[USMA:53313] Happy Metric Day

[Henschel Mark]

WEll, hello everybody, I'm sure everybody is wildly excited celebrating Metric Day.
 
I have been having a discussion about the numbers we use to divide units.
60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, well, perhaps this comes from Ancient Babylonia.
 
But what about 24?
Why 24 hours in a day and not 25 or 23?
YEars ago back we only had ten months, which actually made sense.
September was month 7, October was month 8, November was month nine and December was month 10. All that got screwed up when Augustus and Julius decided to add months in their honor. Imagine what life would be like if we now had a month for Nixon or Kennedy?
 
Let's see, I'll meet you on the third of John Quincy Adams...
Oh, does anybody know what happened to the John Quincy Adams pro-metric award? Anybody want to reestablish it?
 
Your thoughts on where the 24 hour day came from would be appreciated.
 
Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: cont...@metricpioneer.com
Date: Thursday, October 3, 2013 3:16 pm
Subject: [USMA:53309] Re: The U.S. Is NOT a Non-metric Country
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>

> I agree. America simply needs to complete her metrication, not
> start 
> from scratch, which is the point I try to make in this Fact
> Sheet: 
> http://metricpioneer.com/fact-sheet
>
> David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
>
> ----- Message from c...@traditio.com ---------
>      Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2013 18:08:30 -0700 (PDT)
>      From: c...@traditio.com
> Reply-To: Martin Morrison <c...@traditio.com>
>   Subject: [USMA:53306] The U.S. Is NOT a Non-metric Country
>        To: "U.S. Metric
> Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
>
>
> >
> > 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"
>
> ----- End message from c...@traditio.com -----
>