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.
The metric system is intuitive, removes some hassle from the life, and allows the people to think about other things or nothing at all, if they prefer so. 😉 It will be even better when people use the Planck units.
Former Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene used to go nuts whenever the metric system was mentioned. He frequently wrote that people should join WAM (“We Ain’t Metric!”), his rhetorical vehicle for attacking the use of SI units. Greene’s anti-metric campaign was echoed in a small way by no-talent commentator Jonah Goldberg, who wrote a stupid argument against the metric system. It contained such trenchant points as “Today, the meter is defined as the length of the path traveled by light in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458-th of a second. Isn’t that a handy rule of thumb when buying a string of sausage?”
Oh, yeah, like you have to know that in order to work with a unit of measurement just a bit longer than a yard. It’s like the Australian farm woman who complained that her hens were laying smaller eggs ever since the country adopted the metric system.
Yes, I agree, it would be good to use the system that everyone else in the world does, but I’m not so sure that the metric system is the “best” we could come up with.
The big problem with the metric system is that annoying number ten — divisible by 2 and 5, but it’s frequently nice to break things up into 1/3’s, which the *nice* number twelve allows us to do — this makes inches not so bad.
No, clearly, if we want both arithmetic and our system of units to be simpler, we must stop tying ourselves to evolutionary accidents like the number of fingers on our hands. We should abandon the decimal system and adopt a more convenient base, like base twelve.
Then the duo-decimal version of the metric system would be a *good* system — as long as we stop using base-ten numbering.
Having had extensive experience with both imperial and metric, here is what I have found for everyday use:
– Celsius temperature is far more convenient than Farenheit.
– Inches and feet are more convenient than centimeters and decimeters, but millimeters are more convenient than eighths, sixteenths, etc. Yards and meters are a wash. Miles and kilometers happily coexist. For highway travel the mile-a-minute speed makes that more convenient for converting distances to times but it’s also nice to have speeds in km/hr so that everything is divisibly by 10.
– Liters are close enough to quarts but being able to easily go down to milliliters is convenient. Gallons remain very useful in everyday life.
– Kilograms are convenient to convert between volumes (in liters) and weights when you assume that all liquids have the density of water. Pounds remain a good, intuitive measure of weight but all small things are done in grams.
– With areas it’s sure a lot easier to mentally calculate linear dimensions in meters from areas in hectares, but everyone has a good intuition for the rough size of a section, a quarter-section, and an acre, so those are used a lot (especially since that’s the way all the land is divided–changing over would be like moving to a metric clock).
Basically, the systems seem to coexist quite naturally at equilibrium. The only situation where the old units have been virtually eliminated is with temperature. In everyday life there isn’t a lot of calculation involving a change of scale, so the most convenient scale for units is that which corresponds to the natural scales of our experience. Sometimes those don’t divide evenly by 10. For scientists and engineers, of course, metric units make their professional lives vastly easier, but it turns out that as long as you don’t have a rabidly conservative population (“conservative” as in not liking change), then the imperial and metric systems can coexist quite easily with everyone getting the best of both worlds.
“But if it be thought that, either now, or at any future time, the
citizens of the United States may be induced to undertake a thorough
reformation of their whole system of measures, weights and coins,
reducing every branch to the same decimal ratio already established
in their coins, and thus bringing the calculation of the principal
affairs of life within the arithmetic of every man who can multiply
and divide plain numbers, greater changes will be necessary.”
U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, 1790
Sorry to followup my own post, but it just occurred to me that cooking temperatures are still done almost exclusively in Farenheit. It’s really just environmental temperatures that are in Celsius.
That’s funny, I hadn’t realized this evokes such strong patriotic feelings. I made the point only yesterday, in a different context, that such strong belief systems can be manipulated to support almost anything. This is an excellent example where some remnant of the British imperial system somehow became a symbol of American independence.
(I like the system in Canada where usually both sets of units are used, though I am sure there is a long history there as well).
And we people in Chicago know what the outcome was with Bob Greene….
The day I knew metric wouldn’t work here? 1977, driving down I-75 in Dayton Ohio, sign says “metric signs next 100 miles”…….
When NASA announced that the root cause for the loss of the Mars Climate Explorer was the failure to use metric units, this mishap should have lead to the adoption of a public mandate: the mandate to dispense with an antiquated system of weights and measures!!!
This seems like a pretty pointless academic discussion. Remind me: Why are we concerned about this? Is it just so we can be like the rest of the world? I thought the liberal paradigm was firmly at odds with conformity? Or is it just so Dr. Carroll could snipe the Reagan Administration?
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?
JustAnotherInfidel: This seems like a pretty pointless academic discussion.
Then one wonders why you decided to participate in it.
Remind me: Why are we concerned about this? Is it just so we can be like the rest of the world?
Yes, that’s the one and only reason for favoring the metric system. Never mind its ridiculous mathematical simplicity. The lib’ral science establishment just wants to weaken us against terrorism.
