Highways on Mars are a bit far down the road (grin) for me to worry
about just now. I did see a dual-labeled sign in Tennessee announcing
the distance in miles and in kilometers to Bristol, just as we were
passing Johnson City. As I recall there's a similar sign on I-40
eastbound with a dual-labeled distance to Cherokee National Park/Forest/??.
Jim
On 2016-12-03 16:51, [email protected] wrote:
December 3, 2016
By Hank Garfield
Bangor (Maine) Daily News
On Interstate 19 in Arizona, which connects the city of Tucson with the
Mexican border at Nogales, the signs are in kilometers. According to
CNN, Americas only metric highway is a remnant of the Jimmy Carter era,
when the idea of adopting the metric system in the United States was
briefly taken seriously.
Every country in the world almost uses the metric system. And everyone
knows why: the math is easier. All you have to do to convert between
units is move the decimal point. Its the worlds official system of
measurement. Our American inch is defined in statute as precisely 2.54
centimeters.
The metric system is the one part of the French Revolution to sweep the
world. Today, the only remaining non-metric countries are Liberia
(founded by American slaves who returned to Africa), Myanmar (formerly
known as Burma), and the United States.
My late friend Dave Alvernaz once suggested to me that the metric system
hadnt caught on here because it lacked the conceptual equivalent of a
foot. Your foot is always there at the end of your leg, he pointed out,
available to stick into a box or pace off a room. Three of them make a
yard, and most of us are between five and seven feet tall. Its a
utilitarian measurement, based on the human body.
The metric system is based on the size of the Earth. The original
definition of a meter was one ten-millionth (10-7) the distance along a
meridian from the equator to the pole. Because not even this distance is
constant (Earth bulges in different places), the official definition of
a meter has since been tied to the speed of light. This is important to
scientists and engineers seeking exact measurements of small distances
on the atomic scale and large distances between the planets and stars.
All space missions have used the metric system since the loss of the
Mars Climate Orbiter in November 1999. Designed to orbit Mars and
monitor its weather, the ship burned up in the Martian atmosphere.
According to Wired magazine: A NASA review board found that the problem
was in the software controlling the orbiters thrusters. The software
calculated the force the thrusters needed to exert in pounds of force. A
separate piece of software took in the data assuming it was in the
metric unit: newtons.
The new National Geographic Network Series Mars, set in the near future,
uses entirely metric units. When the crew landed 75 kilometers from base
camp, I had to calculate: Okay, so a little less than fifty miles
Based on a decimal fraction of the size of the Earth, the metric system
makes no more intrinsic sense on Mars than miles and feet. But its the
easiest system to use, and its already the one in use by a majority of
humankind. Perhaps if we had listened to Jimmy Carter 40 years ago, the
Mars Climate Orbiter would not have crashed, and I would know my height
in centimeters.
Like most Americans, I think in inches, feet and miles. Using the metric
system is like learning a new language, something else Americans are
notoriously reluctant to do.
The car culture, too, has its own language and patterns of thought,
which make it difficult to change. We think of longer distances not in
terms of miles but driving times: Bangor is two hours from Portland and
four from Boston. Its assumed that we are not talking about airplanes or
bicycles. Car travel is part of our unspoken collective consciousness.
When I stopped using a car as my primary form of transportation, I found
that I thought about the pattern of the day differently. How long did it
take to walk to the bus stop? What did I need to take with me? How was
the weather? When did the last bus leave downtown? What time did the sun
set?
I recently saw the film Arrival. It was ostensibly about aliens but it
was really about language. With a nod to Kurt Vonnegut, the film
postulates that if humans can learn the aliens language deeply enough to
think in it, they can see the Universe from a different perspective.
Language drives perception, as much as vice versa.
I thought about that in the days after watching the film. And I thought
that if we could begin to talk about cars and time and distance
differently, without all the popular assumptions, we could perhaps begin
to conceive of another way to live.
http://slowertraffic.bangordailynews.com/2016/12/03/home/will-we-build-metric-highways-on-mars
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