Metric system remains too confusing to implement
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 03/06/2007
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The temperature reached a mild 12 degrees Thursday. I actually witnessed a student expressing delight and disbelief over it. The same day, students wore T-shirts and light jackets to class. It even rained.
What paranormal force could possibly cause students to shed their layers and prevent rain from freezing in 12-degree weather? It's called Celsius.
Intellectuals have argued for decades that the United States should make an official switch to the SI system, which includes Celsius degrees and the three basic units of the metric system; meters, grams and liters. Proponents of this switch argue that the system is far superior to the English system used widely by Americans.
Forcing Americans to convert to SI may help to prevent disasters like the $125 million Mars orbiter fiasco of 1999. But it would have a seriously degrading impact on the culture of the United States.
Take, for example, the unit of measurement for distance. What would happen if we traded in our beloved system of feet and miles into meters? For someone who's height is already a slightly disappointing 5 feet 7 inches, deflating the number to 1.7 meters would just be disheartening. But it goes beyond that.
Think about car travel. Instead of miles per hour we would have kilometers per hour. "Doing 90 on a back-country road" just wouldn't have the same zing. In addition, we would have to say "goodbye" to gas mileage and "hello" to something a lot more verbally taxing. Who wants to talk about gas kilometerage? It sounds funny and it's hard to say.
If you want proof of the negative effects the metric system has had on car travel in the rest of the world, look no further than Europe. How else can you explain the existence of so many tiny cars and the lack of a speed limit on the autobahn? That's right. It's the metric system, which obviously makes it too confusing to regulate speed and build large SUVs.
And what would happen if we used 100-meter fields instead of 100-yard fields in our version football? The distance between goal lines would increase, giving defensive teams like the Chicago Bears an advantage over offensive teams like the Indianapolis Colts. It could change history. Changing the length of the field would have a huge impact on the record books. Much like in baseball, asterisks would have to be added for records set on the new 109-yard field. Next thing you know, we'll be playing soccer.
If we dropped our complex system of volume measurements we would lose cultural treasures like the awkward gallon milk carton and the 10-gallon hat. It would also further confuse the gas kilometerage issue. How many kilometers per litre of petrol does your auto get?
The U.S. government took steps in the '70s to facilitate acceptance of the metric system, including the passage of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 which designated the metric system as the nation's preferred system of measurement. But it clearly didn't work out the way Congress expected.
Since then, in the science, engineering and manufacturing worlds, the issue has become something of a 362-kilogram gorilla in the room. But honestly, does that even sound as threatening as a gorilla measured in pounds?
While we're on the topic, can someone tell me how many ounces are in a gallon? I can never remember.
Thomas Nolan is a sophomore in the School of Mechanical Engineering. He can be reached via e-mail at thomas.nolan@purdueexponent.edu.