The U.S. is missing its 2-meter moment.
On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 3:47 PM Al Lawrence <[email protected]> wrote: > I agree, charts can be very good. No math involved. > > Al Lawrence > > > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* USMA <[email protected]> on behalf of Martin > Vlietstra <[email protected]> > *Sent:* Monday, March 23, 2020 3:50 PM > *To:* 'Brian White' <[email protected]>; 'Peter Goodyear' < > [email protected]> > *Cc:* 'USMA List' <[email protected]> > *Subject:* [USMA 1333] Re: U.S. metrication is eminently doable! > > > The biggest hindrance to a metric changeover is to give the > imperial/customary equivalent for every measure. By all means, have some > standard conversion charts – for example for temperature show the > Fahrenheit equivalents of 40°C, 30°C, 20°C, 10°C, 0°C and -10°C. Thus, if > somebody wanted to know the Fahrenheit equivalent of say of 25°C, they > would have to look at the chart and see that it would be midway between > 68°F and 84°F. The important thing is that the Celsius figure would pass > through their mind. > > > > South Africa converted to km/h shortly after I started driving. The fuel > crisis came a year later and there were draconian speed limits. I had an > old jalopy with an mph speedo, but I very quickly learned all the km/h > conversions – it would have been very expensive not to do so. > > > > Here, in the UK, thanks to “social distancing” and the coronavirus > everybody is rapidly learning what “two metres” is. > > > > *From:* USMA [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Brian > White > *Sent:* 23 March 2020 13:14 > *To:* Peter Goodyear > *Cc:* USMA List > *Subject:* [USMA 1331] Re: U.S. metrication is eminently doable! > > > > Yep. The Associated Press needs to change that ONE little thing and it > would go a long way. > > > > They seem to bend over backwards to change anything metric to US > Customary. Where if they'd just leave it metric or even prefer metric (and > lose the stupid football field reference) we'd make great progress. > > > > On Mar 23, 2020, at 03:38, Peter Goodyear <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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] <[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]> > 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]" <[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] > > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma > > > > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > [email protected] > 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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