\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“Keep backing up, Dad. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got at least three meters to go.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“But Adam, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think metric! How close am I \u00e2\u20ac\u201d really?”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Thus went a terse dialogue a quarter-century ago, when our oldest son was telling me how much real estate I had to back up the pickup for dumping trash, before falling off a precipice at least a kilometer deep. Clearly he was doing only as he learned from math teachers at Memorial Middle School.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But those of us who grew up using English units are dia-metric-ally opposed to anything new.<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Does anyone remember when people thought metrically? Teachers pounded it into us during a movement in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc80s to give all of civilization exposure to metrics, and though there are still vestiges of that effort, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moribund. About the only exposure most travelers get to metrics is reading a mileage sign as they return from Santa Fe, showing Las Vegas some 98 kilometers away.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0German-born Eugen Johe of Ojitos Frios tried to convince me that metrics makes more sense than what it failed to replace. “You either multiply by 10 or divide by 10. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that simple,” he said. Johe reminded me that his home country and most of Europe have adopted the metric system. The system actually started in France in 1670; it was fairly recently that the short-lived act got passed in the U.S.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Tomas Salazar, who taught math at Cuba, N.M., Albuquerque Academy, Fort Lewis College and Highlands University, agrees metrics is logical but said whatever impetus the movement generated with the passage of the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 all but died just a few years later.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“Working on my doctorate in math,” Salazar said, “people kept saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a matter of time before metrics takes over.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Though I see the lack of logic in the use of English units \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the length of a tenth of a foot, for example, or the use of “ounce” for both liquid and weight measures \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enhance my understanding of or appreciation for a deciliter. Even a worker who churns out metric socket wrenches in a factory is going to ask for a 12-ounce can of pop rather than 355 ml. of the stuff.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The lack of logic in determining what an inch is, exactly, comes from the decree of some ancient ruler \u00e2\u20ac\u201d er \u00e2\u20ac\u201d monarch, who apparently determined that a foot was the length of his foot.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true that many bottled drinks come in one- and two-liter sizes, but metrics will fly only if the units are small and rounded off. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also true that most products on shelves contain a mixture of metric and English unit information, but those who resist metrics ignore that bit of information.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Attending LaMaze classes before the birth of our third-born, Benji, we heard the leader insist that we get her to the hospital “when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dilated three centimeters.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“Now what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a centimeter?” I asked. Instantly, a host of other husbands created shapes with their hands that ranged from an f.16 lens aperture to something a wee bit larger than the Dolly Parton Towers in Cincinnati.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Even though the metric system, which uses deciliters, milliliters, millimeters, decimeters, kilometers, grams, centigrade degrees, etc. really makes more sense, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cumbersome, unless one grows up with it.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Despite the modified use of metrics in track-and-field events, as with the 100-meter run, it hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t made inroads into mainstream sports.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Imagine laying out a football field metrically and decreeing that one scores a touchdown by having the ball reach the 91.44 meter line, or that midfield is the 45.72 meter line.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Martha Brockenbrough, in a Wikipedia article on metrics, points out that there are practical ways of figuring out the length of a meter: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about the height of a door knob, and a small paper clip weighs about a gram.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0And if the metric movement were to become too successful, people could order a McDonald\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite, the 113.4-Grammer. Someone should have given that answer to Samuel L. Jackson, in “Pulp Fiction,” who asked, “What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s do they call a Quarter-Pounder in France?” before blowing people away.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0It used to be that the speedometers of all American vehicles displayed both English and metric scales for speed. My Ford has only the English units; my PT has both.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In the late \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc70s, when I was at the University of Missouri Journalism School, all of us had to work for the campus daily, the Columbia Missourian.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A newspaper adviser had just lost 75 pounds (34 kilos) and because of that required the rest of us to “try to educate the public in metrics; after all, soon that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be all that people use.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Commenting on her dramatic weight loss as we inched past her desk also helped our grades \u00e2\u20ac\u201d by degrees.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0I think her loss of poundage (er, kilogramage) prompted her to effect the reporting change in all our articles. Her officiousness made many of us students declare, “You give her 2.54 centimeters, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take 1,609.34 meters.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Accordingly, in our reporting, we could use pounds, inches, feet, yards, ounces, etc., but only in direct quotes. Whenever we wrote on weights, lengths and distances we needed to convert them first.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Thus, we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allowed to write, “She lives a half mile away.” We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to write in stead, “She lives .67 kilometers away,” and then we were allowed to fill in the English measurement parenthetically (like this).
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0As luck would have it, the adviser\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name was Rose, and those of us old enough to remember the old song, dubbed her “Metricali Rose.” She liter-ally had no idea there was such a song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“Keep backing up, Dad. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got at least three meters to go.” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“But Adam, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think metric! How close am I \u00e2\u20ac\u201d really?” \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Thus went a terse dialogue a quarter-century ago, when our oldest son was telling me how much real estate I had to back up the pickup for dumping trash, before falling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}