A new rule for the Metric System
Why is it taking so long for the Metric system to overthrow the Emperial system? Ok, so social inertia has a lot to do with it. As does the influence of 'Empire America' and the drivel that it spews from the tevelisheon. BUT! I have a couple of ideas as to how we might speed up the process and even (in my less than humble opinion) improve on some applications of the Metric systems' use.
GET RID OF THE 30cm RULER AS THE STANDARD IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
From their earliest days in school, students are consciously and unconsciously dividing their world up into lengths based on the ruler sanctioned by their teacher. The ubiquitous 30cm ruler is a constant reminder of 'the foot' and pollutes young psyches with its twelve inches of LIES.
THE ALTERNATIVE
The 1/4 metre ruler.
250mm of raw, throbbing power, grasped in the hands of a generation of growing consciousnessesss... (ok... that might be a bit much)
I've suggested this plan a few times to peoples and have variously received ambivalence, annoyance and more than once, a perceptible distancing as people backed away from me and found other things to talk about.
"But what about the centimetre?" asked one caring soul, probably desperate to help me through my metric centric crisis.
"Bugger the centimeter!" I reply. The centimeter is rarely used in trades or sciences and doesn't fit neatly into our sexy, popular base system for most other measurements. Sure, it has it's place, as the cubic centimeter neatly equates to the milliliter, but that doesn't' excuse it's dominance in the education arena!
"But it's easier to think in inches..." objected a passerby, one finger jammed up to the elbow in his nostril.
"Bullshit!" I shout, watching as he wipes fresh nose-jam on his lapel.
This concept is based on the fact that most people are taught with the imperial system still hanging around, clogging up the works; people who still state their height in feet, their babies weight in pounds, fish length in inches... it's like nails scraping down a chalkboard being cut in half with a band saw. If we did away with this crap then people would have to fill the void... with metric measures.
Just because the millimeter is a finer measurement than the 'inch' doesn't mean it is beyond comprehension. We just have to start the exposure to the system earlier and root out more of this clingy emperial garbage.
ALSO, by giving students a 'quarter meter' ruler we encourage fractional thinking as part of regular classroom discourse. (neat, eh?)
(and another thing!)
ALIGN SOME OTHER MEASUREMENTS TO OUR LOVELY BASE METRIC SYSTEM
The base measurements taught for Mass, Length and Capacity are the Gram, Metre and Litre (respectively). I believe we should do away with the 'Tonne' and align each of these three base measurements with the other prefixes. For example, we could have a "three meg truck" instead of a three tonne truck. And, if we were traveling from Australia to Argentina we could say we had to fly "12 meg" or twelve mega metres. If we wanted to travel to Mars we might be traversing a convenient 80 gig of space (80 Gigametres).
In time, people would get used to differentiating between the different applications of mega, giga, terra (etc) for length, mass and capacity based on context; 35 megalitres of mulch, 19 gigagrams of pig iron, 150 gigametres to the sun...
Ahh, yes. A golden age of communication. That would be awesome...
(Huck senses people backing away from their computer screens, looking for something else to talk about...)
Well, my rant is done for tonight. I guess I'll have to start making quarter metre rulers and handing them out on street corners. Put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I guess I could put my own frantic head on the flat side, you know, to inspire and terrify the children?
[my own frantic hed]
GET RID OF THE 30cm RULER AS THE STANDARD IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
From their earliest days in school, students are consciously and unconsciously dividing their world up into lengths based on the ruler sanctioned by their teacher. The ubiquitous 30cm ruler is a constant reminder of 'the foot' and pollutes young psyches with its twelve inches of LIES.
THE ALTERNATIVE
The 1/4 metre ruler.
250mm of raw, throbbing power, grasped in the hands of a generation of growing consciousnessesss... (ok... that might be a bit much)
I've suggested this plan a few times to peoples and have variously received ambivalence, annoyance and more than once, a perceptible distancing as people backed away from me and found other things to talk about.
"But what about the centimetre?" asked one caring soul, probably desperate to help me through my metric centric crisis.
"Bugger the centimeter!" I reply. The centimeter is rarely used in trades or sciences and doesn't fit neatly into our sexy, popular base system for most other measurements. Sure, it has it's place, as the cubic centimeter neatly equates to the milliliter, but that doesn't' excuse it's dominance in the education arena!
"But it's easier to think in inches..." objected a passerby, one finger jammed up to the elbow in his nostril.
"Bullshit!" I shout, watching as he wipes fresh nose-jam on his lapel.
This concept is based on the fact that most people are taught with the imperial system still hanging around, clogging up the works; people who still state their height in feet, their babies weight in pounds, fish length in inches... it's like nails scraping down a chalkboard being cut in half with a band saw. If we did away with this crap then people would have to fill the void... with metric measures.
Just because the millimeter is a finer measurement than the 'inch' doesn't mean it is beyond comprehension. We just have to start the exposure to the system earlier and root out more of this clingy emperial garbage.
ALSO, by giving students a 'quarter meter' ruler we encourage fractional thinking as part of regular classroom discourse. (neat, eh?)
(and another thing!)
ALIGN SOME OTHER MEASUREMENTS TO OUR LOVELY BASE METRIC SYSTEM
The base measurements taught for Mass, Length and Capacity are the Gram, Metre and Litre (respectively). I believe we should do away with the 'Tonne' and align each of these three base measurements with the other prefixes. For example, we could have a "three meg truck" instead of a three tonne truck. And, if we were traveling from Australia to Argentina we could say we had to fly "12 meg" or twelve mega metres. If we wanted to travel to Mars we might be traversing a convenient 80 gig of space (80 Gigametres).
In time, people would get used to differentiating between the different applications of mega, giga, terra (etc) for length, mass and capacity based on context; 35 megalitres of mulch, 19 gigagrams of pig iron, 150 gigametres to the sun...
Ahh, yes. A golden age of communication. That would be awesome...
(Huck senses people backing away from their computer screens, looking for something else to talk about...)
Well, my rant is done for tonight. I guess I'll have to start making quarter metre rulers and handing them out on street corners. Put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I guess I could put my own frantic head on the flat side, you know, to inspire and terrify the children?
[my own frantic hed]
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