Or is it just so Dr. Carroll could snipe the Reagan Administration?
Even if this were Sean’s entire reason for formulating a post about the metric system, that would be fine with me.
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?
Ah, yes, I forgot that American participation in science, technology, and commerce is dictated by what YOU want! Sorry about that.
posted on digg: http://digg.com/science/Treason_in_Base_Ten
Not only should we go metric…
…but we should have evolved with 6 fingers on each hand. Then our numbering system would be base-12, as would be the metric system.
12 is divisible evenly by 2, 3, 4, and 6, whereas 10 is divisible evenly only by 2 and 5. That would make base-12 a much more convenient “standard” numbering system, if only our damn hands didn’t have five fingers each.
Oh well.
But, anyway, Sean, as soembody who’s written a GR textbook, I’m ashamed that you didn’t do G=c=1 instead of hbar=c=1! Man, you quantum supremists are scary.
I’ve been accused by my TAs of measuring everything in redshift. When you’re talking the Universe, redshift is a good measure of distance and of time…. Somebody came to give a talk last year about the speculation that a GRB was responsible for one of the mass extinctions. I asked a question early on about when the extinction was, and the speaker saw me thinking in my head… he quickly interjected, “z=0.42”, which satisfied what I was after. The TA of my class, who was there, rolled his eyes.
So, what I’m saying is, I want to see the SPEED LIMIT signs on the side of the highway replaced with signs that say:
z
Interesting to see that there is an actual dislike for an international standard. Not only does it help when communicating, there is conversions that you don’t have to do, see the rocket mishap above on both. What is the point of nonconforming here?
BTW seeing some comments above, we don’t use the metric MKS system any more. Today we use the SI system. liter and celsius is everyday support units, cubic decimeter and kelvin are ‘correct’ units for calculations. The unit name is always singular and lower case, for example it is 10 kilometer, not 10 kilometers.
Not that you need to learn all that to start using it…
How sad. WordPress didn’t htmlize my left bracket.
That was
z<0.000000082
Interesting to see that there is an actual dislike for an international standard. Not only does it help when communicating, there is conversions that you don’t have to do, see the rocket mishap above on both. What is the point of nonconforming here?
It’s not what we’re used to.
That’s ultimately the objection, I think. We learned something else, and dammit, don’t make us learn another one. All the other “rational” arguments are the products of cognitive dissonnance trying to make our “waah, don’t make me change” reaction into something that sounds reasonable.
I think it’s the same reason for the popular outcry about reclassifying Pluto as “not a planet”. “Waah! The only astronomy I remember from school is the names of the nine planets, and I learned that in first grade! You can’t change that, any more than you can change 2+2=4!!!!!”
Of course, if you classify Pluto as a planet, then by any rational and reasonable modern classification, the Solar System has way more than 9 planets.
As a Canadian who has went through the education system during “metric times”, I have some observations about how things are changing away from imperial. There is certainly no equilibrium from my perspective. Imperial measurements are dying out. There just a few hold-outs.
meters are getting to be popular as a way of specifying distance, except with human heights. I have trouble understanding what a foot is. I usually treat it as a third of a meter when I hear it in conversation. Same with inches. I have a mnemonic device to help remember that blasted length for when I talk with the 35+ crowd or with contractors. I have absolutely no notion of a gallon. I know it’s a few liters, but it is completely alien. Same deal with the rest of the volume measurements. My gas, orange juice, and water bill all come in litres.
Pounds are still common for measuring human body weight and for sticks of butter, but I measure everything else in grams.
Celsius has completely devastated Fahrenheit here. I have no intuition when it comes to that unit what-so-ever. Completely alien. Once in a while I see a weather report from the US and it is like watching the romans applying some ancient and occult methods of measurement. All I know is that 100+ is a scorching hot day I don’t know what body temperature is in F, freezing, etc.
Distances and fuel economies are all metric now. Miles are ancient history. The highways have 100kph or 110 kph limits. My car gets 9l/100km, and gas is about $1/l. So costing a trip is easy — divide the total distance by ten (or 9 to be exact), and you have the dollar cost of the trip. Its so easy I can do it in my head. Even calculating the economy is pretty simple. when I fill up, divide the number of liters purchased by the odometer and multiply by 100. I can tell people I get 9l/100 and most people understand what I mean. My dad doesn’t.
these days the only time my height or weight comes up is on forms, and those forms are preferentially metric, so I’m starting to think of my height and weight in metric more and more. I will certainly try to shield my future children from having to deal with feet and pounds — the last two hold-outs in my mind.
People building houses seem also to use imperial still. I imagine it will be hard to change that in the short term.
Oops, misstated the fuel economy stuff. If you do a 500km trip and get 9l/100km, then it costs 45l=9l*5. I figured something was wrong when I was typing that.
