http://www.overdriveonline.com...de042878d8dc40246f2a


Ouch.

wow… I taught high school chemistry for years. Some kids never could get conversions right (We had to do mostly metric system, multiplying and dividing by tens and just moving the decimal around.)

I always wondered what became of those kids. I guess some of them become truck drivers.

During my High School years of the mid 70's it was taught that we were going to be changing over to metric system in this country. For the next several years they made us learn conversion to metric. It wasn't till my senior year that my electronics teacher asked if we new the metric system. Classmates and I all could give conversions, But not one of us had been taught the relationship of the metric system of weight volume and lengths.

As simple as a 10 x 10 x10 cm cube of water (1 liter) = 1 kg was never taught to us. I have asked several high school students if they know the metric system. Most of them can give me conversion #, but almost none know the metric system.

Here some 40 years later the use of the metric system in this country is not being taught. New American car are Built with metric hardware, engines in liters (2.0, 4.3, 5.7, 5.9 ect.) we still rate them in h.p., ft.lb of torque, mpg, mph, and our 18" rims.

We sell 2 liter bottle of soda, but 12 oz. cans of beer and gallon of milk chilled at 36 deg. f. and we wonder why they don't know what a ton is.

I rarely asked them to convert to and from the metric system, only within it. The ease of conversion within the system is that you only move the decimal point around, one of the main reasons to use it in the first place.

Within the English system we must remember 12 inches per ft, 3 ft per yd, 5280 ft per mile, 8 ounces per qt, 4 gts per gallon, 16 ounces per pound, etc. A nightmare.

Converting to metric is just as bad, 2.54 cm to inch, 37.39 inches per meter, 1.04 liters per qt 454 gram to the pound. Another nightmare.

Be assured, the US in one of only a couple nations around the world that isn't metric. If we all jumped on board as we could have all those complicated conversions would go away. Until then we'll see airplanes running out of fuel, ordered in kilograms and delivered in pounds. (A kilogram is 2.2 lbs) 100 kilos is way more than 100 pounds!

A few years ago, NASA crashed and lost a Mars lander because the reentry had been calculated in ft/sec instead of m/sec. Expensive error.

As a scientist I never gave English measurements a second thought, everything was liters, meters or grams and easy to convert. I am surprised how long the conversion has taken in this country. When I was in high school the change was considered imminent but has not seemed to materialize. Time will tell!

Bottom line: I've had to keep both English and Metric tools in my toolbox for 40 years now...

Long tonnes are 2240 lbs., but not enough to forgive the driver. When I was wrenching on Mercedes, we had "even" and "odd" cars - denoting the range of metric wrenches.

The ONLY Country on Earth that has put a man on the Moon, and brought him back . . . uses feet, gallons, and pounds.