How tall are you? How much do you weigh? What is the temperature outside? Most of you probably know the answers without hesitation. And most of you probably did not answer in meters, kilograms or degrees Celsius. That is because the vast majority of Americans still speak the language of feet, pounds and Fahrenheit. We inherited the system from Great Britain, held onto it after the British moved on, and have defended it with the same determination we reserve for arguing about barbecue and college football rankings.
Some of you may remember the great metric push of the 1970s. International-minded leaders wanted the United States to join most of the rest of the world in using a single measurement system. In 1975, Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act, legislation designed to encourage a transition from feet and pounds to meters and kilograms. The law was voluntary, but many schoolteachers acted as if the change was inevitable.
I still remember being told that if I did not learn the metric system, I would be hopelessly unprepared for the future. Nearly 50 years later, that future has arrived, and most Americans still measure their height in feet and complain about the weather in Fahrenheit.
A handful of laws require consumer products to include both metric and U.S. customary measurements, but that is about as far as the revolution went. Why? Part of the answer is simple: Americans do not like being told to change. Another part is that we have never been especially interested in doing things just because other countries do them. Call it stubbornness. Call it independence. Call it American exceptionalism with a measuring tape.
To be fair, the metric system has its advantages. It is logical, orderly and based on powers of 10. Conversions are easy. Everything fits neatly together.
The imperial system, meanwhile, often appears to have been invented by a committee of medieval farmers and tavern owners. Yet there is something intuitive about it. A foot is roughly the length of a human foot. An inch is about the width of a thumb. You do not need a calculator or a lesson in geography involving the distance from the equator to the North Pole.
As a 7-year-old, learning the metric system felt like homework. I can only imagine how adults reacted. Change tends to happen slowly. In America’s case, sometimes very slowly. Still, the world grows more connected every year. Science, medicine, manufacturing and international trade increasingly rely on metric measurements. Whether we notice it or not, the metric system keeps creeping into our daily lives.
So perhaps the metric advocates will get the last laugh. Maybe 50 years from now, Americans will measure themselves in meters, buy produce by the kilogram and check the weather in Celsius. But do not bet against us finding a way to keep talking about 6-foot-tall people and 75-degree days.
Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Times Vedette digital newsletter
shane@gctimesnews.com
641-332-2707