Often I hear many reasons why America should go metric. One of the more common ones is "America should go metric because the rest of the world has." While there is validity in that argument, I personally don't think it is appropriate reasoning. It doesn't mention the economic, or education benefits. It just says to do what the rest of the world does. Alot of folks may not be very accepting to that reasoning. My suggestion is to encourage metric for its actual benefits, vs the more philosophical "the whole world uses it" debate. In this way, people can get a better understanding of why we should go metric vs the more emotional debate of America not following the rest of the world. Be sure to talk about the cost savings, and the efficiency of trade, for example, when discussing American metric transition. Like I said earlier, avoid emotional debates as they may have the opposite effect of what was intended. Be polite, and be understanding.

Hey folks. I'm sorry I have not been updating my blogs lately. I've been caught up in school work which has been increasing as the weeks go by. I will do my best to update my blogs on a daily basis, however, the blog posting times may differ depending on what I have going on in the day. Oh and I have also received my stuff from the US Metric Association which I am excited about. I received a newsletter, a bumper sticker, a 250 mm ruler,(which I will find very handy), and a thank you letter from the USMA president. Looking forward to being a USMA member

I have never been a fan of conversion charts. I have a few reasons for this but the biggest reason is that it allows a user who sees a metric unit to simply convert to what I call, no offence intended, "ye olde imperial units". An effect of charts that convert units is that some Americans get a mindset of " I can just convert that metric unit to imperial. No need to go metric." The problem with this is that, tables allow for folks to think that metric units are equal to a certain imperial equivalent without thinking or visualizing a metric weight or volumn. However, a use I have found for conversion charts is to switch the order of conversion. Instead of metric to imperial, use imperial to metric. Associate familiar imperial unit amounts to a metric equivalent. I have seen this suggested in a few websites, and from my experience, it works great. I now associate my weight in kg, which is another way to help me think in metric. However apart from that, I do not plan on using conversion charts anytime soon.

Numbers are a way to provide a form of communication amongst global communities whom are often speaking different languages. SI measurements, being decimal based are a part of this communication. I consider SI to be a form of language, in a way, as trade and commerce in metric nations, is often done in a manner which is understandable by people of different vocal languages. What I mean by this is that, if somebody from, lets say, Australia, were to visit a nation that speaks a totally different vocal language, but also uses SI, they will be able to understand the measurement system in use. This is important because SI numbers provide a way to navigate and communicate, when voice language is not understandable. A 5 kg box would be viewed with the same understanding from an English speaker, and a speaker of Japanese. Uniformity, a word I often like to use, makes foreign travel much easier due to the global acceptance of metric. America switching to SI would potentially bring in more foreign visitors. We should embrace our position as a member of the global community.

Often, many Americans can associate with grams in terms of food fat, carbohydrates, protein and dietary fiber. However in home cooking, grams are replaced by teaspoons, ounces or pounds. Teaspoons in particular appear to have an emotional connection to home cookers, (old recipes, cookies, etc) as the teaspoon is still traditionally used in many English speaking nations such as Canada, USA, and England. Using grams in cooking old recipes doesn't mean throwing the recipe away. Rather, if one was to convert teaspoons/oz/lbs, to the exact equivelant in grams, he or she can have the opportunity to associate with metric units through recipes. The cooked food itself would not change. In a way, the recipe, even in metric units, is the same. This allows a person to associate with grams in a different way. Through volume.

