Just because he couldn't relate 30 kW to the power of his engine, doesn't mean he knew the horsepowers nor does it imply he would know what the power means in either units.
Anyway I don't see the connection between providing money for science research and your story. Training someone to understand the metric system does not fall under the category of science research. Thus funding for scientific research would be used to provide necessities for scientists to do research where needed, scientists who already understand SI. Funding would not be used to educate non-scientists to understand metric. Learning SI has to come from the general education. If the students aren't learning SI, then the problem is with the schools. Do you ever hear of any cases where a student graduating from a school in any country of the world can't relate to SI or don't know it when they become an adult? Why only the UK and US? Jerry ________________________________ From: Martin Vlietstra <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 1, 2009 1:10:39 AM Subject: [USMA:44947] Re: Increased scientific research funding. I am a part-time “A”-Level physics and maths tutor (16 and 17 year-olds). Last night I asked my student whether he had ever used a device that had a power of 30 kW? (I had seen him getting out of a car as I arrived at his house half an hour earlier). He was unable to link his car to 30 kW. (I had guessed its power), so I had to explain to him that 1 HP = 746 W (I think that is the conversion). ________________________________ From:[email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pat Naughtin Sent: 30 April 2009 23:51 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:44931] Re: Increased scientific research funding. On 2009/05/01, at 8:16 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote: How would funding scientific research help the metrication effort? Since Science is already metric, there would be no need to spend money on something already accomplished. Dear Jerry, You might have missed this article that I sent to the Obama team before the 2008 election.. It is called, A metrication elephant and it is about science policy in the USA . You can find it at: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/AMetricationElephant.pdf where it questions the policies of the science and engineering communities in the USA to 'think metric' and to 'dumb down' for the public. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305Belmont3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA . Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada , the UK , and the USA . See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe. Jerry
