Hey, anyone remember the metric system? Perhaps some of our international readers could provide insight into what it is like to live in a world governed by units that come neatly packaged by factors of ten, rather than the charmingly anthropocentric system of ounces and inches and acres that we favor here in the U.S. True, some of us science types will occasionally speak of centimeters, but in my circles we usually set hbar=c=1 and express everything in electron volts, so it’s barely metric at all.
Via Lawyers, Guns & Money, Dean Dad reminds us of the time when a titanic struggle raged for the soul of this great nation, with the forces of American exceptionalism valiantly beating back the invaders who would have us measure football fields in meters rather than yards. (Or, even worse, “metres”!) Without the patriots of the Reagan Administration to save us from the malaisical cosmopolitan wussification favored by Jimmy Carter, the speed limit on many interstate highways might be 90 km/hour even today.
Some of our younger Gen-Y readers might be skeptical that this was ever such a big deal. One of my favorite stories recalls a discussion in an English class at the end of my first semester in college in 1984. Our mischievous professor asked each of the students to give an example of a belief we held that we thought would be controversial among our fellows. Given that this was a middle-class suburban Catholic institution, there were too many ways for me to get in serious trouble here (um, “God doesn’t exist”? “abortion should be legal”?). But I chickened out, and settled on something that I thought satisfied the letter of the assignment without being too crazy — I declared my support for the metric system.
You would have thought I had called the Pope a Communist. The class (including the professor) exploded in exasperation, rolling their eyes and moaning “Oh no, you’re not one of those people, are you?” People are very attached to their weights and measures, as it turns out. But I stuck courageously to my convictions, defending the usefulness of making easy conversions between units at different scales.
If I were to do it again, though, I might go with the god-doesn’t-exist business.
JAI, I think it’s just a matter of a more convenient system in the end. What you say is that the conversion is so inconvenient that it’s not outweighed by the convenience benefits and that that minority of the population (eg. embarassed lab students or NASA scientists) that has to communicate with the rest of the world just has to deal with the added inconvenience of having to use two systems.
Fair enough, there is no reason that it should be so, but to little reason to change it either.
Now paper sizes on the other hand….
Paper sizes AND number of hole punches. And don’t forget electrical outlet configurations. Even if everyone on this continent agrees to be on the same power scale, Switzerland and Italy and Britain just want to be different….
You would have thought I had called the Pope a Communist.
That was nearly it too. The most common rejection of the metric system, particularly in the media, was that it was a Soviet, Commie plot. During the first (fake) embargo of oil and gas, many stations attempted to cover up the rapidly escalating price, by selling gas in liters. This was tantamount to treason indeed, and though people needed to buy the fuel, and had ration cards to do so, they resisted these Commie pinko stations as much as possible.
Ironically it was the 80’s that produced a generation of people who could convert kilos to pounds to ounces to grams without having to use calculators, triple beam scales and currency converters being the tools of that trade. Likewise our beverage manufacturers have gone out of their way to sell products in liters and ounces, cross-referencing all the containers because the UPC labeling, pricing, and accounting features of markets require the conversions. I laughed when 40ozs were reduced to one-liter containers priced the same; a sweet deal for the retailers and corporations. And lastly, my sports of swimming and waterpolo, converted, along with track and field, to competing at metric distances for the most part. We don’t see the 100 yard dash, nor the 1650 freestyle swim; race distances are in meters, pool and track sizes listed metrically. We use the four meter shot line, and must convert high jump scores to feet and inches, but the records are recorded in metrics.
I’m still laughing at the phrase “malaisical cosmopolitan wussification.” I’ll have to work that one into my daily conversation somehow.
“Suppose for a minute we’re not all theoretical physicists. Why should I want to measure things in meters and degrees celsius? Do I want to have to learn a whole new system of weights and measures, just because the government told me that I had to be like the rest of the world, or because a bunch of academics think that I should?”
Interesting comment. You could ask some Iraqis why they should be considering democracy. You may ask the Chinese why they do not adhere to human rights standards. After all, they aren’t used to them…
I think a future US adminstration must take the brave step to start teaching the metric system to one of the future generations. They will get used to it, and the people who object to it will eventually die. Consider Europe. We switched to a single currency a few years ago. This caused some grumbling amongst some older citizens, but on the whole it did not take too much effort to get used to. The benefits of having a single currency throughout the euro-zone far outweigh the disadvantages from having to remember that €1=40BEF in my case.
