Standardizations

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