Martin, I would no more want to sell metrication to the U.S. public using the seven base units of the SI than I would be teaching them how to commute to work by learning to fly a helicopter!
> On Jun 13, 2019, at 12:45, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > > Peter Goodyear-- You make an excellent point: "It's about time we had some > educators, engineers and scientists promoting the advantages of the metric > system to counter this rubbish. We need to tell the public that it's easy to > learn and easy to use, both for measurements and calculation. It can save > teaching time in the classroom, and time money and materials in industrial > use." > > One of the best ways to implement your suggestion would be get educators, > engineers, and scientists to use the metric system when being interviewed on > television. The problem is that they -- at least most of them -- don't do so > in interviews, even though they use metric exclusively in their daily work. > In effect, they are committing a kind of fraud on the public. If they did use > the metric system in television interviews, there would probably be no > pushback at all. In fact, viewers might just expect it. > > The limited USMA resources can't attack all areas at once, but what about a > vigorous approach to some of the leading scientific organizations to put out > a bulletin to their membership encouraging the practice of using metric in > their interviews. Sometimes, all it takes to solve a problem is to make > people aware and to provide support. > > Since 1988 the metric system is supposed to be the "preferred" system in the > United States. What about getting our contacts at NIST to do this. What > better way of education would there be than to get leading scientists to use > metric on television? It would cost NIST virtually nothing. > > A WARNING. The USMA under Don Hillger and Paul Trusten settled on a policy > to promote metric for practical reasons, such as business and commerce. Few > Americans care how the kilogram is defined, yet it seems that, up to last > week and Tucker Carlson, the only thing that we were hearing was about the > new definition of the kilogram. > > I'm sure that this "scientific" emphasis does not help our cause. It makes > the metric system seem exotic and obsessive, not the system that is so > eminently practical that the whole world uses it. > > Martin Morrison > "Metric Today" Columnist > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list [email protected] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