For all you Americans who dislike condescending Europeans : adherring to an outdated isolationistic system of units is one of the reason why this attitude exists.
Back in engineering thermodynamics, the (moronic) faculty wanted us to use steam tables in non-SI units. I forget the units but they were in BTU and pounds per square inch and other such nonsense. ( It wasn’t clear why that course was useful to us, but it was required. ) Anyway, we simply refused to work until we got steam tables in SI, and within a week we had them.
You can see from here:
http://www.engineersedge.com/thermodynamics/steam_tables.htm
that morons still use non-SI units. These are infinitely painful to compute in, and what should be a breeze turns into a minor nightmare.
The conversion to metric in Canada wasn’t without some of the same controversy… I searched for it on the CBC archives and found some videos detailing the issue.
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-75-1572/science_technology/metric_system/
Mr. (Dr.?) Terryn—
There will be resistance to a change from the customary system to the metric system, but I think it would take some pretty dedicated individuals to form an insurgency…
And you’re saying Europeans hate us because of our units? That seems pretty superficial to me…
fh—
Perhaps metric units are more convenient, but certainly not if all of your tools (like a mechanic) are built to accomodate another unit system. And they certainly aren’t more convenient if you’ve spent your whole life using somehting different.
I agree that we should probably have the metric system in principle, I just don’t think that it’s is feasible (at this point, at least) in practice.
And I’ve never actually torched anyone’s paper—pre-med students are easy to motivate!
As someone born in the US in the early 80s, I was taught to use both units, although I’m not sure when. I suspect that my science classes were taught primarily in metric units after a certain age, although I would not swear to that. Then I studied physics and astronomy, so the units I use are an interesting mishmash.
Temperature: To me, Fahrenheit temperatures make a lot of sense for some applications. In the northeastern US, the air temperatures range from 0 (or below) to 100 (or a little above) Fahrenheit. It makes it convenient for me; I judge temperature on a roughly 100-point scale (anything off that scale is either frigidly cold or extremely hot). Outside of that particular belt, of course, the temperature ranges start to look a little more odd. Similarly, body temperatures generally fluctuate about 100 (and the story about 98.6 is one I had heard before, as of course the exact conversion is obvious, but that makes it no less amusing). But for anything outside of these applications (oh, and cooking, but that’s just a function of the dial on my stove), I’d rather use Kelvin anyways. Incidentally, global temperature maps, with the US in Fahrenheit and the rest of the world Celsius, are deeply amusing.
Length: 6 in one hand, half a dozen in the other. In terms of determining height, feet and inches work better for me, but that’s mostly because I don’t have a reference for the same in centimeters. For travel distance, a mile a minute is useful but I’m pretty sure we could adjust to 100 kph. And again, for really big or really small distances my scientific training kicks in and I switch to Angstroms, nanometers, microns, mm, cm, km, AU and variations on parsec.
Weight/mass: I know body weights in pounds, because that’s how I grew up, but I’m surprised that more Americans haven’t subtly started to switch to kilograms (doesn’t sound as big in those units, after all). Similarly, I’m more used to pounds for lifting weights, although I don’t think a change in that would be difficult. In virtually any other application, I use metric units of mass instead of Imperial units of weight.
Area and Volume: Metric all the way. The only exception, perhaps, being gas by the gallon, because that’s how prices are expressed; I could certainly do things the other way with no difficulty. And on a side note, I hate cooking, partially because of the insane units of volume used (Teaspoon? Tablespoon? Can’t we please just switch to ml? But I suppose a lot of secret family recipes would have to be converted…)
And of course, any other application I learned only metric units, with a few exceptions. Pressure comes more naturally to me in psi or atmospheres than MPa and GPa; I’ve seen all of them, but I have less intuition for metric units. I’m also kind of used to barometric pressure in inHg. Oddly, though, I’d rather use large numbers of Pascal to express material strength; go figure. And my thermo class was odd; it was an engineering course, so we had to be able to use both sets of units, even down to having two sets of steam tables in the back of the book. I think they might have even used mixed units in some of the problems, which was just irritating.
