wff_ng_7 wrote:
>
> A couple of years ago I had a conversation with two of my nieces. They said why
> change to metric, it's too hard. They had to deal with it in science classes in
> high school. I told them if we had bitten the bullet 30 years ago (well before
> they were born), they would be using metric and it would be a non-issue for
> them.


I beg to differ with you nieces. The metric system is not harder than the
Imperial system, which makes little sense to most people who swear by it. I
am always prepared for people who claim it is better than metric, just ask
them how many pints are in a gallon, how many gils in a pint, how many
yards in a furlong, how many square rods in an acre. Metric is much easy
to deal with.


> It's funny that in spite of the public's stubborn resistance, a vast number of
> things are in metric and have been for quite a long time. Global trade does that
> kind of thing.

We have been metric in Canada for thirty years now and it works. Soft
drinks come in the same size cans as in the US, but the contents are listed
as 355 ml instead of 12 oz. The only problem with metric for most people is
that that they spend too much time trying to convert it to Imperial instead
of just learning to think metric. It is like learning a second language.
When you start off you spend a lot of energy translating everything from
one language to another. Once you become fluent you stop translating to
yourself.