With our 'merican sensitivity to "difficult" math, you might think we'd be less reluctant to adopt some standards that would make our lives a little easier. I'm talking about a conversion to the metric system. Measuring in mL, cm, and g would take a little bit of work at first - some rewriting of recipes, some new traffic signs, and a couple generations who would internally translate mL back to cups. Fine. But the mark of fluency is the ability of think in a new language without internally translating. We could get there. Besides, there is a lot of appeal in powers of ten. I love conversion factors more than most, but even I dig the quick conversion from grams to kilograms or millimeters to centimeters. 1 mi = 5280 ft. 1 gal = 128 oz. or is it 96? 16 c.? And is a cup 8 oz? See what I mean? I know the answers to these, but go ahead - ask ten people on the street, and good luck.
Why the stubborn adherence to the arbitrary? I mean, every other country in the world uses paper with a fixed aspect ratio; it just makes sense for enlarging/reducing. Why do we have to make it difficult for ourselves with legal and letter?
I teach in metric because it's the standard of international science. But I can only do so much to prompt the revolution. Can I get some help here, please?
Originally drafted 7 July 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment