 1918. The United Kingdom started in 1965 and still has resisters. Japan started in 1923 and completed the job in about 1965. The United States legalized the use of metric in 1866 and in 1971 the Bureau of Standards proclaimed "A metric America - A decision whose time has come". In 1948 I heard Percy Good, the head of the British Standards Institution, boasting that the metric system had failed.
In contrast, the Netherlands went metric in 1816, Spain in 1849, Mexico and Venezuela in 1857, to quote a few examples.
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Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 Telephone 416-486-6071
