I think America should at least dual use the metric system. Only Myanmar, Liberia, and the US reject the system fully. All other nations use the metric...some in addition to other ways, but still!
Does this picture not look odd to anyone else?
Marathon runners already convert their miles into kilometers for races, so why not have everything dual listed? We have some signs that are primarily English with Spanish subtitles. I see nothing wrong with that as the US technically has no official language.
I mean, it's not like we have to do away with feet or inches, just let them share their glory. Maybe it's the pride of America in wanting to be one of the few left standing, but I know it'd be a lot easier to grasp directions foreigners tell me or find out the temperature when I'm in a different country if Uncle Sam would help me get used to the metric system here in American soil.
Let's start a metric revolution I say in this 53 degree Fahrenheit (12 degree Celsius) Texas weather!
4 comments:
So true. One thing that used to confuse me is that we always used degrees Celsius in Chem, but Fahrenheit everywhere else. I heard below freezing and automatically thought that the temperature was below 0 degrees (but that's partly because it never gets below freezing here, whether you use metric or otherwise).
I think America is scared of the metric system, all the measurements just sound scary and complicated. kilometer, decilitre, hectogram they all sound very intimidating. America is all about what sounds simple like inch, foot, pound, ton, very unassuming words.
Why we don't use Celsius though is beyond me (really? we choose to remember random #'s like 212, 32, and 98 over the simple 0, 100, and 37?)
I wholeheartedly agree!
They tried that when Jimmy Carter was president. All the signs had km/m on them...that's why your car has MPH/KMh on your dashboard. They sold lots of extra tool sets because of that, too. Now you needed a metric set of ratchets instead of your old ratchets.
The mandate was to begin teaching all elementary students both. You can't do both. All you need to do is be educated about the other and use the one you're used to. The initiative failed miserably, as it should've. A free-market economy will demand that those businesses that need America will do what they have to do to get our business. American businesses will do what they have to do to gain market share worldwide. And the government doesn't have to tell us anything.
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