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NEWS - The metric system in America



The metric system in America

P. Schatzman of Whitefish Bay, Wis., asks, 'Whatever happened to...?'

Eric Unmacht

The United States has been intending to "go metric" since 1866, when
Congress first authorized using metrics. The decimal-based system of
weights and measures is simpler to use, so it's faster and one is less
apt to make mistakes using it, which means it saves money. Today, the
US, Liberia, and Burma (Myanmar) are the world's only nonmetric
holdouts. Even Britain, which gave us yards, miles, and pounds, went
metric in 1975.

In 1971, a National Bureau of Standards study concluded that the US
was already metric in some ways and would inevitably join the metric
world. It advised Congress to pass a law to assist in a voluntary,
orderly conversion. The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 created a
Metric Board to head the effort. By 1981, the board had concluded that
it lacked a strong enough mandate. It was dissolved in 1982.


 WHITNEY DODDS WOODRUFF -
 STAFF


Increased trade competition abroad prompted Congress to try again.
The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 included an
amended 1975 Metric Conversion Act and designated the metric
system the "preferred system of weights and measures."

Metrics is still sneaking up on the US. Some industries have already
gone metric, especially those with global markets: construction, farm,
and office equipment, for example; cars, too.

"People are moving more metric than they think," says Lorelle Young,
president of the US Metric Association, an 83-year-old advocacy group
based in Northridge, Calif. "They buy liters of Coke, ski on metric
skis,
ride on metric bikes, and read electric meters that are metric. People
are accepting the metric system, but if they thought they were, they
probably wouldn't like it."