As an avid car enthusiast, I have always associated a cars power by the hp, or otherwise known as horsepower.  I am what you consider a "horsepower guy".  I grew up with "horsepower" for most of my life, as I come from a family of muscle car owners.  When I would talk about how fast or powerful a car was, horsepower is what came into the discussion. During my personal metric conversion I knew I had to start using the metric equivelant for horsepower, the watt, or the kilowatt.  As you know, a kilowatt is 1000 watts.  This is where I had trouble as I normally associated kilowatts with either electric cars, or lightbulbs, which in this case would be watts.  One of the first things i knew would help me was to stop converting kW to bhp.  I began to look at car specs displayed in kW, and began to associate with output in kW.  For example, I now know a small sporty hatchback will usually make 150-160 kW while my mustang gt makes 224 kW.  Australia and New Zealand are two of the most metric English speaking nations, and is where I would read about cars, through Australia and New Zealand based websites.  Kilowatts arnt just for lightbulbs or electric car batteries as I learned.  As watts and kilowatts are units of power, they can be applied to more mechanical things like car engines.  I am still learning as I go but my metrication process has become smoother over time.

One could be forgiven for describing the USA/Metric relationship as a "love/hate" one.  On one hand, American scientists, and educators often prefer metric units only and even encourage its usage. On the other hand, I hear comments about the metric system being "French and communist" or that it's too logical and cold. These are some of the things I hear from some fellow Americans in the general public who dont want anything to do with metric.  To bring up a point, France was one of America's biggest allies, and a decimal based measuring system was supported by the Founding Fathers.  However, I feel that America's historical connection to the SI system is ignored due to the "Love/hate" relationship i mentioned earlier.  American culture, opponants of metric conversion say, would be destroyed by metric integration.  An example of what they mean is that songs for example which talk about miles would supposedly talk about kilometers instead, in a format like 34.572 km.  This is simply not true.  In songs, or book references, the term "mile" is often used as a historical reference.  Historical references of imperial units is ok in my opinion.  However, in daily life, American's should develop a positive relationship with SI, much as America affectionately refers to its imperial units today.  If America could develop the same "love" in a way, for SI, transition to only metric would go at a much faster and efficient rate.  Logical systems of measurement should be embraced as the benefits would help everybody in the USA, from farmers, to scientists.  

Not using SI units as our only measuring system in America has become a burden on businesses, education and trade. Businesses often package items in imperial sizes, and slap a metric label on, mostly based on imperial units. The problem with this is that, when selling products outside the US, they have to resize items to rounded metric sizes. This creates added cost as they size items to both imperial and metric, vs just sizing them in metric sizes. Added manufacturing cost often means higher purchase prices. International trade does indeed have an effect on local state by state trade because of this added cost. Schools create confusion as students are taught to convert between different measuring units instead of using only one unit. Often there has been push back from politicians on subjects such as this saying that its not a big cost. But over time it will be a big cost. To both our children and businesses. This can't be ignored any longer

As I am sure alot of people know, America's conversion to metric has taken a back seat in terms of priority since the mid 1990s.  In the early 90s, the Fair Packaging and Labelling Act was amended to make metric labels a requirement alongside inch/pound units, however, using metric only was (and still is) prohibited by the FPLA.  The continuation of inch/pound labelling has negativelly affected package marketing.  For example, a 500 mL bottle of  soda is often marketed as 16.9 FL OZ in either larger labels, or on a box/shelf.  Interestingly enough, 500 mL bottles of water are usually marketed as 500 mL or .5 liters.  However, store shelves display it in customary units.  What I think should happen is for stores to all come to a consensus with product manufacturers to market products that are of rounded metric sizes, to their metric size, instead of ounces.  This may help prevent people from thinking "16.9 oz" when seeing a 500 mL bottle.  However, bottles is just one example.  When I was at target, I examined a 750 mL container of cleaning liquid, marked as 750 in the primary label spot.  However the store markets it in fluid ounces.  Dissapointing, but it provides an opportunity to contact the stores and explain how marketing in metric helps the consumer associate with SI units. 

The method I found best to ease a fellow Americans worries about learning SI units is to start small and work up to bigger units. For example, when talking about length, start with millimeters. Get a measuring tape and go up to about 10 mm. Now, show them that equivalent in centimeters. 10 mm= 1 cm. Next, work your way up in cm. Go to about 100 cm. now explain its equivalent in meters. 100 cm= 1 meter. Its a basic way of teaching but I personally found it pretty effective.