To the Editor, Midland (TX) Reporter-Telegram:
Your recent editorial (?Students need to look to science for job
offers,? June 4, 2009) neatly summarizes why the United States can no
longer afford to further delay changing over to the metric system of
measurement.
If, as your editorial stated, the U.S. economic model is to be
knowledge-based, then the American people must stop scoffing at the
notion of adopting the measurement system that is the global language
of science and commerce. We can no longer afford to cling to the
archaic customary units that will have no place in our future economy.
As a Nation, we need to arm our citizens with the science tool that
people of all other countries have at their fingertips.
Your article points out the difficulties in getting American students
to enjoy studying science. Part of the disinterest may be that they
have to learn the metric system for the first time in their science
courses. If the U.S. became a metric country, this academic obstacle
would be removed.
In 1971, the Commerce Department recommended to Congress that the U.S.
begin the changeover to metric (a process called metrication) over a
10-year period. Had the country followed through on this
recommendation at the time, we would have long since prepared our
people for the redesigning of the economy in this new century.
The metric system is a simple, decimal system of measurement.
The only metric units that will be commonly used are the meter
(length), the gram (weight or mass), and the liter (volume). Like the
U.S. dollar, each of these units is divided decimally. In 1988,
Congress declared the metric system to be the preferred system of
measurement for U.S. trade and commerce.
The final sentence of your article dovetails well with the need for
U.S. metrication: ?We still have a lot of work to do in order to shift
our economic model into a successful conversion.?
For more information on the the metric system, please visit the U.S.
Metric Association Web site at www.metric.org.
Sincerely,
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc.
www.metric.org
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
mailto:[email protected]
