I think Bjorn gave us the best flavor of what it takes to get used to a system.
The reason it's taking so long for the US to go metric is because the big push in the '70's (when I was in grade school) was such a flop. Instead of trying to give everyone a feel for the 'new' units, we were told, hey, look, an inch is 2.54 centimeters and a gallon is 3.7854 liters! No problem! Here's a table for you to memorize. Naturally, that made no sense to anyone. Plus, manufacturers objected to the real cost: retooling factories for metric sizes on nuts and bolts, etc.
Now, I have to think we've come a long way. Most people who use wrenches have already bought a metric set and maybe wish they wouldn't have to keep the english set too.
By the way, for radon measurements, is there anything metric that captures the real meaning of a working level?
Mark G. Hogue, CHP
mark.hogue@srs.gov
"But we surely overrate the usefulness of what we like to call "stimulation" and underrate the need for time, peace of mind, mature reflection." - Susan Haack
"DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent Westinghouse Savannah River Co. or the United States Department of Energy."
"Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@HOTMAIL.COM> Sent by: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
04/07/03 11:23 PM
Please respond to "Bjorn Cedervall"
To: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
cc:
Subject: RE: Bq soon
> We have the classical system that works.
No it doesn't, some Americans don't understand it. They just don't do the
necessary calculations and replace them by guess work (I spent 3.5 years in
the U.S.). Others deselect science just because of the units.
It was interesting to see that sentence about buying meat because that is
exactly the only real problem I had in the U.S. - without a calculator I
just look at the piece if it is something that goes beyond the pound level
(are you really happy with those different kinds of ounces?). Otherwise it
has generally been no problem having two systems referring to. I do
understand that costs can be an argument against comversion.
I would do a conversion in steps, the first being replacing gallons by
liters, one gallon is just a little less than 4 liters so liters cannot be
difficult to understand. Let that stabilize for 15 years or so - then people
will ask for the kilo when they realize how smart it is with the liters.
Many here in Sweden routinely switch/convert between three exchange rates
(SEK - Swedish crowns, Euros and USD) - there is no real problem and here we
are not even dealing with a constant in the conversion. Quite a few of us do
look forward to a Euro for Sweden as well - it will only take us some 2 to 6
months to get used to it and not even think about it any more (like moving
to a foreign country and using another currency).
What we are talking about for many of the units are linear conversions.
Suppose that we are buying apples (of the same weight) and there are 4
apples per kilo (kg). Now we want to by 2 kg of apples so there are two ways
of expressing it: Either buy 2 kg or buy 8 apples. This is the level of
understanding that is required. Most 11 years olds can do it. Only a simple
conversion factor to use.
>We should ask some of the Canadians how the general population feels about
>buying their gasoline in liters or their meat by the kilogram, and how
>about temperatures?
I can't understand that this is an argument.
As already said, I understand the cost argument however.
Take the following: How many of you understand immediately 1/16384 of an
inch - just to follow the binary division logic? Compare with an expression
like 0.001 mm which most metric oriented people can get some sense of
immediately.
I yesterday encountered mg for magnetic fields BTW :-(
My personal ideas only,
Bjorn Cedervall bcradsafers@hotmail.com
PS. One gram of radium is not a good basis because of the different isotopes
and also because of the daughter products - a definition based on one gram
of Ra can thus easily be misunderstood. One Bq is one event per second. That
can never be difficult for anyone.
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