Title: An Asian enquiry
Dear All,
I have just had an enquiry from someone in Taiwan who is presumably a reader of the Metrication matters web page at: http://www.metricationmatters.com/
I removed reference to the enquirer's name before I shared this email and my comments.
##
Dear Enquirer,
Thanks for your letter -- it intrigues me.
I have begun to think about your issue a few weeks ago when I realised that almost all of the so-called 'metric conversion' web pages were actually 'English conversion' pages in that they were designed to take metric units and then to somehow quickly and easily turn these into old pre-metric English measures, as you have asked me to do here.
As I said, your request intrigues me in that you have highlighted for me an aspect of so-called 'metric conversion' to which I have given too little thought.
I have interspersed some remarks that you may find helpful.
> Hello,
>
> I grew up in the US, so am used to English measures. Now, I'm living in
> Taiwan, which uses metric measures (besides its local measures).
There is a saying in the medical nursing profession that says, 'When you have to confront something completely new and sometimes frightening: "Get with it, get over it, and then get on with it."
I suspect that this is the best advice for you in your present situation.
Get with it -- you have a golden opportunity to learn about the metric system in the best possible way -- by using it every day. When you return to the USA you will be a metrication leader in a nation that is already taking significant steps toward metrication. For example, the president of the United States Metric Association estimates that USA industry is more than 60 % metricated already.
Get over it -- let me assure you that the desire to revert to old measures will only be temporary; you will soon get past this.
Get on with it -- Develop some of your own 'rules of thumb' such as driving at 60 km/h means that you will travel 60 kilometres in one hour, or 40 kilometres in 40 minutes, or 16 kilometres in 16 minutes. Or for temperature remember that:
Zero is freezing
10 is not
20 is pleasing
30 is hot
40 frying
50 dying
> I know
> there are conversion formulas, but I was wondering if there were easier
> "rules of thumb" to convert
> centigrade to Fahrenheit
I subtract 30 from the Fahrenheit temperature and then halve the remainder. So if I hear that it is of 68 degrees Fahrenheit somewhere in the USA, this becomes 38 (68 - 30) which in turn becomes 19 (half of 38), and I use the poem above to know that this is a pleasant day.
> meters to feet or yards
To change feet to metres, I divide by three; for example 60 feet = 20 metres
To change yards to metres -- I don't -- I simply change their name to metres. I once edited a short novel where people were sometimes four or five yards from each other and such like statements. I simply used the 'Search and Replace' facility to change the word 'yard' to the word 'metre' taking care that I didn't make a mistake with something like, 'As they walked into the yard the dog barked'.
> liters to gallons
I convert (USA) gallons to litres by multiplying by 4; I convert (UK) gallons to litre by multiplying by 9 and then taking half of the result.
> I'm looking for rough estimates for everyday use; like when I drive, I
> basically divide kilometers by 2 and then add a little to get a rough
> idea of the miles. I guess it becomes more inaccurate with longer
> distances, but it at least gives me a general idea.
When I want to change miles into kilometres, I multiply by 6 and then add a tenth of this to the original amount. As an example 15 miles multiplied by 6 is 90 and a tenth of this is 9, so 15 miles is 24 kilometres (the original 15 plus the calculated 9 = 24).
I have to say, though, that I have not done any of these conversions in over 20 years in Australia, and I suspect that I wouldn't have had to in Taiwan either. I did my own "Get with it, get over it, and then get on with it" a long time ago.
> Thanks for any help you can provide.
>
> An Enquirer
Cheers and thanks again for pointing up this 'English measurement conversion' issue.
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305, Belmont, Geelong, Australia
Phone 61 3 5241 2008
Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online monthly newsletter, 'Metrication matters'.
You can subscribe by going to http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter
Pat is the editor of the 'Numbers and measurement' chapter of the Australian Government Publishing Service 'Style manual – for writers, editors and printers'. He is a Member of the National Speakers Association of Australia and the International Federation of Professional Speakers. He is also recognised as a Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist (LCAMS) with the United States Metric Association. For more information go to: http://metricationmatters.com
This email and its attachments are for the sole use of the addressee and may contain information that is confidential and/or legally privileged. This email and its attachments are subject to copyright and should not be partly or wholly reproduced without the consent of the copyright owner. Any unauthorised use of disclosure of this email or its attachments is prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender by return email.
--
##
