----- Original Message ----- From: "Han Maenen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2004-11-14 12:49 Subject: Metric system
> Dear Mr. Keane, > > I am a Dutch national, living in a metric using country, and I have read > your article against the metric system in the Boston Herald of 2004 August > 18. I have it here, remarks throughout, preceded by an *. > > Yours, > > H. Maenen, the Netherlands, proud user of the metric system and fiercely > opposed to American units > > In America, metric doesn't measure up > > The temperature outside is 20 degrees centigrade. ``Oh,'' I think, ``I > better put on a coat.'' > > * As I live in a metric coutry I do not need degrees Fahrenheit; to me 20 > degrees Celsius is a warm spring day and -5 degrees Celsius is a freezing > winter day. > > That's the problem with the metric system. None of it makes any sense. A > gallon of gas is a good amount, but sell it by the liter and I think I'm > shortchanged. Tell me my waist measures 90 centimeters and I'll go on a > diet. If my scale says I weigh 100 kilograms, I'm back to eating > whatever I want. I enjoy a cup of coffee in the United States, but what > do I drink out of in Europe? > > * The metric system ' doesn't make sense', because you do not know how the > metric system works and how it is used in metric countries. I can well do > without gallons, inches and pounds. To us American units don't make sense, > to us they are incomprehensible, difficult to learn and to use, irrational > and outdated, only good for the medieval museum. Coffee is also drunk from > cups in Europe, the cup just isn't a measuring unit there. Or do you think > that we pour the coffee into our 'cupped' hands and drink it thus? > > For almost 30 years, government officials, insisting it was good for us, > have been trying to shove the metric medicine down our throats. In all > that time, seemingly against all rationality, we've resisted, > obstinately refusing to do as we're told. > > And, I'm pleased to report, we're winning. > > The latest victory comes in Maine. For the last decade, the state has > mandated that transportation projects had to use metric: speed limits > posted in kilometers per hour, square kilometers when surveying land, > centimeters when specifying the dimensions of screws and bolts. > > And now it's retreating. > > Two years ago, Maine officials quietly decided to switch back to good > old English measurements; the move caught the public eye just this > summer. It turns out that, all the promises of the metric aficionados > notwithstanding, metric was confusing and expensive. > > True enough. Five years ago, NASA lost the $125 million Mars orbiter > because some poor souls used metric instead of English units. > > * Nasa used metric. If the other party, Lockheed Martin, had used metric as > well, there would have been no crash. > Of course, if both parties had used American units, there would not have > been a crash either. > It only proves that one system of units should be used in any project. > > Ever since Frenchman Gabriel Mouton invented it in 1670, busybodies have > been trying to push the ever-so-scientific metric system on everyone > else. They've had much success. Even the Brits caved in 1965. The lone > holdouts are three: the United States, Myanmar and Liberia. > > * The metric system is not just scientific, is is perfectly suitable to > everydays needs. > > This is not good company to keep. > > * And I think that you will lose your last company as well. And that people > in the rest of the world will start to boycott goods not made to metric > specifications. > > And for a while, it seemed we too were going to join the fold. Thomas > Jefferson was advocating metric back in 1790. The first international > treaty adopting the system was signed in 1875 - the United States was > even one of the signatories. By 1975, the metric lobby (amazingly > enough, there really is one) got Congress to pass the Metric Conversion > Act. That law was supposed to force the United States to switch within > 10 years. Mysteriously, however, the 10-year deadline somehow was left > out of the final version of the bill. Metricians got upset and managed > to get the normally skeptical President Reagan to sign an amendment to > the law proclaiming metric the ``preferred system of weights and > measures for United States trade and commerce.'' That was followed by > various executive orders mandating government agencies adopt the system. > Some did so enthusiastically - that's why Maine went metric - while > others passively did nothing. > > Aside from misguided Francophilia, why the big push for metric? Some > argue it's better because it's a lot easier to multiply and divide by > 10. I suppose that made sense back in the days when we all calculated > using pencil and paper. But computers have made most of this irrelevant, > a point Maine actually noted when it decided to revert back. > > * I think that Maine was forced back by contractors. American road builders > will never be able to expand their business to other parts of the world, > that is for sure. > > Moreover, a decimal system isn't as easy as it sounds. One can easily > divide a foot into thirds - 4 inches. But what's a third of a meter? > 0.33333 - an infinitely repeating decimal. Try measuring that when > you're about to saw wood. > > * I have never had any need to divide a meter by 3. This fraction stuff is > medieval thinking. The same reason why your stock exchanges only recently > abandoned fractional division of dollars in favour of the decimal system. > And BTW, a US gallon or a US pound cannot be divided by 3 either. I also > wonder how many Americans really know that one pound is 16 ounces. Isn't it > true that at present the pound in the USA is in decimal parts on scales? > Yes, this is ONE area where decimal is whacko, using it in traditional units > like US ones gives meaningless numbers, on the other hand all decimal > subdivisions used in the metric system have meaning. > > When you get down to it, the real reason for the United States to go > metric seems to be that everyone else does it. Advocates for decades > have been relentless in arguing that we had to adopt the metric system > to keep our economy efficient and competitive in international markets. > > That kind of threat is probably why we resist. Much of America's success > lies in its own exceptionalism, its refusal to take orders from the rest > of the world and its determination to set its own course. Rather than > mere inertia, I think our collective refusal to go metric - despite the > prodding of our political elite - has more to do with our basic > orneriness. > > * Then the time is long overdue for the rest of the world to start refusing > to take American orders and for rejecting Americanization. > > So far, it's served us well. We're the world's richest country and its > only superpower. I suppose some metric advocates think we could have > done better had we gone along with their schemes, but it's hard to > imagine how. > > * Your 'system' of units does not even stand on its own feet, it is a > second-hand metric system. Do you know that the yard, the inch, the pound, > etc. are not derived from a Standard Pound or a Standard Yard, but from the > international metric standards? Do you know that the official definition of > the inch is: 1 inch = 25.4 mm? The metric system is abused to prop up trash > that people like you want to impose on the world. How an advanced country > like the USA can be that deeply addicted to leftovers from the Dark Ages is > beyond me. > > Indeed, I wonder if metric might be a bit like Esperanto, the ``world > language'' created back in 1887. Americans stubbornly stuck with English > - heck, most of us refused to learn anyone else's language - and, lo and > behold, English has now emerged as the de facto international language > for business and science. > > * This kind of arrogant jingoism makes me sick. And it also causes growing > anti-Americanism in the rest of the world. > Such anti-Americanism will lead to increasing boycotts of American goods. > > Who knows? Maybe the rest of the world will eventually abandon > centimeters and kilograms in favor of inches and pounds. It should. > > * We should not and we will not. We have English as the international > language now. It took us years to learn English, while you (certainly not > all US citizens think like you do) can lie on your back, arrogantly refusing > to learn from other nations and cultures. And now we should adopt your > weights and measures as well? I say NO to America's second hand metric > system! I vote for the pure and original metric system as devised during the > French Revolution and evolved from that point, decimal, rational and easy to > use for everybody. > > A pint of beer has more character than half a liter. And crossing the > Maine border, it's good to learn that rather than 100 kilometers to L.L. > Bean's, it's just a short 65 miles away. > > * Pints and miles are utterly meaningless to me. I don't want them in my > environment. > > Talk back to Tom Keane at [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
