I watched some coverage of the close-approaching asteroid 2012-DA-14 on
CNN. For a news service that is supposed to be international, it
contained a confusing congeries of inch-pound and metric units. For
example:
Distance: 17,100 miles (CNN commentator)
Distance: 150 feet (CNN crawl)
Mass: 150,000 metric tons (CNN crawl)
Area: 20,000 square kilometres (Bill Nye)
It was refreshing to hear Bill Nye "The Science Guy," who has extensive
programs and educational outreaches to students and the public, to use
only metric units. I sent him the following message:
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:54:45
From: Martin Morrison
To: Bill Nye/Science Guy <[email protected]>
Subject: Thank You for Your Use of Metric Units
In watching CNN coverage today of the 2012-DA-14 asteroid, I noted that
the other commentators were using a confusing mix of inch-pound and metric
units. You were the only one who consistently used the metric units that
are actually used in science and technology. Thanks, Bill, for sticking
to your guns and educating the public to reality.
