METRICation US

New US President Obama should complete the metrication of the USA as soon as possible.
The USA started off using metric at one time. But over time, the silly old imperial units gained more prominence, becoming known as "English" units, despite being different in their definitions to those used in England, even though most of the world was changing to metric.
Why stay in the dark ages with US Customary Units? If Obama wants change, the way forward is metrication now.

Vote now at the Obama Ideas site:
http://ideas.obamacto.org/

Celsius temperature is easy for an American to learn. The way to success is NOT to convert, but to get used to interpreting Celsius readings. Zero degrees C is the freezing point of water, so ice forms--or melts---at 0 C. Single numbers to teens are chilly to cool. Room temperature, or a comfortable day outdoors, would be in the low 20s. Over 30? A very warm to hot summer day. Normal body temperature is a toasty 37. Water boils at 100.

Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc.
http://www.metric.org

So I got kinda annoyed at always having to measure large quantities of awkwardly-shaped objects such as broccoli in dinky plastic measuring cups, and was wishing I could just use my nice shiny digital electronic scale to weigh all my zone blocks. How does one go about measuring 8 cups of spinach anyway? I found this handy-dandy list (wfs) from the Health Canada website which lists macronutrient quantities, various micronutrients, etc. for a wide range of foods, and most usefully it contains the mass of each of the quantities of food.

The Foothills Trail in Pierce County Washington is 24.1 km long. Here is signage to mark distance along the trail. I am waiting on permission from the governing body of the trail to post these signs. Has anyone else done something similar?

by: lpsweers@comcast.net

My friend Jeff obstinately uses Celsius units when describing the weather regardless to whom he's talking. Celsius might be one of the most difficult of day-to-day Metric units for an American because most of us have no clue what to wear based solely on a Celsius reading of the temperature. Is 20° C hot or cold? Most of us don't know without performing a conversion to Fahrenheit first. As it turns out, 20° C is a pleasant 68° F.
Jeff's independent change of habit to using metric temperature units inspired me to do the same; I reconfigured the weather widget on my Google homepage to display metric units. Doing so has increased my familiarity with the range of temperatures from 30° C to 45° C this summer but has done little else to spark a greater comfort with the Celsius unit.

The Digg charts have been going haywire over this map of countries that don’t use the Metric System. While grams and kilometers aren’t exactly embraced here, the US has definitely been flirting with the measurement scheme for a very long time (Jefferson was an advocate!). Here’s a look at 6 quirky things I just learned about the Metric System.

Many issues still surround the use of the Metric System in manufacturing today. In the 70's there was an effort to increase the use of the metric system in the United States. Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, then the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act in 1988, making the metric system the preferred method. Today the US still does not consider the metric system as its primary or preferred means of measurement.

Looking more specifically at the manufacturing of fasteners, screw, and bolts metric fasteners are in a large part driven by the Automotive Industry. Let's start with design and engineering. In the 70's many companies were still on draft boards, however today we fully utilize CAD systems which not only let us draw parts to size instead of scale, they easily switch between the english and metric systems of measurement. However specifications are still hard to get in metric, Why is there not a IFI standard for metric hex washer head when one is available in inches?

Those planning to travel, for business or pleasure will do well to learn the system of length conversion known as the metric system. In fact, a knowledge of metric length conversion will serve you well wherever you go on the planet, since only three countries in the world - Liberia, Myanmar and the U.S. - have refused to accept the metric system. (In the U.S., rejection of the metric system cost NASA $125 million dollars when a valuable Mars probe was lost back in 1999, because the scientists were working with two different measurement systems.)