I imagine that very few baby's weights in Australia are discussed in pounds and ounces. In South Africa it was certainly metric-only from about 1972 onwards.
_____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 16 May 2007 17:30 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:38708] Re: Is U.S. metrication still considered "extreme?" Even the vast majority who can't tell you how many feet in a mile, how many ounces in a gallon, etc., know a few things. 1. How much I "weigh". (from the scale) 2. How tall I am. (from the device in the doctor's office) 3. How far it is to the corner, to the store, to work. 4. How big I was when I was born, how big my kids were, how big my friends' kids were, etc. (The hospital dumbed down the measurements and gave them to me that way because that's all I understand.) Messing with that gets them really upset. I wonder how many babies in Australia, 30 years and more on, still get discussed in terms of pounds, ounces and inches, because the grandmothers want to make comparisons. Carleton -------------- Original message -------------- From: "STANLEY DOORE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Pierre et al: > It would take the medical industry to require weighting and recording > people's mass in the SI. This also would require a complete change in > scales to show and record in SI units. Very expensive but doable. > > Some scales show both English and SI units now much like autos indicate dual > units of speed and volumes of gasoline at pumps can do now. Medical > industry change to the SI would be a catalyst for the general public to > change too. > > Reporting weather on TV, radio and in the newspapers in the SI would be a > significant step forward in getting the public to think in SI. However, the > media industry and particularly the news would be violently opposed to the > change much like it opposed the change during the 1970s as Bob Greene of > the Chicago Tribune did; he was one of the outspoken opponents of going > metric by publishing misleading information about metric. The media are > free to say what they want without regard to validity. > Stan Doore > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Pierre Abbat" > To: "U.S. Metric Association" > Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 11:04 PM > Subject: [USMA:38700] Re: Is U.S. metrication still considered "extreme?" > > > > On Tuesday 15 May 2007 13:31, STANLEY DOORE wrote: > >> Paul, you have identified a critical area of discontinuity where the > >> medical industry uses the SI for medicine and people use English units to > >> describe their weight. (mass). > >> > >> This is an area need! s to be resolved now. It would help people to > >> understand metric and reduce their fear of it when they give their > >> dimensions (height and weight) in SI. This would be a major advance in > >> adopting the SI. > > > > Last year I told my doctor my height and mass in metric. He asked me what > > they > > are in other units. As he practices Chinese medicine, and I don't know > > Chinese units, I was stumped ;) > > > > Most of the people I hang around with on RFT quote their mass in pounds. A > > few > > quote kilograms. How can we get people to weigh themselves in kilograms? > > > > Btw, I had an opportunity to explain one of the more obscure SI units, the > > gray. Someone was worried that an airport X-ray machine would irradiate > > seeds > > or probiotic capsules. > > > > On Tues! day 15 May 2007 15:08, Remek Kocz wrote: > >> One particular area where it would be extremely easy is with body > >> temperature. It's a number that really exists in isolation--no one > >> relates > >> it to outdoor temperature or anything else for that matter. Weight and > >> height are another issue, much more difficult to convince the general > >> public to adopt, but in the name of reducing medical errors, it could be > >> done. > > > > I do relate body temperature to outdoor temperature. I know that if the > > outdoor temperature is 37 or more, I must drink a lot of water to keep > > myself > > between 36.0 and 36.8. > > > > Pierre > > >
