In 1999, NASA put the finishing touches on a $125 million project to land a rover on Mars. Thousands of hours of work had been put into this project and many new discoveries were right around the corner. Various countries from around the world were involved in the design and building. When the moment of truth finally came and the rover approached Mars for landing ... everything went wrong. The rover crashed on impact and was rendered completely useless. All of the money and time put into it had been wasted. The cause of this unfortunate and costly disaster? American engineers had used the English system of measurement instead of the metric system like everyone else on the project. America is basically alone in using the outdated English system and it's time we got on the same page as the rest of humanity. For a less complicated and less misunderstanding-filled future, we should officially make the switch to the metric system.

Taffin Bagley

Provo