Metric system

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There is a broader, perhaps slightly less biased, article on Wikipedia about Metric system

The metric system uses measures that are all synchronized,^[1] and are used in a decimal fashion for smaller and larger measurements, using standard prefixes to indicate orders of magnitude. This makes the system incredibly easy to work in. It has been almost universally adopted for use around the world, and is the only system of measurement used in scientific work (but see "problems caused by having two systems" below).

The system shares most of its measurements with the "Standard International system", abbreviated "SI", which are the specific units used in science.

[edit] Clinging medievalism

Despite the utter sense that the metric system makes, and the ease of use, in the United States there has been tremendous resistance to its adoption, for two reasons - (1) it was (apparently) invented by the French, and all good American citizens know they're not to be trusted, and (2) all those awful complicated headachy conversion thingies. In spite of this, everyone in the U.S. is quite comfortable with two litre bottles ^[2] of carbonated sweetened beverages and 9 mm bullets. And every alcoholic knows perfectly well that 750 ml is close enoough to a "fifth" that ish doesdst' rrelly mater.

The metric system has, however, found wide use among entrepreneurs in America's inner cities.^[3]

In the UK, by comparison, there is less outright hostility (well, with the exception of Daily Mail readers, who probably think centimetres cause cancer) to the system and more tedious bloody-mindedness to just stick with the traditional system. Despite EU regulations that say food products must be sold in metric kilograms (a form of standardisation across Europe) some traders insist quite forcefully in using old, Imperial units. Because this is illegal and against Trading Standards laws, it leads to the so-called "Metric Martyr" cases. Originally just a tabloid euphemism for traders prosecuted for dealing in Imperial units, the term is now used for those fighting against the original prosecutions, and expanded to outright opposing Europe in general.^[4]

[edit] Awesome simplicity

This article/section deals with mathematical concepts appropriate probably still too hard for Ed Poor

As these examples show, the metric system is a far clearer way of expressing simple truths:

• I'd walk 1.6 km for a Camel.
• (Sings): "2.54 centimetre worm, 2.54 centimetre worm, measuring the marigold..."
• I'd walk 1,609,344 km/For one of your smiles
• A stitch in time saves nine (wtf?!)
• 28.35 g of prevention is worth .45 kg of cure
• 0.473 l is 0.454 kg the world around (Er, well actually only in the USA)
• That British money is soooo confusing (they decimalized in 1969, kids)
• Give them 2.54 cm and they'll take 0.9144 metres!
• 96,000 Kilometres Under the Sea by Jules Verne
• How many teaspoons in a cup, again? (50)
• "Many multiples of 1.6 km to go before I sleep"
• "A fer piece thataways" and "you can't git thar from heah" both retain the exact same meaning.
• The longest word in the English language is "smiles", because there is 1.6 km between the first and last letters

[edit] Metric time

When the French revolutionaries brought in the new metric system, they also brought in the French Republican Calendar, which decimalized time with uniformly thirty-day months (five or six days being added at the end of each year to keep the seasons in step), ten-day weeks, ten-hour days,^[5] 100-minute hours and 100-second minutes. This did not prove terribly popular and was abolished less than 15 years after it was brought in.

Ironically, using a decimal system for the "arbitrary" increments of the day (as noted above), the "new second" would be within 10% of the "old second". So counting off would translate to "one nine hundred, two nine hundred, three nine hundred, ...". See how easy this would be?

[edit] Problems caused by having two systems

In 1999, confusion within NASA about the use of metric and SAE units resulted in the loss of a 125 million dollar Mars space probe. ^[6]

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ Their units relate directly to each other, ie, 1 cubic centimetre = 1 millilitre, and one litre of water (at STP) weighs almost one kilogram.
2. ↑ Some businesses manage to sell beverages in 2 quart (1.89 L) bottles/cartons which make them slightly more profitable. N.B.: An Imperial quart is 1.16 US quarts, and is in fact larger than a litre.
3. ↑ http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28768
4. ↑ metricmartyrs.co.uk - and just to show that the US doesn't have the monopoly on conservative paranoia, they decided to post a (dead) link to "20,000 road signs in kilometres – an evil EU plot?"
5. ↑ Working eight hours a day all of a sudden sounds a lot longer!
6. ↑ Metric muddle crashed rocket.