Posted on 05/15/2006 10:41:02 AM PDT by Junior
NORWICH, Conn. - Brent Maynard says he weighs 74 kilograms and is 169 centimeters tall. And if you ask him for directions, he'll give them in kilometers.
Maynard, a chemistry professor at Three Rivers Community College, is a champion for the metric system, a man who helped erect distance and speed signs in kilometers and whose goal in life is to see America ditch the standard system.
But in a country that's hooked on pounds, gallons and miles, it is a lonely cause. Last October during National Metric Week he sat alone in front of Norwich City Hall wearing a pro-metric placard and asking for signatures on a petition to get the U.S. Postal Service to weigh and measure packages in metric. Six people signed it.
Maynard, 52, a metrics fanatic since the age of 14, is used to the tepid response. He founded two metric associations in 1993 in Plainfield and in York, Maine. Each has about six members.
"They're not as passionate about it as I am," he said. "They kind of just go along with it."
Like most American youth, Maynard learned metrics in high school but unlike others, he has embraced it. He's even special ordered his truck with an odometer that reads distance in kilometers and writes congratulatory letters to companies that convert to dual labeling on products.
Maynard argues metrics is simpler because it's based on powers of 10 and more effective because the rest of the world uses it in business and in the military.
But despite several laws recognizing metric as the preferred system of measurement in the U.S., it's been slow to gain footing. The U.S. remains the only industrialized nation in the world to predominantly use the standard system, also known as the English system.
That doesn't mean metric measurements haven't crept into daily life in America. Soda comes in liters, film is in millimeters and electricity power is based on watts. Most food products use grams on their labels.
The hodgepodge of units has led to problems. In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because NASA navigators mistakenly thought a contractor used metric measurements when standard units were actually used.
"It's confusing to use two systems — even for rocket scientists," said Lorelle Young, president of the U.S. Metric Association.
In Plainfield, where Maynard's association put up distance signs in kilometers, residents aren't even aware of the signs, even when they're right down the street.
Marlene Chenail, 70, lives up the street from one of Maynard's signs. She says she doesn't know the meaning behind "RI state border 8 km."
"We've never really looked at it but we know that it's there," Chenail said.
Maynard attributes the unfamiliarity to America's resistance to change and the perception that it's a foreign system.
"We seem, in our culture, awfully afraid to challenge people to think," he said.
While Maynard is one of the few adamantly promoting the system, there are others who speak out against metrication.
Seaver Leslie, president of Americans for Customary Weight and Measure in Wiscasset, Maine, said Americans shouldn't be forced to use either and argues that standard units are superior because the units are human-based and has history. The furlong — an eighth of a mile — is the distance a farmer could plow in a field and still be in earshot of his house if there was danger, Leslie said. Etymologists believe the word represents the distance a team of oxen could plow without needing a rest.
"They're very practical and very poetic," Leslie said. "They have worked for the farmer in the field, the carpenter in the shop and large contractors in industry and for our aerospace industry."
Wanna bet that he is also a supporter of Esperanto? And that he wears a bow tie? I have nothing against the metric system, in fact I often use it when its use is appropriate, but this guy has either deliberately chosen a lonely and unfulfilling path, or else he is simply lacking in the common sense department.
I'll buy you an American pint of ale for every Imperial pint you give me. Converting from English to American was always the most complicated part of the traditional system for me.
It's the units that are powers of 10 of each other. No one ever expected that all common packages of everything would be an even unit. And the same is true in the old system - many drinks come in 12 oz servings - 12 oz is not an even measure of anything. 4 litres is a good size for a jug of milk, too, and neatly splits the difference between an US and an Imperial gallon.
Yes, that is very common, but it is still incorrect. There is no harm done generally unless you try to do something like a physics calculation.
Warning! Physics equations follow!! For example, you may remember F = ma, which says that the total force acting on a mass allows you to calculate the acceleration of the mass. Force is in newtons, mass in kilograms, and acceleration in m/s^2. A newton therefore is also a kg-m/s^2. So, you put the mass in as kilograms to get a force in the calculation. Weight is a force, so it must already be in newtons. As I said, it usually doesn't matter. In the equations above, though, it makes a big difference.
Don't be silly, just remember that an Imperial Gallon has one too many quarts, that's all.
By displacement, if you know the density.
By applying a known force and measuring accelleration.
SD
I prefer more practical measurements. Can, 6-pack, case. Now if I have to accommodate the Metric system, I'm OK with 1-liter cans.
They've got little ounces, but they make up for it by having more of them. 20 ounces in a pint.
I guess that makes the 20 oz. bottle of pop on my desk an "American Imperial pint."
Suddenly 40 oz. beers make sense. They're American Imperial quarts.
SD
, I think our measures make for a charming piece of American exceptionalism.
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But a mathematical nightmare.
See, it all makes perfect sense.
The metric system is a lot easier, just don't mess with my .45 ACP or my .44 magnum.
Brent Maynard says he weighs 74 kilograms and is 169 centimeters tall.
One way is to make the mass oscillate between springs. They did something like that to measure the mass of astronauts in space. Maybe in Skylab? More massive things have a longer time of vibration.
Personally, I'd walk 1609.344 Meters for a Camel.
Mr. Lucky smokes Camels? LSMFT
I quit smoking Luckies when they cancelled the Jack Benny Program.
That's why I ask that they use decimeters. They're not as big as feet, but it's ridiculous IMHO to use units requiring the numerals be into the hundreds place.
OOhhh Rochester!
One slug is the mass accelerated at 1 foot per second per second by a force of 1 pound. So, roughly 32 pounds, equating to the roughly 32 feet per second per second acceleration due to gravity.
SD
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