I didn't see any responses to your comment. Somehow Pierre, I think your
explanation went over the heads of the others who post there. Too much
math. The non-metric users can't do math. It is part of being trained in
imperial, that one is to be both bad at math and to hate it equally well.
I don't know about the US but I'd lay money on it that there are plenty of
examples of mathematically competent people using non-metric measures. I've
heard mathematics teachers in the UK talk in imperial in everyday life even
though they teach metric in the classroom.
We won't win people over to metric by acusing them of being thick for not
using it. It may be true in some cases that they lack the necessary insight
to understand the advantages of it. In such cases we have to enlighten them.
In other cases they may reject it for more emotional reasons probably tied
up with political beliefs. It may just be a superficial tendency caused by
social pressure (which I think accounts for most cases).
At any rate we have to treat each case on merit and not assume too much
until we know them better or can discern their attitude from what they say
about it specifically. The important thing is to maintain a stance that
metric is better for purely practical reasons and not to let it get mixed up
with other issues.
Phil Hall
- [USMA:34727] Re: Dr. Barber Philip S Hall
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