Dan et al: It doesn't matter that the public doesn't know that cars are built to SI specs. It's important that scientists and engineers know and that's why the SI must be taught and used science classes in schools. That's why our superintendent of schools here with 138,000 students required the SI to be taught and used in science classes and courses without the FFUs. Stan Doore
----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Jackson To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 6:39 PM Subject: [USMA:38203] Re: Is the U.S. customary system easier to use than the metric system? ----- Original Message ---- From: STANLEY DOORE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 1:22:16 PM Subject: [USMA:38202] Re: Is the U.S. customary system easier to use than the metric system? Going to the SI is more than a PR problem. If all manufacturing of products is converted to rationalized SI, people would use the products just like they do today. They don't really care about the small differences in sizes so long as products have unit/prices. The main problem is to make the interfaces among hard goods like plumbing and building materials work. The number of fasteners have been reduced from more than 100 in English units to less than 30 in metric. Products made in China, that once were made in the US with FFU fasteners are now made in China with metric fasteners. As long as products continue to be made elsewhere, the material will be metric. All autos made in the US are made to metric specs and people really don't care because they buy and drive them. How many people are actually aware of that? I'll bet most Americans still think their cars are made in FFU. People don't normally remove any fasteners and check the threads for verification. Go to your local auto parts store and check out how many still sell lots of FFU fasteners. What are they used for? However, training kids to design and engineer and to perform well in science, the SI is very important if the US is to compete worldwide. Except it isn't happening. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070314/economy.html?.v=12 A record trade deficit for the 5-th year. That tells you more metric goods are coming in and no FFU goods is going out. The Asians and Europeans must be training their kids well. Their economies continue to produce metric goods. Stan Doore ----- Original Message ----- From: Mike Millet To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:36 PM Subject: [USMA:38200] Re: Is the U.S. customary system easier to use than the metric system? Interesting analogy Paul, Maybe you can tape SI unit posters in the Congressional bathrooms so people are forced to look at them everytime they make use of one :). I hope you're keeping pressure on the little Congress critters to amend the FPLA as well. Maybe with enough slow cooking the proverbial metric lobster will be ready to eat by 2010. Mike On 3/14/07, Paul Trusten, R.Ph. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: HUH? Has USMA's PR Director lost his freaking mind? A few words from Satan's lawyer. SI has a big PR problem. Yes,it is a better measurement system. But, really--to most Americans, does "better" mean "easier?" A table of customary unit values reads like a nursery rhyme. Twelve inches to the foot. Three feet to the yard. Yes, at 5280 feet to the mile, it gets cumbersome, but I think most people don't seem to have to deal with the 5280. They just may not care about decimal, about "better." Leave well enough alone, they'd say. Or, to quote my Dad on metric, "I just couldn't be bothered." The nursery rhyme suffices. It has sufficed for two centuries. Efficient mathematical manipulation, metrological coherency, a true standard of measurement? I can hear the refrain coming from those who are far, far away from this forum: "Who gives a f---?" So, it comes down to leadership, society, industry, and, as Australian officials described, the need for a technical change in measurement practices. With regard to measurement, it is a matter of the U.S. maturing. Just this morning, I was talking to a friend about his daughter finishing her potty-training. This vast and complex nation, the nation put to melody in Dvorak's Ninth Symphony "For The New World," for all its progress, still has metrological toilet training to do. The path to measurement maturity is going to be a challenging one. We are going to have to sell the "easier" of SI. The good news is, I think we can do it, and I think we shall do it. -- Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Phone (432)528-7724 www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 USA mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.grandecom.net/~trusten -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
