The quickest way for the US to convert and learn to use metric
is to present weather reports in SI metric only.
Weather info is the most widely used involving units of
measurement in everyday life.
Regards, Stan Doore
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Scott Hudnall
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 3:15 AM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:50786] Re: metric in Canada
I ski in Whistler, British Columbia every chance I get. I've noticed that in
weather conversations with Canadians, Celsius is used exclusively. What is
interesting is that when speaking with Americans, they usually follow with "I'm
sorry, I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit".
On Jun 26, 2011, at 11:28 , Bill Hooper wrote:
I just came back from a trip to Canada; Edmonton, Alberta to be exact.
I came across a few metric items that some of you may find interesting.
I have found, on earlier trips as well as this one, that Canada is very metric
and that the people are quite comfortable with it and use it. The following
examples are the exception rather than the rule. They show a misunderstanding
of some SI details more than to any resistance to metric measures.
Weather forecasts on TV were consistently and properly metric, with just a
couple exceptions.
Air pressure was given in kilopascals using the correct symbol (kPa). The
values were given to five digits, however, and I wonder whether that is beyonf
the usefulness of the measurement to most people. (Values like 101.56 kPa.)
Temperatures were consistently in Celsius although often, when a series or set
of temperatures were shown, the unit symbol was omitted in part or in its
entirety. When this was the case, there was always at least one main
temperature that had the unit correctly shown, then the others were listed as
pure numbers with no unit, or with the degrees symbol ( ˚ ) but no "C" for
Celsius.
Surprisingly, amidst all this nice metric stuff, the so-called "ceiling" was
consistently reported in FEET! I know the airline people continue to use feet
for the ceiling, but it seems to be that, for the general public the TV
stations could omit it entirely, or, if given, could give it in units with
which the general public is quite comfortable.
Meat was sold by the kilogram but I often saw signs that gave the price as "...
per Kg", rather than the correct "kg".
Official highway signs seemed to be consistently proper metric, especially the
permanent ones. However, some temporary signs (e.g. road construction signs)
use the wrong symbol for metres, "500 M" instead of "500 m".
One of the most curious examples, I thought, was in an elevator of a high rise
building. The capacity was listed as "2500 LBS or 1134 KG".
Clearly, the kilogram symbol should have been "kg", not "KG".
In this case they could not use the lame (but nevertheless incorrect) excuse
that "our equipment could only print capital letters" because the word "or"
between the two values was clearly in lower case.
On top of that, the kilogram value of 1134 was clearly a misapplication of the
conversion from 2500 pounds. Surely the capacity of an elevator need not be
stated precisely to four digits. The 2500 lb figure was probably just a round
number, perhaps just stated to the nearest 100 lbs, so the value could probably
have been reasonably rounded to 1200 kg. (of course local laws need to be
considered and they might require rounding to a different value, but
nonetheless one with only two significant digits would be more reasonable.)
Generally, I think Canada gets an A, eh?
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Make It Simple; Make It Metric!
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