Paul et al:
In providing examples of simplicity for the SI, you may wish to use rainfall
in mm per square meter. A mm of rain in one square meter weighs (has a mass
of) one kg while 1000 mm of rainfall equals one kL (kilolitre) which weighs
one tonne. Neat uh?
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Trusten, R.Ph." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:36 PM
Subject: [USMA:37777] Midland Reporter-Telegram editorial and my reply
The NASA decision on metric moved my hometown newspaper, the Midland
Reporter-Telegram, to devote an editorial to the metric system. The
editorial is attached (you might have to zoom in to read it; sorry, no Web
version is yet available) .
I replied as follows:
To the Editor, Midland Reporter-Telegram,
Although your January 17 editorial accentuated some of the positive
aspects
of
using the metric system of measurement, it should have eliminated the
negative.
It also should have served to counter some common misconceptions many of
us
Americans have about the metric system.
The editorial suggested that Americans fear "having to learn a whole new
numbering system" in order to go metric. Not so at all. The metric system
is a
simple, decimal system of measurement, with unit relations similar to U.S.
decimal currency. One kilometer contains 1000 meters and one meter 1000
millimeters, instead of one mile containing 5,280 feet and one yard
containing
36 inches. Also suggested in the article was that food shoppers would
have
to
"convert ounces into grams." In a metric America, food would be sold in
grams
and kilograms only. No unit conversion would be needed.
Metric was designed to be used easily by all people, not just by those
"steeped
in the foundations of science and worldly knowledge," as the article
stated.
In fact, the grab-bag of measurement units currently used in the U.S.
would
challenge even the most educated among us: how many varieties of bushels,
quarts, and ounces are there? In the metric system, length is measured in
meters, volume in liters, and weight in grams.
The editorial asked us when, with regard to the metric system, the world
will
have passed America by. It already has. The U.S. is the last major
industrial
nation that does not use metric for everyday measurement. Continued delay
in
the U.S. changeover to metric may adversely affect the Nation's ability to
conduct foreign trade.
The U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc, is a non-profit, national
organization,
founded in 1916, and dedicated to U.S. adoption of the metric system as
its
primary measurement system. To learn more about the association and the
metric
system, please visit USMA's Web site, www.metric.org.
Sincerely,
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707
