I like these ideas to help us equiate SI with common American things. I think one other one that could be useful is letting people know that the one liter bottles of soda or water they routinely buy are one kilo. Although that might not help a lot, it at least helps them equate mass and volume in the metric system a little easier.
Mike On 5/6/07, Martin Vlietstra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Harry, Another easy-to-visualise measurement for Americans is the hectare. I understand that the distance from the home plate to the fence on a baseball field is between 90 m and 125 m (according to Wikipedia). If the fence is a perfect quarter circle and the foul lien is 112.83 m, then the area enclosed buy the two foul lines and the fence is exactly one hectare. Unfortunately for us Brits, cricket fields are a little larger than baseball fields, but a full-size rugby union field, including the dead-ball area is 0.98 ha. Regards Martin PS – see "How many people can visualise a kilometre" at www.metricviews.org.uk ------------------------------ *From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Harry Wyeth *Sent:* 06 May 2007 09:10 *To:* U.S. Metric Association *Subject:* [USMA:38596] Re: People oriented metric use Well, I think we should tell non-metric friends simply that a cubic meter of air weighs one kilo, and a cubic meter of water weighs one metric ton. No one knows what a tonne is (it's not even in the spell-check dictionary on my computer!), but "metric ton" is used in the media a lot and is somewhat familiar, and I don't care much. I am as much a proponent of metrication as anyone, but I find the use of "weigh" just fine. I think people can visualize a cubic meter much better than 1000 liter bottles stacked together. If you imagine a stack of such cubes containing air or water, you can get a grip on the weight--or mass if you prefer--of a column of air extending up to space, or the weight of a column of water extending down to the ocean floor. I like to tell folks that a kilometer is a distance two and one half times around a running track, or about from here to (describe a nearby location). HARRY WYETH ----- Original Message ----- *From:* STANLEY DOORE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *To:* U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> *Sent:* Saturday, May 05, 2007 05:57 *Subject:* [USMA:38594] People oriented metric use Here' a way to help the public understand metric and the impact of wind and water such as floods, storm surges, tornadoes, hurricanes, rivers, lakes, ponds, wind speed, etc. on people, their safety and the environment in every day life. 1 *kg/kL* of *air* at the surface is about one kilogram (2.2 pounds) per kilolitre (cubic metre) 1 *t/kL* of *water* has a mass of one metric tonne (1000 kilograms or 2200 pounds) per kilolitre (cubic metre) Let's learn to think metric with its cohesive characteristics in the International System of Units (*SI*). Regards, Stan Doore
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