As I mentioned last week, some recent media coverage on our lack of metric system use by Discovery News and Scientific American has resulted in a lot of traffic to this site. Of particular interest is my post from last September on the Top 10 Reasons the United States Should Use the Metric System (or SI).

I’ve included some of my statistics for illustration.

Thought it might be a good idea to dust this off and post it up front. I made a couple of tweaks (I’m a writer, I can’t help myself) and have added a pdf to make it easier to pass around if people so choose. I only ask that the information’s source not be removed since down the road I’ll need to fundraise and I’d like to be tied to this work in people’s minds.

I’ll be back next week with fresh content and, since I’m beginning a new phase of this project, with more “behind the scenes” information that I’m hoping you’ll find interesting.

Top 10 Reasons the United States Should Use the Metric System (or SI)

1) It’s the system 95 percent of the world uses

(It’s not standard in the U.S., Burma and Liberia)

2) It’s easier to make conversions

(You just move the decimal point right and left)

3) Teaching two measurement systems to children is confusing

4 ) It’s the language of science

5) It’s the language of medicine

6) Conversion errors by the humans using them are inevitable

(We lost a Mars orbiter that way and pharmacy mistakes are common)

7) It’s the language of international commerce

8) Many hobbies and sports use the metric system

9) Its use is necessary for travel outside of the United States

10) So we look less foolish and ignorant to the rest of the world

And a few more for good “measure..”

11) Less clutter since you don’t need liquid and dry measuring cups and teaspoons and

tablespoons (Just a scale and liquid measuring cups)

12) It’s much easier to conceptualize 1 gram versus 1/28th of an ounce or 1 milliliter

verses 1/29 of a liquid ounce (rounded measures)

13) There are fewer measures to learn. Most people will use meters, liters, and grams

verses more than 10 for liquid and dry U.S. customary measures alone

14) It was designed to be easy to learn and use

(In 1790s Europe the literacy rate was around 60 percent)

15) It makes us a friendlier international tourist destination.

To_10_Reasons_Metric (pdf)