It helps if the public is immersed in a metric environment as much as possible so that there is no need for conversions. Putting metric measurements on food packaging was not found to be a major source of information for the Australian public. People just pick up a can of stew or packet of pasta that looks “big enough”.
What happened here was that the media reported news and sports in metric measures. For example, the Melbourne Cup was run over 3200 metres instead of two miles (16 furlongs/two miles). I remember a sports commentator being criticised for describing “a two-thirds of a metre putt” when covering a golf match. Hobbyist magazines wrote articles in metric terms. Wide-circulation magazines such as Readers Digest and Women’s Day wrote articles, news and recipes in metric measures. The weather was reported in Celsius temperatures, millimetres of rain and wind speeds in km/h. To do this you will need to get the mainstream media actively supporting metrication. Good luck with that! Best wishes, Peter, Melbourne, Australia e-mail: [email protected] > On 23 Mar 2020, at 14:56, Milos Paripovic <[email protected]> wrote: > > It is doable but common person has to be considered. Take a few adults with > only a high-school (or even elementary school) from any random Metric-only > country and make a survey which units they are using and which prefixes. For > example, I spent first 30 years of my life in several metric-only countries > and I have almost never heard anyone using deci-, deca-, hecto-, etc, and > many don't know what these are. 2 years after high-school most people will > forget what is micro and mega, not to mention the rest. From reading this > mailing list and reddit/r/Metric I see that many go into too much detail, for > example forcing usage of mm instead of cm, but a common person growing up in > metric country, millimeter is less convenient, and by the same logic, also > less convenient for anyone trying to convert. Then, there are the ones that > try to make people do everything right from the start, for example, imposing > rules on how the prefixes should be used to avoid decimal points, and that > just complicate things unnecessarily. That makes sense only with certain > professions after everyone has fully adopted basic units and is able to think > without converting. Most common people will error +-50% or more when > estimating 10 cm, 1 kilogram, 1 kilometer, and any other. We might as well > say yard is meter, quart is a liter, as for a common person without a > measuring tape even that is precise enough, but is much simpler. There is no > point in considering engineers, scientists and other highly educated people > that are dealing with measurements every day for the initial efforts, and > until we have a person at deli understanding metric and being able to sell > you half a kilogram of meat, there will be no change. > Milos > > On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 5:24 PM Paul Trusten <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > I personally went Celsius in 2003. True, America did not,but my cell phone > and my car always talk to me in Celsius only. The result is that I can talk > to anyone in Celsius only. During my 2013 visit to England, I noticed that my > English friend set the thermostat in his car to 17 on a chilly day. I usually > set mine to 21. The temperature in my apartment is 20 to 21. I have dropped > the “C” from my discourse. Metrication SHALL work! I totally agree with > Martin. We made the change with carbonated beverages (1 L, 2 L, 3 L). We CAN > do it with milk. We can do it with anything! > > > On Mar 22, 2020, at 12:23, "[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>" > > <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > Al Lawrence's point is well taken in my opinion: arithemetical > > conversions just turn people off. The best way to go metric is just to use > > it in daily life - no conversions. Set your digital thermometer to degrees > > Celsius; set your digital scale to kilograms - it's simple. Pretty soon > > you'll have to think hard to interpret Fahrenheit and pounds! > > > > Kaimbridge's point is valid to a certain extent, e.g., with quarts and > > liters, but nobody uses cmHg, as far as I know. > > > > Martin Morrison > > > > ============ > >> On Sun, 22 Mar 2020, Al Lawrence wrote: > >> > >> Most people hate math and will avoid it at all costs. Most people don't > >> even bother trying to figure out if buying two quarts of ice cream is > >> cheaper than buying a half gallon, and many couldn't do it if they tried. > >> They buy by visual size and assume the bigger size is cheaper per unit. > >> They buy two liter bottles of soda, half liter bottles of water and other > >> metric packaging without hesitation, simply by visually looking at the > >> size without even looking at the net contents. ANY and ALL conversion > >> tables (that look like math) or any other attempts to educate them, will > >> turn people off and are counterproductive. > >> Al Lawrence > > _______________________________________________ > > USMA mailing list > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > > <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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