Absolutely. if someone's height is 1.6 m and the refrigerator specification says 167 cm height, we think that the refrigerator is 7 cm taller. In fact, Russian kids and adults have a habit to access quantitatively everything in their heads, which is extremely easy. My daughter here in US, even if she really needs to do some math in her head, stops without even trying.
(I could see anti-metric people's argument here : "so, what good it brought to Russia?". Maybe they are right - maybe once US goes metric instead of improving math and science and becoming superpower US will simply become Russia?) my latest disappointment with customary system: my bread machine manual recommends to measure ingredients by weight (instead of cups) to get better results. I used electronic kitchen scales to measure 21 3/16 oz of flour. I switched my scales to oz and started to pour flour to get 21 3/16 oz. But once it reached one lb, the scales showed me 1 lb 8.3 oz . I got puzzled how to finish my measuring without getting to the computer to convert 1 lb 8.3 oz. I end up taking some flour off the scale and pouring it back catching the moment when oz turn to lb on the display, which taught me that 1 lb is 16 oz. (i am nervous now because if i confuse 16 to 12, 15 or 24 one day, i will have to throw away a bad batch of bread) then i decided that 3/16 is about 1/5 which will be 0.2 on my scales. so, i stopped pouring the flour when the scale showed me 1 lb 5.2 oz. so, 21 3/16 oz is equal to 1 lb 5.2 oz. what could be easier? I am proud of myself because i was able to do that without washing my hands and turning on my computer. (God forbid internet would be down, i would have to call my friends for help) Natalie ________________________________ From: Paul Trusten <trus...@grandecom.net> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2013 7:18 PM Subject: [USMA:52544] frames of reference in the metric world In her article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/03/21/metric-system_n_2923997.html, ila Nordstrom states that she believes customary units are better for estimating the dimensions of things in everyday life. How do those of you in countries where the metric system predominates think and speak in meters? What language do you use? If, for example, you are comparing the height of a refrigerator to your own height, do you think of it as being "several centimeters" different from you height? Paul Paul R. Trusten Registered Pharmacist Vice President and Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org trus...@grandecom.net +1(432)528-7724
