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Not that metric is a continental system, it is the system that most of
the world uses and the official measurement system for all forms of
science. Many reactionary British commentators try to make the link
between meddling Brussels bureaucrats and metric, this is a bogus argument
and a distraction from the real issue, metric is a worldwide phenomenon.
Like so much of the agenda of the reactionary right wing, populist
rabble-rousing hides other darker motivations.
Viva Metric
I am 40. I have never been taught Imperial measures in school and yet I
am surrounded by people who talk about inches, pints, miles and ounces. I
find it to be quite obscene that I have to learn this system that was
declared moribund before I could walk.
Why did they listen to the stick-in-the-muds? It didn't happen with
decimal currency because it couldn't. Talk to a twenty year old about
shillings and he will think you are talking about Austria, before the
Euro. This is how it should be. The past is a different country, we have
moved on. But why did we allow the conservative old fogeys to keep on
talking about their miles, pints, ounces, stones, feet and Fahrenheit? We
could have buried them in the 1970s when we left the shillings and 240
pence in the pound nonsense.
Tens, hundreds and thousands. So easy to calculate. So much easier than
twelve pennies in a shilling, twenty shillings in a pound, sixteen ounces
in a pound, fourteen pounds in a stone. Not to mention gills, chains,
rods, poles, fathoms, bushels and all the rest of the firkin lot.
A cube ten centimetres by ten centimetres by ten centimetres defines a
volume of one litre, if you fill it with water it has a mass of one
kilogram. If you raise the temperature to 100 degrees the water boils.
Cool it to zero degrees and it freezes. That is simple, elegant and
beautiful.
That is far too simple for the British though. We buy petrol by the
litre and compare our cars by how many miles they do to the gallon. (Which
is not the same as the US gallon.) We ask for our milk by the pint and get
charged for 536 millilitres. In summer the weatherman tells us it might
hit 80 degrees today (Fahrenheit) and in winter he talks only about
temperatures getting down to zero degrees (Celsius). We buy fridges that
are 23 5/8 inches wide (600mm) and measure them by how many cubic feet
they hold. � Don't talk to me about them centiwhatsit things laddie I
think in inches.� Yes, and you are forcing me to think in them too,
(you bastard) despite the fact they were scheduled for replacement four
years before I entered school.
Imperial measurements worked. They were easy to imagine but difficult
to multiply. Metric is a better system. The end of my thumb is not an inch
long, it is more; 35 millimetres long. I can measure either a metre or a
yard just as easily between my nose and my finger tips just by relaxing or
straightening. My large feet are under a foot long, only 270 mm. My manly
stride rarely touches either a yard or a metre. Those natural
measurement yarns are old wives tales, none the more accurate for
constant repetition.
Either system works, a cobbled together mixture of both is a shambles.
It is time we buried the imperial system. The only way do do it is to be
draconian about it. Do not allow people to ask for, demand or talk about
imperial measures. If you let imperial survive it will never die. Slimming
magazines will always talk about calories and pounds. Motoring journalists
will continue to talk about miles to the gallon when it is impossible to
buy a gallon except by converting the litre equivalent. Fine weathermen
who mention Fahrenheit. Prohibit shops from converting the old units or
displaying any information about them. �Madam, if you want some bacon you
ask for it in grams or you have to kill the pig yourself.� If you don't
draw the line like that the old fogeys will force it down our necks for
ever more. Why must my children, and probably theirs as well, have to
learn about pounds and inches just because some older people will not make
a little effort?
Make that mental shift in everybody's mind in one short period and then
that is an end to it. It happened with shillings because there was no real
choice, and who feels damaged by decimalization today? Only the kind of
grouchy conservatives who have only just got over the withdrawal of the
groat.
Metric Link
http://www.metric.org.uk/
http://metric1.org/
Metric Joke:
What is the official metric unit for beauty?
The Milli Helen, defined as the unit of female facial beauty required
to launch one ship.
http://www.mwillettorg/Politics/metric1.htm | 