'No' to metric conversion
By Design News Staff -- Design News, April 19, 1998
I read with interest your article on bobsleds, and how it is an American sport. While reading the sidebar "It began in America," I was put through what has become a normal "convert-metric-to-American" process.
Let's see, it's 244 cm wide, there are 2.54 cm/inch, so that means it's a little less than 100 inches wide and that would be about eight feet. Now I have to go through the same mental gymnastics for the length, and then the steering handles. By this time, I've forgotten what the article was about. Wouldn't it be more meaningful to an American readership to say it's eight feet wide?
I'm one of those guys who hates everything metric because it's being crammed down our throats and because it doesn't make sense. Metric is arbitrary and of interest mostly to academics who only know how to divide by ten. It is funny that elsewhere the binary world is taking over, but American measure, which is mostly binary, is losing out (fractional measure, liquid measure, dry measure are all binary based).
Mostly, I am irritated in seeing an article talking about an American invention described in metric measure. I spent my whole life learning what a mile is and what 100 yards is, and now I'm told that it's kilometers and meters instead. Europe imposes tariffs of from 25% to 60% on my goods, severely limiting my sales there. So why does the American government, press, and academia bend over backwards for them?
I don't normally write letters, but the irony of the article really got to me, on one of my pet peeves.
Thanks for your indulgence.
Bob White
WhiTek
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