Dear Paul, In the olden days, they used to say things like:
'When in Rome, do as the Romans do.' However, on a more serious level, we cannot ignore the facts of social pressures when we plan metrication programs. Social pressure is serious stuff. I remember reading that if a dramatic suicide is widely publicised by the media, you can expect a large number of copy-cat suicides within the next few weeks. I know that, in Australia, there are agreements between media companies and the government about how suicides are reported to prevent these unnecessary deaths. Next to copy-cat suicide, copying pounds, feet, inches, and teaspoons looks relatively benign. As you know, I consider 'hidden metric' to be rampant in the USA, and I suppose that this is preventing a lot of people being able to copy metric use because they simply don't see it. As an example, consider the motor industry that is near enough to 100 % metric, but the mph on the dial in front of the driver allows the driver to copy off his parents and say miles per hour rather than the kilometres per hour for which the car was designed and built. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216 Geelong, Australia 61 3 5241 2008 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.metricationmatters.com On 5/09/06 8:39 AM, "Paul Trusten, R.Ph." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think I have a name for this phenomenon: the U.S. "social factor" in > metrology. > > It sure as heck appears in healthcare. Almost all of the units used are > metric, but when it comes to patient height, patient weight, and oral liquid > medication measurement, the people force themselves to revert to the > inch-pound and apothecary units. This behavior seems to be independent of > national origin. For example, the numerous non-U.S. citizens who come to the > U.S. (Texas, anyway) to study medicine adopt our old measurement units as if > to the manner born. It is American peer pressure. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Pierre Abbat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > Sent: 06 Sep 04,Monday 17:21 > Subject: [USMA:37268] Why are immigrants talking in pounds? > > >> Yesterday I was coming back from a camping trip with a church group and we >> stopped at a fast food place. I ate nothing there, as I have been eating >> raw >> for a few months, and what I wanted (and will eat shortly) was a few >> salted >> avocados. One of them asked how much I had lost. "Siete kilos," I >> answered. >> (I was 81 when I went raw and 74 the day we left.) He discussed with the >> other people how many pounds that was. He is from Venezuela, and as far as >> I'm aware, everyone there but me is from another country. Why would they >> want >> to convert it to pounds? >> >> Pierre >> >> >
