The Metric System

• In 1975 the United States passed the Metric Conversion Act, a bold move by Congress to gradually transition America's units of measurement from feet and pounds to meters and kilograms. Since the U.S. is one of only three countries on the planet using the Imperial System of Measurement, the radical new legislation was designed to bring the US up to speed with the rest of the world.

• So why hasn't it changed? The answer is simple; the law was completely voluntary. It meant that anyone who didn't want the hassle and confusion of transitioning from the standard measurements of feet, pounds and gallons over to metrics, didn't actually have to. And since that represented the vast majority of the American public and the US business industry, the metrics movement never took off.

• Whether you feel that's a good thing or a bad thing, Tidbits thought it would at least be interesting to look at the metric system to see how it works and what the benefits of using it might be -- and leave it up to you to decide.

METRICS HISTORY

• The Greek word “metron,” from which we get meter and metric, means “a measure.” Gram is French for “weight.” The metric system is the only system deliberately designed to be easy to learn and simple to use. No other system of measurement links units of length, volume, and mass as the metric system does. The metric system has seven base units that account for all measurements. Our Imperial system has over 20.

• Today, the only countries that do not use the metric system are the U.S. and the trend-setting nations of Liberia and Burma.

• The metric system was invented in France in 1799. A meter was defined as one ten-millionth of the length of an imaginary line from the North Pole to the Equator as it passes through Paris (39.37 inches). Of course you're likely familiar with these elementary facts already, but we'll mention them anyway: It has also been defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red light from the isotope Krypton 86, as measured in a vacuum. Today one meter is more accurately measured as the distance travelled by light in a vacuum during 1/299,792,548 of a second.

• The aforementioned Metric Conversion Act of 1975 actually wasn't the first time the U.S. tried to switch over to the metric system. In 1866, Congress passed a law that said Americans could use the metric system if they liked. It didn't catch on then, either. Then in 1900, they were once again close to adopting the metric system, but the influentual machinist’s lobby vigorously opposed it. They painted a frightening picture of complete national chaos if the metric system was adopted. All factories would have to close! Property deeds would be invalidated! All bottles, bushels, and boxes would have to be discarded! Grocery stores would have to shut down! The economy would collapse! None of this was true, of course, but the alarmed citizenry was outraged, and our Imperial measurement system stubbornly remains intact today.

SYSTEM SIMPLICITY

• A decimeter is 1/10th of a meter. A cubic decimeter equals one liter. A liter of water weighs 1,000 grams. With metrics, if you know how big an object is, you can find out what its weight is just by moving the decimal point.

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

• Arguing for the adoption of the metric system, Alexander Graham Bell gave Congress an imaginary problem: You have a tank containing 123,456,789 cubic inches of water. You want to know the weight and volume of the water. First you must go to the library to find out how many cubic inches of water are in a gallon and how much a gallon of water weighs. Then you must complete difficult calculations. But if the tank contains 123,456,789 cubic centimeters of water, you need only to move the decimal point over to find out that it holds 123,456.789 liters and that it weighs 123,456.789 kilograms. Congress wasn't convinced enough to pass it.

INCH BY INCH

• The Army, and Marines use metrics. So does NASA. The Olympics have been metric since they began in 1896. The first country in the Western Hemisphere to adopt metrics was Colombia, which explains why cocaine is purchased in grams and kilograms. Your electricity is measured in metric kilowatt hours, and you buy skis in centimeters. Your medication is dispensed in milligrams, the power of your vehicle is shown in cubic centimeters, and it's a safe bet your auto mechanic keeps a set of metric tools handy in his shop.

NASA, the U.S. Marines, and Army use the metric system.

• But it's still pretty clear that we Americans prefer to measure sugar by the teaspoon, buy steak by the ounce, and potatoes by the pound. We could probably adjust to a four liter container of milk, but it's so easy to think of it in quarts and gallons. Does our dairy industry really have to worry about international markets? And it doesn't look like we'll be moving away from acres as units of real estate anytime soon.