🚀 go-pugleaf

Summary:reposting from sci.space



In article <2560002@hpclrk.HP.COM> rajiv@hpclrk.HP.COM writes:
>
>
>One more observation. 
> I seem to believe that the reason US does not switch to SI is largely
>economic. In US, most industry bluprints are based on FPS system.  The
>workers only know how to add "40 pounds of a ceratin catalyst". If today
    ...(more words)...
>not know how much a liter is but it is ok because there is not *one* place
>on the whole USA which will sell them gas by liters only.  So everybody is
 ........

    The reason that the U.S. doesn't switch to the metric system is 
    because legislators are afraid of being voted out of office if 
    they force their constituents to engage in any form of mental 
    activity more strenuous than watching DALLAS. People in the 
    U.S. handle weights and measures intuitively, but since the metric
    system is decimal in nature, they are afraid that they would be
    forced to learn to multiply and divide in their heads. What is needed
    is a common man's metric system, one which allows intuitive measurement
    without mathematics.

	     therefore ....

	     THE INTUITIVE METRIC SYSTEM
	     ---------------------------

 Volume:

 Most Americans know of only two measures of volume, the gallon(because
 milk and gasoline come that way), and the cup(because they drink from it).
 Some gifted individuals can recognize a quart, either because they know
 how much is in a can of motor oil, or because they buy their milk in small
 containers that say one quart on them. 

 Well folks , think of quarts, because the main unit of volume in the metric
 system is a LITER, which for all practical purposes is a quart. If you can't 
 remember quarts, try 4 liters in a galllon, or 1/4 liter in a cup.

 Distance:

 To the average American, there are several types of distances.

 Distances from one place to another-
  these are measured in miles, which are meaninglessly huge, except that
  one mile takes one minute to drive on the freeway( at 60 miles per hour).

  In the metric system we use kilometers, which are just over half a mile.
  They take about 36 seconds to drive on the freeway( at 100 kilometers
  per hour). Since the kilometer is smaller than the mile, places will now
  be farther apart, but thats OK because you will get to drive faster(won't
  it be nice to see your speedometer say 100) .

 Distances to objects in view-

  these are measured in yards, one yard is one big step, 100 yards is a
  football field.

  In the metric system, there is very little change. The medium distance 
  measure will be the METER. A meter is so close to a yard that you won't
  notice the change.

 Sizes of large objects -

  these are measured in feet, and maybe sometimes yards. A foot is the size 
  of common objects like a notebook, or a magazine. Most people use feet
  primarily to measure their own height (or feet and inches).

  In the metric system , there are no feet, we have to use meters again. They
  are not so hard to get used to, though. President Reagen is two meters tall.
  The front door on your house is probably just about a meter wide.

 Sizes of small objects -

  these are measured in inches. Some larger objects that we wish were smaller
  are measured in inches too (like our waistlines). An inch is the distance
  between our fingers when we hold them one inch apart.

  In the metric system, we use centimeters. A centimeter is just under half
  an inch, or about the thickness of a regular pencil. This has some advantages
  and disadvantages. One advantage is that you are over twice as tall as
  you were in inches(6 ft. = 72 inches = 180 cm) , but you are also over 
  twice as fat (34 inch waist = 84 cm waist). Oh, well, you can't win em all.



Weight:

  Most Americans have almost no intuitive feel for weight. Pick up the 
  the coffee cup on your desk and hand it to someone. Ask them how much
  it weighs and you will get guesses ranging from 1 ounce to 10 pounds.
  The only weight which has any meaning to an American is their body
  weight. If you are a man , this is about 200 pounds, but since you haven't
  bothered to weigh yourself in 20 years , you still think its about 150.
  If you are a woman, you weigh yourself daily, and know that you weigh
  about 125 pounds, but you only admit to 110 of them.

  In the metric system, there is good news. We switch to kilograms, which
  are equal to over 2 pounds(2.2 actually). This means you will soon weigh
  less than half what you do now, without dieting. A man will come in at
  about 90 kg, and a woman at about 55 (admit to 50). 

  One other miscelllaneous weight which a few Americans are concerned with
  is the ounce. This is hard to deal with because it is both a measure of
  volume and of weight ( amazingly enough, almost no one realizes that one
  ounce(liquid) of water weighs exactly one ounce(weight) by definition).
  The ounce is mentioned here because it the amount that a letter which takes
  one 22 cent stamp weighs. In the metric system we switch to grams. A gram
  is about the weight of a stick of Trident chewing gum. You can put about 
  twenty eight of them in the mail for one 22 cent stamp.



Temperature (thanks to Amos Shapir):

   To most Americans temperature is an entirely subjective measurement, 
   the most important unit of which is too( as in 'its too hot' or 
   'its too cold'). The official scale is degrees farenheit, where 
   32 degrees F is the freezing point of water and 212 is the boiling
   point (as if anyone cared). Farenheit is based on an historical 
   accident and is calibrated from the accidental top and bottom of 
   a thermometer made by some guy hundreds of years ago. This thermometer
   has since been copied by every dime store in the universe and is sold
   for about 5 cents, making Farenheit easily accessible to everyone.

   In the metric system, we use degrees centigrade. The centigrade scale
   was deliberately based on an easily obtained scale, the freezing point
   (0 degrees) and boiling point (100 degrees) of water. Since these things
   vary with both altitude and the purity of the water, they are almost 
   impossible to get right without precise scietific lab equipment and thus
   have been embraced by the scientific community.

   In order to make centigrade useful to the common folks, a conversion
   chart is included that converts from Farenheit to Centigrade to the Too
   scale.

       Farenheit       Centigrade      Too
       ---------        ---------      ----
       212              100             Too hot to drink

       100              38              Too hot to go outside,
					stay in where its air conditioned
       72               23              Perfect

       50               10              Too chilly to go out without
					a sweater
       32                0              To cold to go out without
					a coat
       0 (and below)     -18            Too damn cold for almost anything




NOW YOU KNOW THE INTUITIVE METRIC SYSTEM

  Now when somebody tells you that a spaceship has 6 million kilograms of
  thrust you can file that fact in the special place in your brain ( just
  like UNIX /dev/null ) which is reserved for incomprehensibly large
  figures like the distance to the sun, and the weight of the moon. 

  The nice thing about international standardization is that we may not
  understand the world around us any better, but at least we can all
  miscomprehend it in the same units.


  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  the opinions above were my own when I thought of them, by tomorrow
  they may belong to someone else.   ihnp4!wlbr!etn-rad!jru