Thanks for the various responses.Perhaps this is linked to why so few Americans have passports.Also could it vary wildly from state to state perhaps?In the UK we're taught metric in priority to imperial at school (not far off the USA I would have thought) but in 'real life' the 'street language', if you will, is broadly imperial. And you know that metric is *even illegal* on UK signs (with exceptions) yet I'd be surprised if anyone did not know what 'the metric system' meant here, as a term. Perhaps I'm being naive because of my interest in the subject - or perhaps the bad press makes people aware - I'm not sure.Thanks for the insight though.From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [USMA:41989] Americans may not even know what "the metric system" isDate: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:53:59 -0600
Steve, unfortunately, I believe that Mike is quite right. As a practical subject, SI is not taught to U.S. students from a young age. Perhaps some Australians on our list can describe what measurement was like in that country before the 1970s, but I would guess the U.S. of 2008 is a lot like 1960s Australia. The use of meters, liters, and kilometers is practically nil. Bridge clearances are posted in feet and inches. Gasoline (petrol) is sold exclusively by the U.S. gallon (about 3.8 L) . Except for the few metric examples on USMA's Road SignWeb page (see http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/signs/) , almost all the distance indicator signs in America are denominated in miles (1 mile ~= 1.6 km). As Pat Naughtin has said many times, metric in America is hidden. Where it is used in manufacturing, it is "dumbed down" to customary units for the consuming public. Attached is a classic example that I just received from USMA Webmaster Don Hillger, who describes it as follows: "I'm sure this is a case where a product is hard filled to 500 grams, then given an ounce equivalent of 17.7 ounces, and the package designer was given that 17.7 ounces, and knowing that they need to put metric on the package as well, ends up with 501 grams as the equivalent! Too bad." Yet, not knowing what the metric system is may not be a bar to its use. I asked my long-time German friend what people think of the International System of Units in Germany. She, a music teacher born and raised in Berlin, who speaks English and French as well as German, replied, "What is the International System of Units?" Paul T. . ----- Original Message ----- From: Stephen Humphreys To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 17 November, 2008 10:20 Subject: [USMA:41985] Re: Obama and metric (continued) I'm somewhat surprised at one of the statements here.Is that really the case that a lot of people in the USA don't even *know* what the metric system is?I'd argue that in the UK the metric system has not really 'caught on' at all in regards to day to day speech etc but I would never suggest that people here didn't even know what the term 'metric system' means (possibly blanks at 'SI' but certainly not 'metric').It seems odd with liter bottles and meters in 'track and field' sports etc that the very term 'metric' is relatively unknown.Steve Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:02:14 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [USMA:41984] Re: Obama and metric (continued)I to added my support for the proposal and convinced several in my university classes to do the same :). I do wonder a bit even if we get a metric America or start going down that road how long it'll take to re-educate people. I was talking to a couple customers from Malaysia and Germany and the UK the other day and we were all agreeing that we hope that Obama does push this change because it makes sense. The two high school and college age cashiers that were helping out then stopped and got blank looks on their faces and asked what the metric system was. I explained it was liters and meters and all those measurements and they all got kind of a sour grapes look and complained about having to learn another system that made no sense and was "annoying" :). The nice German lady assured them that once they got used to it they'd come to like it.It wouldn't have been so bad except one of the cashiers is majoring in some form of engineering and hadn't been exposed to SI yet.Still, we can but hope :)Mike On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 7:34 AM, Michael Palumbo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: An update: we are now ranked 6th (!) with 3865 votes, nearly 1400 above the next item, and only several hundred from 5th & 4th places. Excellent!-Mike Paul Trusten wrote: I have spent the day searching the word sequence "Obama metric system" online, and I must conclude that, even if Mr. Obama hasn't touched the subject publicly yet, his supporters sure have. Many of them appear to be enthusiastic about metrication, and are hopeful that the new president will advocate it. Also, as of this writing, Bill Potts' contribution to http:.//obamacto.org maintains eighth place on this list of ideas for Obama's Chief Technology Officer to pursue. Paul Trusten, R.Ph.Public Relations DirectorU.S. Metric Association, Inc.www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122Midland TX 79707-2872 US+1(432)[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"(\__/) (='.'=)This is Bunny. Copy and paste bunny into your (")_(")signature to help him gain world domination. Win £1000 John Lewis shopping sprees with BigSnapSearch.com Search now _________________________________________________________________ BigSnapSearch.com - 24 prizes a day, every day - Search Now! http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/117442309/direct/01/
