On Saturday 29 August 2009 20:31:59 Pat Naughtin wrote: > * Why was metrication in Australia so successful – and so quick? > > * Why is metrication in the USA apparently so unsuccessful – and so > slow?
Not having experienced metrication anywhere but the USA, I can only say why it's been unsuccessful in the USA. I see two reasons: *The process was scuttled by people who, for political reasons, rescinded the requirements to set deadlines for metrication. *School curricula attempt to teach both sets of units at once. If all schools taught metric units first and waited until pupils had a firm understanding of base units, prefixes, units defined in terms of other units, and arithmetic before introducing customary units, and the schools stuck with this for decades, we would have a successful, though slow, metrication. Once those kids grew up, they would switch GIS databases to meters, label highways in metric, put prices per liter on gas stations, etc. If the metrication process had not been scuttled, but the schools had been as they are, we would have highways labeled in kilometers, temperature signs in degrees Celsius, lots for sale in square meters - and a people that still couldn't calculate its way out of a paper bag. Pierre
