On October 8 the local Boulder, Colorado newspaper published my letter
below. The editor added headlines
GO METRIC
Inches, pounds,
yards are obsolete
Included in the Camera report October 5 on the Nobel prize given to John
Hall, is the important remark "He helped advance laser technology to the
point that its wavelengths were consistent enough to define a meter." This
was done right here in Boulder. It was done for the whole world, and even
for out of this world. You want to know how long it takes a message to come
from a station on Mars? Try using 299,792,458 meters for each second of
travel.
The story needs a footnote. We do not use the meter. The rest of the world
uses the meter. But not us. We are too wrapped up in our own way of
measuring. It is quite expensive to use inches, feet and pounds. For
example, each year Boulder Valley Schools waste $2 million of class time
teaching inch-pound units and fractions. School waste in the whole US is $4
billion each year. Business loss is billions more.
Let us upgrade our measures. Use metric. Metric is so simple even grown
ups can use it.
Robert H. Bushnell
