European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 17, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse An artist Conception Oft it Boeing the helicopter which win tie metric in line with ins defense department s policy to use metric in Offitt Solvet psf consistent with Security. Technical end safety requirements Gui International Ira is non part of that equation " to purists. The Lalo 197c1 wore he Golden years of metrication. Interstate Highway signs announced distances in Miles Kilometres schools blossomed with colourful conversion posters. Shell Oil spent $2 million converting 6,000 Gas stations. Sunrise Fra said in would go entirely metric to celebrate Tho Bicentennial. Motorists immediately began screaming their Heads says the Federal Highway admin is i rat Ion. In 1978 Congress look the signs Down. Shell soon found metric Gas pumps confused Drivers and convened Back to a Flores. When the National geographic society started using metrics on maps and stones some 70 readers said inc Magazine had gone Pinko and cancelled their subscriptions. Metric zealots just kind of gave up and Well looking Lor older says Valerie Antoine executive director of the us. Metric association. Melenciano hoped the schools would incubate a Melric America. But when the rest of society did t keep Pace teachers said hey we got loll out on a limb " says Leroy Negus associate in mathematics at the by. Stale department of education. California said All its textbooks would be Melric by 1985. Thoy Aren t. Bui almost All schools in the country include some metric instruction. Oct. 10 gel it 10-10 still kicks Oil National metric week. The Effort is to gel children to slunk Melric As Well As know it to know right Oil that 28 degrees celsius is hot outside without multiplying nine Tilths plus 32 to get fahrenheit. Kent Ashworth of educational testing service the Princeton n a organization that gives Scholastic split Udo tests says a Survey of 13-year-Olds showed those who use metrics often outside class More than doubled 16 percent to34 percent Between 1978 and 1982. But n a 1981 test Given internationally american students finished near the Bottom in measurement skills. Children Are taught both says Sokol they Are knowledgeable in both and Pio Lucient in As a ninth grader wrote the Laic Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige. If you ask me it s confusing using Bolh systems when cur nation could choose one. Please keep this letter in consideration and remember an of the confused kids in this Sokol worries. Of about add education. Why did some newspapers convert the 70 and to meter ski jump results Al the recent Calgary Winter olympics to Leef Why when president Reagan chunked 14 Pound congressional bils on Iha dais in his recent slate of the Union address did 1 he Call them 62 kilogram Bills what a wasted Opportunity bemoans Sokol. The United states stands atone with Burma As the Only non metric holdouts in a kilogram world. Canada said in 1970 it would go metric and did. Its Meiric commission disbanded in 1985 no problems says Francois Bro eur of the ministry of consumer and corporate chairs. He probably did t talk to ural Wilson. An american housewife in Thunder Bay on. Liners Schmo Elers. I just Tell Tho Man to fill up the tank 1 follow my Butcher from Safeway to Gateway because hell sell to meal in she admits to carrying a Pound kilo pocket converter. You Britain decided to go metric in 1972, Highway signs Are still in Miles Loo costly to change and a pint of Bilter mild is 3 pin of bitter mild Australia Sel a 10-year timetable and converted in eight. Japan started Melr Caton in 1921 and made in compulsory in 1951, saying Sayonara to the 11.93 Inch shake and 8 267-Pound Kan. In the United Stales the meter s foreign birth is undoubtedly a Factor in resistance to it Underwood acknowledged but there is an enormous explosion of technology in Iho world. It s taking place everywhere not just America. The upshot is International Coliat oration. And the language of that Coliat oration is measurement uncertainties can have immediate effects. There was confusion at first Over just what radiation units the russians were using 10 assess radiation Levels Al chernobyl a Canadian plane crashed when in ran out of fuel Afler a Reli l mix up More critical at a time of America s huge Irac deficit is the fact that 10 per enl of me nation s Gross National product derives torn foreign Commerce two thirds of that being measure sensitive products if the 1975 metric act had no incisors and the University of Michigan Survey research Center says Only 40 percent of americans can name even one Melric unit there is nonetheless a considerable metric com Poncil in life. Slaty five to 6b percent of supermarket goods Are prepackaged and 70 percent of that has metric labels Soyi George Carllon chairman of the food and grocery Coors tingling committee on Motr Calion the no 2 can is Standard worldwide. The consumer knows to Many kids a no. 2 can will feet. The rubber hits Iho Road when the housewife meets the retailer at the meal counter and pays 2.205 times As much for a kilo of hamburger As she Pati for a but wine Well Metic in 197b and hard liquor in 1980, soft drinks have gone to two liter bodies with no Reading on he Huchler scale. If a commodity is desired it does t matter it it s packaged in says Al Navas president of the National metric Council in Washington a inc transition is going to come Aboul product by cars arc easy because new models Are always being in reduced. Machine like Dull presses Are adjustable by def Nilion. Many Small businesses win make whatever their customers want. Some think american Industry Wei be predominantly metric by the turn of the Century. Wilson thinks it will take 75 years Market forces Wil probably be morn determining Nan the government metrics never elected a senator says Navas it in t Liberal conservative or Republican Democrat it s Apo Licat. I was on a Tadio Lalk show in Felrom recently and they Cut me off after 25 minutes. No one was calling in to protest probably the Beh cow in metric transition will be Tho Pentagon with its 300,000 suppliers in the defense Industry and 15 million contracts a year. Tho army s Lex helicopter will to metric. So will Star last september the Delesc department said its policy was to use metric in All of its activities Consi Lenl with Security technical logistical and safety " any Dev Alnut has Lobo cleared by senior Ollie als. Fourteen percent of defense standards Ore already metric partially this is the result of the Alliance in an otherwise a conc nato. Bui we re talking Aboul the equipment Well be lighting with into the isl Century says air Force col. Thomas Mansperger Pentagon metric coordinating officer a base it on what we see our future needs will be and whal kind of world we re going to work a Metic would. Dealing with Decimals associated press the metric system was born in the French revolution which also tiled and failed to create the 10 Day week the intent was of give the citizen a fairer shake with weights and measures than the honesty of a merchant s thumb on the scale. The Paris Academy of sciences decided to base the system on a constant physical dimension in this Case one ten million la of the a a from the North pole to the Equator on a Meridian passing through pans thai unit was to be called a meter irom the greek word motion for the liter was to be the volume of a cube one tenth meter on a Side. The Gram the weight of pure water at a certain temperature in a cube one Hundredth of a mater on a Side. All variations of these Basic measurements were to be to the base 10 to simplify their use in arithmetic. Almost Al once Iho Meler was in hoi Waler. Surveyors measuring the distance on the Meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona used White lags As markers. White was the color of he Monar Dis is who were soon to see Ihetu King beheaded. The surveyors Kep having to talk their Way out of ail explain inn they were just inventing the Melric system not showing support for Tours Xvi. The Paris Assembly adopted their work in 1791. Thomas Jellerson proposed a similar Decimal system a Lew years Lalor when he was Sec Clary of stale. The French made metrics mandatory in 1840. The . Congress declared the system Legal in 1b66. In 1675 the treaty of Iha Metor was signed by the United Stales and 16 other nations creating an International Bureau of weights and measures near Paris since f 833 the american Yard and Pound Nave been based on the meter and kilogram but the United slates has yen to officially convert to metrics in and Burma Are the Only nations in the world not to have done so. Sunday april 17,1988 the stars and stripes Page 17
