Today my wife gave blood. She gave her mass in kilograms (we've had only a kilogram scale since 1976, and while all of our household measuring devices are metric, she's a reluctant conspirator; it's just that she didn't know any other answer). The Nurse laughed and replied, "Kilograms! You must be married to John Dunlop!"
I cite this as proof (in my opinion) that the process DOES have a lasting educational effect (I haven't given blood in weeks). Sure I'd like a full classroom or a state or the federal government to "get it," but I have confirmation that at least one nurse in Minneapolis is aware of the absurdity.
John (yes, Dunlop)
At 08:32 PM 1/4/2006, you wrote:
Anytime I do something like that it ends up disastrous. I can't give my weight in kilograms at the blood bank; they make me do the calculations to change the weight on the form to 'normal units'. I would possibly make them take my weight in kilograms except for the fact that the donor machine they hook you up to requires them to enter the patients height and weight; they either can't or don't know how to enter metric units into the machine.
Just recently I had to be fingerprinted and have a background check done for a training programme I'm entering. They needed to know my weight, I gave them kilograms. The problem was that they enter all this information into a computer and they don't have a way to put kilograms in the computer; once again it was up to me to convert it to pounds before we could go any further.
Until we're able to actually give our weight in the unit of our choice I don't see how we can get other people to become metric minded. As it currently is I have to know how to convert kilograms to pounds mentally for anyone to take the information! The people I give the information to also have a tendency to act as though I'm purposely trying to be weird, odd and just plain trying to give them a hard time.
Richard
In a message dated 2006-01-04 15:11:32 Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
- This morning, while I was filling out the forms for my first visit to an
- oral surgeon, I had to give my height and weight. The two blanks were not
- labeled as to units, but I would have crossed out the WOMBAT labels if they
- were there. I gleefully wrote in 1.73 m and 74 kg. Everyone was much too
- busy to comment, but this is the first time I have had an opportunity to
- quote my dimensions in SI units. We'll see if they notice.
- Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
- 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apt. 122
- Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Editor, "Metric Today"
- U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
- www.metric.org
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