Pingback: inboxnews blog » Treason in Base Ten
I don’t know what body temperature is in F
Neither do most people who are used to the Fahrenheit scale, even if they think they do. The commonly repeated figure is “98.6 degrees Fahrenheit”, but in fact that figure comes from an error in converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit! The number originated in a German study that found normal body temperature to be 37 degrees Celsius, but when that number got converted to Fahrenheit for reporting elsewhere a spurious third significant figure got added, despite the fact that the results of the study were only originally reported to two significant figures. Actually, average human body temperature is around 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit, though there’s a lot of variation, and anywhere from 97.6 to 98.8 degrees can be considered normal.
Okay, that’s kind of a tangent, but I thought it was interesting…
Funny I agree with Alex R (not me!) about using 12 instead of 10. Furthermore, this is the motivation for the sexagesimal system: to get neat divides by 2,3,4,5,6. Great for doing lots and avoiding to tip the waiter.
There was a rumour that even today somebody in London was conspiring so that 1 cent of euro is 1/144 of pound!
Anti-Infidel:
Is there any evidence that the imperial system of units prohibits or limits our participation in math, science, or commerce? Did Canadian childeren suddnely become players on the world stage when they started counting their heights in meters and buying their gas in liters? Do American companies actually lose business because we want to sell in pounds and foreign companies want to buy in kilograms? Has anybody here ever heard of someone losing a job to someone else who was more familiar with metric units?
Second, I was trying to frame this debate outside of an academic setting, by using a rhetorical device (that aparently you missed)—most Americans do not need to communicate lengths and measures outside of this country, so why should some person from Kansas buying apples in a supermarket be forced to convert weights (and, equivalently, prices) from pounds to kilograms, just so a bunch of academics can say “Well at least we’re in line with the rest of the world…”
(This is the point. Nothing about a liberal science establishment—I’ll reread my post to make sure…)
If your only motivation is “It makes us like everyone else in the world”, what happens when that motivation is removed? What happens when most of the country doesn’t share your need to communicate with people who use different units? And think about this—“Albert Pujols hits a home run over 150 meters!!!” doesn’t quite sound as prodigious as ” over 500 ft.!!!” What will our professional athletes do?
My suspicion is that we will eventually get metric units across the board, but not in my lifetime. (And for the record, I don’t actually hate metric units—my policy is that if lab students use inches, feet or ounces in their reports, we go outside and burn their paper.) Anyone who needs metric units is already pretty familiar with them, and I just don’t see Americans en masse supporting such a sweeping change.
Finally, I appologize for calling this a “pointless academic discussion”… Just another reminder that I should think about the comments that I post before I actually post them.
Now, if you want to go to base ten, I sould propose to start day-to-day, speaking of centihours and milihours instead of minutes and seconds. Better, decidays, centidays, millidays and microdays. One second is about 11.57 microdays. One minute is about 0.694 millidays, and one hour is 4.166 centidays. Once we are used to it, we can go for the coordinate system, these pesky East West coordinates and all that. And lets move the meridian to Canarias or Madeira, to get positive sign for all Euroasia and Negative sign to USA.
But wait! The unit of the International System is the second. So well lets measure in kiloseconds, megaseconds and all that. It is a lot better to say 3.6 kiloseconds than one hour. “I’d be back in a few hectoseconds, dear”.
Measuring units are a very interesting thing in Puerto Rico. The system there makes perfect sense to me, because I grew up with it, but when I explain it to people in the States I get puzzled looks, hehe. For example:
– Speed limits are in miles per hour, but distance signs in highways are in kilometers.
– Weather-related temperature is in Fahrenheit, but body temperature is in Celsius.
This leads to some interesting situations. For example, 40 degrees of temperature are bad for Puerto Ricans regardless of the units. If it refers to weather, 40 (F ) is freezing cold (this is probably the lowest recorded temperature ever in the island). If it refers to body temperature, with 40 (C ) you’re dying of a fever. The first time I got sick after moving to the States, I had a temperature of 102 and I had no idea what that meant until I realized it was Fahrenheit and I needed to convert it to Celsius in order to understand it.
With respect to distances, it’s about 50 km from my parents’ home to where I went to undergrad in UPR Mayaguez, and it takes a little less than an hour to drive that at 55mph if there’s traffic. People usually estimate off the top of their heads how long it will take to drive somewhere, even though distances and speeds are in different unit systems. Also, even though the distances are measured in kilometers, the usual quote for the size of the [rectangular-shaped] island is “100 x 35” — but those are miles. For the longest time this confused me, and when someone asked how big is Puerto Rico I would say “100 x 35 but don’t ask me the units because I’m not sure”.
Also, gas is purchased by the liter, which resulted in quite a shock to me the first time I was in the States a few years ago and saw a gas station sign that said “$1.89”, because naively I thought this was not for gallons but for liters, as it is in PR (where gas was $0.45/liter at the time).
Oh, and people’s heights are in feet and their weights are in pounds. The area of a house is in square feet, but the area of the land the house is on is in “hectareas”, which I believe is metric. Ahh, but when you talk about larger areas still, they are in square miles.
I’m sure there’s many other examples, but these are the ones that I remember most.