I think in time we will switch over, as more people become fluent in both and the advantages of factors of ten become apparent to people who don’t necessarily use scientific notation frequently. This could maybe be enhanced by calling them Imperial units; what red-blooded American wants to be part of an evil empire? Besides Yankees fans, of course.
Then there is g, numerically 32.2 and 9.81, respectively in the English (I prefer that to Imperial) and SI units.
So if it is left out inadvertently in any force calculation, one will underestimate by about 3.5 times less in the SI units. Some consolation!
Is there any evidence that the imperial system of units prohibits or limits our participation in math, science, or commerce
Well, there was that Mars probe that crashed. Of course, we could balem that on the commie Europeans for using the metric system….
-Rob
I should point out that in REAL units, frac{2 hbar ^2}{m e^2} simeq 1 (its actually 0.951… ). Google Proves it.
As a child, I could not *believe* there was some people using a base other than 10.
“And don’t forget electrical outlet configurations. Even if everyone on this continent agrees to be on the same power scale, Switzerland and Italy and Britain just want to be different….”
It will be a long road. Looking at trains, the first standards seem to be signal systems, which is rather more hard to do than conforming road signs. It is slooowwwly coming along.
“And you’re saying Europeans hate us because of our units? That seems pretty superficial to me…”
Dimitry didn’t say hate. But it’s unusual to almost always insist on bipartisan solutions instead of once or twice accept wider solutions. So I believe we think of americans as apart, and not always in a good sense.
“I just don’t think that it’s is feasible (at this point, at least) in practice.”
Eh? Others have done it. If your concern is investment, it will pay off eventually.
“any other application I learned only metric units, with a few exceptions.”
There are quite a few exceptions. Usually in sciences, there fundamental or anthropic values makes more sense, like Planck units or hours instead of kiloseconds. Live and let live, I say.
While I tend to agree with the comments that the metric system is much easier to work with on a daily basis, and of course in science and engineering contexts, I wonder whether the cost of changing the system in the US would be worth it?
unless you go the cheap option and give everyone bumper sticks which say “km = miles * 1.6” then that’s a lot of road signs and car speedometers to phase out…
whereas, if it were put the money into say… hybrid research or perhaps new smaller size wheels on bicycles- that would be money well spent!
—
as an aside – for some reason in australia, the metric still hasn’t caught on for heights of people. “oh, he’s about 6ft, is so much easier than 180cm, or 1.8 m”
and I also almost failed a 9th Grade math(s) test when on exchange in the US, as a question on “Convert the following measurements” wasn’t that easy….
m
In metric, there is still the SI (mks) and the Gaussian (cgs) conundrum. if one is an astro-plasma person, it’s easy to forget a 1/c or (4 pi eps_0) or some such thing.
elementary charge = e = 4.8E-10 statCoulomb
current = 1 statC/sec = (1/3)E-9 ampere
Potential is statC/cm, which doesn’t grok with me at all. To convert to something familiar: e(SI)/e(cgs)=3.335E-10C and multiply (3.335E-10/(4 pi eps_0) *10^2 (in meter) = 299.7, final units in Volts
bleh
“Then there is g, numerically 32.2 and 9.81, respectively in the English (I prefer that to Imperial) and SI units.
So if it is left out inadvertently in any force calculation, one will underestimate by about 3.5 times less in the SI units. Some consolation! ”
Well, there is “lb” (pound, unit of mass) and “lbf” (pound-force, unit of force) and one can confuse the two. It is hard to confuse kilograms and Newtons.
A triffle “off-topic” but just to show the persistence of Avoirdupois system. We have a little Marine Corps in Brazil (Brigade size). Of course, all the doctrine was translated from US Marine Corps. The definition of “Starting Line” for an Amphibious Assault was stated as “1.000 yards from the beach”. So we painstakingly converted those 1.000 yards to “9 hundred and such meters”.
When US Marine Corps started changing their mannuals to fit the metrical sistem, they simply expressed it “1.000 meters from the beach” (you know… a meter and a yard are so near, and a beach is never “straight lined”, so…)
But it’s not true that everything was measured into convenient “dozens or scores” of units. For instance, portable weapons were defined into inches/100 (.30 in rifles, and so on…)
The big problems I see are: 1 – changing all industrial standards (used for centuries, now) to metric system, when the main producers of it are used to Avoirdupois measures; 2 – People around the world are so accostumed to use Avoidupois units, followed by the metric expression (for instance: .30 caliber – 7,62mm; 1″ pipes – 2,56 cm) that it will not change an inch (2,56 cm) in anything…
I am surprised nobody weighed in on this from experimental physicist point of view.
