COMMENTARY: Isn’t it time to change to metric system?

Recently, I participated in a “Sour Dough Breads” class at Moraine Park Technical College.

The very knowledgeable baker, Tom Endejan, was showing us how to measure some of the ingredients for making our dough. He placed one ingredient on a scale that measured in ounces. Then he switched the ingredient to a scale that measured in grams. Tom explained that the gram scale was much more precise.

This little incident reminded me once again how the American public still operates with an old system of weights and measures. As we all know, our traditional system consists of an interesting assortment of numbers and terms. All the way from ....

•Eight fluid ounces in a cup to four cups in a quart to four quarts in a gallon.

•Or 12 inches in a foot to three feet in a yard to 1,760 yards in a mile.

•Or two dry gallons in a peck to four pecks in a bushel.

•And then there are the pounds per square inch, horse power, grains and teaspoons, just to name a few more.

The metric system was designed to be universal for “all people for all time” (Marquis de Condorset). It was originally created for commerce and the ordinary people. It consists of a standard set of interrelated base units such as the meter and the gram, and a standard set of prefixes in powers of 10 such as deci, centi and milli. The elegance and simplicity of the system attracted scientists and engineers as well.

Consider the beauty of how this system uses natural phenomena for reproducing the base units.

The meter is defined in terms of the speed of light. This is more accurate and reproducible than a prototype meter. The Celsius temperature scale is based on the triple point of water, which involves temperature and pressure (thermodynamics). Zero degrees centigrade is the freezing point for water and 100 degrees is the boiling point.

The metric system or the International System of Units is the official system of measurements in almost every country in the world. As of a few years ago, there were only three countries that had not adopted the system: Myanmar (Burma), Liberia and the United States. The two smaller countries are now completing the process of official adoption and transition to the metric system.

In 1866 the metric system was legalized in the USA, which made it unlawful to refuse to trade or deal in metric quantities. Many efforts have been made to officially adopt the system but have failed mostly due to manufacturers citing the cost of conversion.

For example, in 1927 several million people signed more than 100,000 petitions urging congress to adopt the metric system. In 1975, congress did pass The Metric Conversion Act. Some of you may remember the many highway signs that displayed miles and kilometers. Partly because of public resistance, the United States Metric Board was disbanded in 1982 by Ronald Reagan.

Would it be difficult to convert? For one thing, we are already used to using the decimal system. Thomas Jefferson helped our country to become the first in the world to adopt a decimal currency. We are so used to our 10-based money system that we don’t remember the difficulties of the old British currency, such as 12 pence to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound and even coins with other names such as guineas and crowns. We used to use the Spanish pieces of eight, which were based on 4, 8, etc.

Already, there are many uses of the metric system in our country. I remember as a track and field coach when the track measurements changed in the mid 1970’s to metric. Globalization is moving the manufacturing industry to adopt metric measurements. The computer and electronics industries have largely converted. The military, and much of science and medicine uses the International System. Our most common metric consumer item is the two-liter bottle.

Our country needs to make the change. It’s time. We won’t have to perform any more complicated conversion calculations between the traditional and metric systems. Once we have made the conversion, we will wonder why it took us so long.

Diana Beck, a retired teacher who spent 33 years in the Fond du Lac School District, is a member of the local Audubon Society Board and is active in eradicating invasive species.