3 out of 193

Myanmar. Liberia. The United States. Out of 193 countries in the world, these three hold the distraction of continuing to clutch onto the antiquated avoirdupois system of measurement as their standard. While we easily accept that there will always be a few small countries that are outside looking in on this or that bit of standardization, I think the stunning thing is the continued inclusion of the United States on this list. It defies rational explanation.

Careful readers of just about anything I write will note that I generally include conversions of measurements so that everyone else is spared having to figure out that there are 39.27 inches to a meter, 2.54 centimeters (exactly) to an inch, and other such silliness. I go to the trouble as a courtesy to the Internet readers in the other 190 countries who are all on the same page. The exception to this stylistic rule is in my fiction, where I use metric exclusively unless I need avoirdupois for effect. Though it irks American editors, I do this so that when the United States does eventually change over to the metric system, my stories will already be up to date. Also, it eliminates the need to go through the story yet again and find every avoirdupois reference and convert them for the rest of the world.

Like many of you, I was introduced to the metric system in a significant way in science classes in junior high (or more recently, middle school). What. A. Pain. Why couldn’t people just do things our way? Why did we have to learn something so complicated as the metric system?

Then I actually started using the metric system (the benefit of lots of science classes). Guess what? Easy. One hundred centimeters to a meter is so much easier to calculate from than twelve inches to a foot, and three feet to a yard (or thirty-six inches to a yard). One thousand meters to a kilometer was so much easier to deal with than 5280 feet in a mile. When a recipe calls for eight ounces of flour, does it mean by weight or volume – avoirdupois uses the same words for both? Metric would be grams for mass or liters (or cubic centimeters) for volume. It’s really not so very complicated.

The tragedy is that the U.S. has technically been poised to go metric since the late nineteenth century. Congress half-heartedly tried to force the issue, but inevitably, the effort collapsed despite bills having been signed into law.

The funny thing is that there’s little reason to oppose a changeover. In fact, for many international product producers, it will be a relief to stock only one size of parts (i.e. all metric) to build their products. Most things on our selves will only need to be relabeled. The only major problem is with the odometers in vehicles, which are almost all in miles.

So, if we ignore the odometers, what’s the problem? Mostly, misplaced fear. People fear having to do all of these conversions in order to get on with their lives. That’s basically what made the metric system so hard to learn in school. We were converting instead of being retaught.

Let’s say we’re trying to teach the metric system to a twelve-year-old who has grown up with avoirdupois. How best to teach about mass (also known as weight…which is in accurate, but we’ll let it slide for now)? My thought is, you hand that young person a ball that has a mass of 200 grams. You tell them that this is what 200 grams feels like. You DO NOT tell them that it’s the same as seven ounces. No, no, no. No conversions. If they know what a kilogram feels like, then they have no need to do the conversion. With similar first-hand experience with the metric system, it doesn’t take long for the child to learn all they need to be metrified.

In practice, though, people overstate how tied they are to our measurement system. Someone says to drive down the road about a mile and turn. Honestly, how many of us know how far that mile really is without an outside aide? If I put forty-five and a half liters of gas in my car instead of twelve gallons, what do I care if it still costs me thirty-six dollars for gas? The reality is, it’s just numbers. After just a few weeks, most of us will have adapted, and even the most recalcitrant will be on the bandwagon within a year.

So, socially, this is not a very big issue. What about economically? There would be some pain…mostly with road signs and maps. There’s no getting around that. Auto manufactures should have a way to change odometers, and a licensing system in place to make certain they are set correctly following the necessary conversion. Some equipment that reads in only avoirdupois will have to be updates and/or replaced. People think almost immediately about gas pumps, but now that they’ve mostly been computerized, it’s really just a simple software change.

Frankly, a lot of the change can be made in the background as existing items in stock are replaced with more accurate metric stock. Sure, some manufacturers will complain about having to retool, but most have already had to — as I mentioned before, if you have been selling to an international market, you had to make parts suitable for the tools in those other markets…which just happen to be metric.

Once again, the time has come for the United States to emerge from the 19th century. Yes, there will be a year of growing pains, but the end result will be more than worth it.

Start using the metric system from time-to-time in your own life. At my local deli, some of the counter people are (legal) immigrants. It’s fun to see the smile cross their face when I ask for 250 grams of cheese, or 500 grams of potato salad (that’s roughly a half pound and a pound, respectively). Now I admit, Celsius confuses me more than I’d generally like to admit, and I’m still not really comfortable with joules, newtons, and pascals, but I’m willing to adapt. I didn’t grow up using the metric system in my everyday life, but I have found that it’s not nearly as tough to get used to as most people think. Give it a try. I think you’ll like it.