I agree with you, Martin. I have always started the SI training sessions
I provide with the topic "You already use the metric system". Then I
work through many examples. I also point out that it has been estimated
that the US is 50 % to 70 % metricated, and that today the latter number
is probably closer to the truth.
Years ago, we on this mail list fleshed out a page that I started for my
physics students back when I was teaching at the College of Charleston.
I called it "Metric Moments". Here is a link to such a page on my website:
http://www.metricmethods.com/metricmoments.html
The late Pat Naughtin built a page listing the things one must give up
to avoid using metric units. That was his form of much the same sort of
information.
Jim
On 2013-10-02 20:08, [email protected] wrote:
In response to the statement that "traditionally, the three countries
listed as not using the metric system are the USA, Liberia, and Burma
(Myanmar)," I hasten to point out that the U.S. is NOT a non-metric
country. By law, the metric system is the "preferred system of
measurement" here.
True, everything in the U.S. is not yet metricated. But neither is
everything in Canada, Britain, and many other countries who are
considered metric. I have advocated strongly in the past that we eschew
this "we're not metric" approach and instead educate Americans to the
fact that we are about in the middle of being converted. For many good
and practical reasons, we need to push the conversion forward.
Do Americans realize that pharmaceuticals, medicine, nutritional
information, alcohol, lighting, nuclear energy, electricity, and many
other areas are already partially or fully metric in this country?
That's the message I think we ought to push. The glass is truly half
full, not empty.
Martin Morrison
Columnist, "Metric Today"
