You want to know why European and Asian kids are kicking our children’s butts in math and science? So here’s the question, why the heck are we still using the English system? What are we, dumb? Now, some of you probably think I’m being harsh or unkind. Yeah, well consider it tough love.

There are a bunch of good reasons to kiss the English system of measurement goodbye, not the least of which is that we’re the last damn country to be using it, including England. Here are a few of them.

*If math makes your eyes roll up into your head, skip to the end.

Some time ago I mentioned that (a) I had written a technical paper on the use of SI units and (b) that I should write a blog or two on this topic. Then, I promptly forgot ’cause it’s what I do. I’ve been senile since I was four. Someone asked me today about some comments written back in January. Before the baby? Are you kidding? I do a mindwipe each weekend; I can’t even imagine what I lost when I had a baby. Somehow, though I remember all six wives of Henry VIII and anything else that has absolutely no purpose..

What was I talking about again? Oh right, the metric system.

Units are ambiguous. You know a difference between a pound-force or a pound-mass? Most people don’t. So how much in an ounce? Troy, fluid, standard and, of course, there’s an ounce-force, too. How about a mile? There’s a survey mile, statute mile, Scottish mile, ancient English and Roman miles, Irish mile, international mile and no less that three different nautical miles. Note that the US uses no less than three of these forms of mile. Know how many different kilometers there are? Yep, just the one and they use the same damn one all over the world. The same liters, Newtons, kilograms… One and only one and everyone uses it, even us.

Different units for the same damn parameter. How many units do we have for distance? There’s, of course, all the different flavors of mile, foot and inch. Also furlong, mil, angstrom, parsec, league, yard… In metric there are meters and factors of 1000 of meters. That’s all. In volume, there are cubic inches and cubic feet, also gallons, pints, quarts, barrels, etc. In metric, there are liters and factors of 1000 of liters. The other side of the coin is that, by knowing the unit, you know the parameter. Newtons are force. Kg are mass. Pounds, of course, can be either. Ounces can be a measure of weight or a measure of force or a measure of volume.

Fractions. Whose frickin’ idea was it to use fractions of an inch for measurements? Say you’re fixin’ a car (assuming that even US cars hadn’t gone metric a couple decades ago, which they did). You try your handy dandy 3/8 wrench but it’s too big. So, what’s the next size smaller? 13/32 or 5/16? Or is one of them bigger? You’re sitting there doing conversions in your head. Now which is smaller in metric? 10mm or 9mm? Hmm, tough call.

Side note: One of the arguments still trotted out against metrication is that converting to metric would be prohibitively expensive. A couple of decades ago, the auto industry went metric. One company set up a team to figure out what it was costing them, which they quietly disbanded when they realized that reducing the number of tools required and streamlining spares (# fasteners sizes was reduced drastically) saved them more money than conversion cost them.

Calculations with Fractions. [Math warning for the math squeamish!]: If you think picking a wrench is challenging, try calculating anything, like something simple: area. The room is 12′ 9″ by 15′ 5″ - How big is it? (You go ahead and figure that out. It’s actually faster for me to convert it to metric and do the math: 3.89*4.70=18.283 square meters=196.8 sqf - and no, I’m not converting anything back to fractions). Now, imagine doing calculations on rocket thrust or something complicated with fractions of an inch (I’m trying not to).

Conversion within a unit system. Know how many inches in a foot? Of course you do. How many ounces in a pint? Probably. How about in a gallon? Uh. How many feet in a mile? How about a nautical mile? If you know all those, you have a better memory than I do. Know how many meters in a kilometer? Yep, 1000. How many mm in a meter? Yep, 1000. Know how many grams in a kg? 1000 again. See no memory required. So, how many mm in 5.876 m? 5876. So, how many feet in 756 inches? How many nautical miles in 19, 6758 feet? How easy is it to check to see if your answer is right in metric? And English units? Admit it, you’re going to have to use the calculator twice, assuming you get the same answer both times.

You want to know why European and Asian kids are kicking our children’s butts in math and science? I guarantee this is part of the reason.

Conversion to a different system of units. You know, whenever there’s an issue with metrication, it’s almost always because of conversion. Someone does their calculations in one system of units and then converts it, but makes a mistake along the way. Or someone does calculations in one system of units and doesn’t notice it needs to be converted. We’ve lost spacecraft that way. So, why does that argue for one system over the other. Well everyone but us uses the smart system. If we stop using English units, conversion issues become a thing of the past because, hey, we don’t have to convert any more.

There are, of course, also reasons associated with making us compatible with the rest of the world, improving the appeal of our products overseas. And that it’s the law that we change (which has been there for decades). Tool simplification, drastically reducing long term production costs because of reduced spares and tooling requirements. Lower error rates across the board because it’s so much simpler. There’s the fact that many aspects of life are already effectively 100% metric even in this country, like medicine and real science.

But, the bottom line is that the only reason we’re still doing things the stupid way is because we’re too proud to do otherwise. And our children are paying for it.

*Skipped the math did you?

How’s this for a reason? If you weighed 190 pounds, you’ll mass 86 kg. That’s right, a double digit mass.

source :http://rocketscientist.today.com/2008/12/03/the-magic-of-metric/