Designing parts is a lot of hassle. Translating inches to mm and back for every part, hoping that something doesn’t get messed up. Most people have no idea whether 9/64 is greater or lesser than 3/16. They might have some idea what 0.14 is compared to 0.18, though. To compound these problems, most americans are terrible with fractions. I mean, the 1/3 pound burger didn’t survive simply because most people thought it was smaller than quarter-pounder!!!
Ever tried to find the correct allen wrench for a screw? Slightly smaller… Nope, slightly bigger… Maybe it’s metric? Is this metric or is this english? Two sets of wrenches for everything… buying screws just to find they are the wrong size…
A lot of machine parts are made in germany and japan… guess what system they use? etc. etc. Absolute nightmare.
Mr. Machine Shop guy, here’s the drawing – this M5 screw should be 1/4″ from one edge and 78.3 mm from another edge. Use calculator if you want to double check the numbers.
It’s simplest to use Planck units and express everything in terms of dimensionless numbers.
Choosing units is extremely task related. I was browsing a French computer site and noticed that computer screens in the homeland of the metric system are denominated in thumbs (pouces), where a thumb is apparently computer French for an inch. (The word for a speaker seems to be the same as the word for pregnant, enceinte, but the French were always more open in discussing that sort of thing).
One good example of task specificity came up in the IEEE magazine. Why are capacitors denominated in microfarads and picofarads, but never in nanofarads? Obviously, microfarad range electronics designers work in microfarads, while picofarad range designers work with picofarads. Need a nanofarad, use a 1,000 picofarad capacitor.
As a fish egg fancier, I always wondered why did the godless (and metric) Soviet Union sold caviar in 14 ounce pounds? Their system of pressure altitudes for high flying aircraft is metric, but different from the Chinese metric pressure altitudes. Of course, low flying planes, up to 18,000 feet measure altitude based on calibrating the altimeter at takeoff using barometric pressure and known elevation, so the aircraft altitude approximates actual altitude over mean sea level. Go over 18,000 feet and its all done with millibars, and calibration be damned. So if you are flying in a small plane and your pilot says you are at 4,000 feet, those feet are not the same as the feet a jet pilot would use when announcing that the plane is at 32,000 feet.
Also, when was the last time you bought produce or meat by the ounce? My supermarket, and just about every other supermarket in these United States, sells by the pound and the hundredth. In other words, the supermarket checkout station designers have imposed a decimal based system on us, and since it was done by a business, not the government, there has been nary a squawk. Try finding a 32 fluid ounce bottle of Coke or 4/5 gallon of Scotch. It’s like gasoline, sold by the gallon and the hundredth.
Ponderer of Things: “A lot of machine parts are made in germany and japan… guess what system they use? etc. etc. Absolute nightmare.”
And then there is Shimano, who produces bicycle parts that don’t conform to anyone’s unit system and for which one needs a new tool each time there is a new line of parts!
Some here might be amused at space mission teleconferences during the mission’s instrument construction and integration phase, if those missions involve instruments and spacecraft built in different countries. There are detailed discussions of nuts, bolts, screws and their tools. Sometimes these screws and tools items are given to the other teams (with the appropriate paperwork and if it doesn’t involve ITAR).
Luckily kgf is rarely used, otherwise the same could be said of the SI too.
Then there is the triplets of tonne (metric tonne), short ton and the long ton.
Wonder whether the short ton (2,000 lbs) is an American invention that attempts to maintain a semblance of going Metric!
Zeno #2:
Michael Duff mentioned the case of a woman who was asked by a TV interviewer if she believes in Global Warming. She said: ”If you ask me, it’s all this changing from Fahrenheit to Centigrade that’s causing it”.
You know what’s crazy?
I went to school in the 80s and we were taught nothing but the metric system. To this day I don’t know the English system and that’s worked in my favor. Every single year and in every single science class in college I had to know the metric system and would have a test on it and would ace it, invariably, since I had learned the metric system in 3rd grade first.