Dear Predrag,
One of my favorite demonstrations to show the difference between SI and old
measures is to divide my audience into two halves and give one of two items
to the people on each side of the room.
On one side of the room, I give everyone my business card with this printed
on the back:
1000 1000
mm m km
g kg t
mL L m3
10�000
m2 ha
Note: I use a superscript 2 or 3
On the other side of the room, I hand out a photocopy of the back cover of a
primary school exercise book from the 1960s. This contains some of the
measuring units in use at that time -- it is very full of mathematical
sentences such as:
12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
5 1/2 yards = 1 rod, pole or perch
22 yards = 1 chain
80 chains = 1 mile
16 ounces = 1 pound (lb.)
28 pounds = 1 quarter (qtr,)
4 quarters = 1 hundredweight (cwt.)
and so on for other length, mass, volume, density (1 bushel of oats = 40
pounds), and many others -- the page is printed in small letters and it is
crammed full of stuff.
I explain to everyone that, as a group, we are divided into two halves. On
one side of the room we have enough units to build a house, and on the other
side there wasn't enough room to include most of the units needed to build a
house; for example, the fractions 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 1/16 etc., etc., wouldn't
fit on the page after only some of the old units had been included.
I then inform both groups that we will now have a test of our measuring
knowledge.
I ask the SI group:
How many millimetres in a metre A: 1000
How many grams in a kilogram A: 1000
How many kilograms in a tonne A: 1000
How many millilitres in a litre A: 1000
How many metres in a kilometre A: 1000
How many litres in a cubic metre A: 1000
Even older groups who have not developed facility with SI units soon grasp
the rhythm of these answers.
Then turning to the other half of the room, I ask:
How many feet in a furlong A: 660
How many inches in a rod, pole, or perch A: 198
How many rods in a mile A: 320
How many ounces in a long ton A: 35840
How many pounds in a hundredweight A: 112
How many ounces in a quart A: 40 (imperial)
It's a very dramatic demonstration even for people who have never even seen
the metric system before.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin LCAMS
Geelong, Australia
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication
matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words
subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
on 8/3/04 10:37 AM, Predrag Lezaic at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Just last year at the Chemistry class that I took at the community
> college here in Minnesota teacher used only metric units. He is a strong
> proponent of metric and when he started the class he used me for helping
> explain students why metric is better. That was because he knew I was
> Croatian and I grew up with only knowing metric. He did the standard
> "How many yards in a mile?" for Americans and then "how many meters in a
> kilometer?" question to me. Needless to say, I was much quickeer with
> the answers than the other students.
>
> Predrag
>
> Pat Naughtin wrote:
>
>> Dear Gavin,
>>
>> My experience sounds similar to yours, but some 25 years earlier.
>>
>> My Chemistry and Physics teachers tried to teach us in metric units
>> (generally cgs in chemistry and mksA in physics, but also some of the, then
>> very new, SI), but they also reckoned that we would probably end up in a
>> mixed unit environment, so they also taught us about what they called 'old'
>> units.
>>
>> The Physics teacher went to considerable trouble over this even-handedness
>> between old and new. He even taught us the difference between the two fps's
>> (foot pound second and foot poundal second) and the fss (foot slug second)
>> systems, in case we turned out to be engineers.
>>
>> With the wisdom of hindsight, I regret that my teachers did not make a
>> decision to adopt SI, as soon as they could, and not trouble us with the
>> knowledge of the old ways. I think that we all would have benefited from a
>> teaching technique that involved us all in a total immersion in SI.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Pat Naughtin LCAMS
>> Geelong, Australia
>>
>> Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication
>> matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words
>> subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> --
>>
>> on 8/3/04 7:30 AM, Gavin Young at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>> My Benson Polytechnic High School and Portland State University physics and
>>> chemistry classes only used SI in the textbooks and lab experiments. I
>>> graduated from college in 1987. However my high school also had non-SI
>>> versions
>>> of their science courses for those who did not plan on college. The science
>>> classes I took in college were designed for engineering majors.
>>>
>>> Quoting Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Dear Stan,
>>>>
>>>> For many years language teachers have championed a technique of language
>>>> training called 'total immersion'. With this technique, students are placed
>>>> in an environment where all communication is done in the language being
>>>> taught -- there is no translation or training in how to translate between
>>>> your native language and the new language. Linguists have reported very
>>>> high
>>>> success rates by using this method.
>>>>
>>>> Famously, the Spanish Department at La Trobe University in Melbourne used
>>>> this technique. From the moment that students enrolled in Spanish, they
>>>> were
>>>> confronted by this immersion technique. The Department's receptionist spoke
>>>> only Spanish; enrolment forms were written only in Spanish, and the staff
>>>> did not speak any other language to students.
>>>>
>>>> I wonder how effective a similar metric science education program would be
>>>> using similar methods.
>>>>
>>>> Your science classrooms and laboratories would only have metric rulers (in
>>>> metres and millimetres -- with no double sided scales); all masses would be
>>>> metric only, in grams and kilograms; all measuring cylinders would be in
>>>> litres and millilitres; and all thermometers would be Celsius only.
>>>>
>>>> All lessons, experiments, and calculations would involve SI units only;
>>>> there would be no calculations involving old imperial or old USA units, nor
>>>> would there would be any calculations involving old metric units. In
>>>> particular, there would never be any requirement to convert any units from
>>>> old to new -- students could develop their new SI metric mindsets from
>>>> direct experience.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Pat Naughtin LCAMS
>>>> Geelong, Australia
>>>>
>>>> Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication
>>>> matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words
>>>> subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> on 29/2/04 1:27 PM, G. Stanley Doore at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Effective metrication must begin in schools.
>>>>>
>>>>> Rather than teach metrication for general purpose use, the SI must be
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> taught
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> and used exclusively in science classes and courses since science uses
>>>>> metric virtually exclusively. In this way, students will relate to
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> science
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> much easier than trying to force them to use the SI outside of science or
>>>>> using English units in science. In this way, students will be prepared
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> for
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> conversion outside of science without creating disturbances by the adult
>>>>> population. In fact, students could be a catalyst for educating the
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> public
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> about the SI and its ease of use and its coherency.
>>>>>
>>>>> As for volume vs. mass, liquids could be measured by volume while solids
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> by
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> mass. Ingredients should be given in mass of each element per kilogram
>>>>> and/or for the total volume a container's contents. That way you can
>>>>> compare the density of the fluid with water which is virtually 1 kg/L.
>>>>>
>>>>> Stan Doore
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> Gavin Young
>>> http://www.xprt.net/~hightech , http://www.renewableelectricity.com,
>>> http://www.electric-automobile.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
