Teaching the metric system
Abstract
Gradually the United States is moving toward the adoption of Systeme International (SI) units of measurement. These units are also referred to as metric units. SI units will become more important for measurement in schools until the use of English units will no longer be practical. On the farm it has been the practice to measure feed by scoops, apples by bushels, and milk by buckets. Farmers still struggle with bushels, pecks, and gallons for measuring. Soon, the liter wi II replace all measurement of volume as a fundamental unit. Next year American vintners will bottle wine using bottles marked in liters and fractions of liters. (A liter should not be compared to a quart or gallon. Think of a liter as a liter, not as how much more or less it is than a quart.) They are forced to use metric units because they compete with vintners in foreign countries. Stores and markets are beginning to use grams as units on canned goods and centimeters as units on clothing patterns. Automobile garages are having to use two sets of tools-one metric, one Englishbecause there are so many foreign cars sold in the United States. Soon, more and more United States industries will be forced to compete internationally. Some states take leadership roles for change to the metric system for many reasons related to the economy of the state. In Missouri there has not been powerful need to change the system of measuring units. In other states, such as Delaware and California, which deal in the international marketplace continually, it is an advantage to use metric units. Trading internationally using two measurement systems requires extensive and costly duplication of records. Next year both California and Delaware schools will use science textbooks with only metric units of measurement. More and more pressure will be felt to change to metric units in Missouri. Systems of measurement are adopted through international agreement. Communication of quantities would be extremely difficult without this agreement. Is a waist measurement of 50 centimeters ideal for a model? In Switzerland, a person would have no trouble answering that question. However, it is difficult if you do not think in metric units. Americans have no problem communicating in inches until they go to Paris or Mexico City. Metric units (metric means measure), determined by international agreement, will be used in world trade and the units would be called Systeme International or SI units.
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