Metric Conversion Background Wrong Answer Try Again

Elizabeth Benham and other NIST weights and measures metrologists railroad train weights and measures inspectors from across the country to apply standard weights like this to test measurement devices similar grocery store scales for accuracy.

Credit: F. Webber/NIST

This year volition be the 45th anniversary of the Metric Conversion Human activity, which was signed on December 23, 1975, by President Gerald R. Ford. Normally, we celebrate by sharing metric didactics resources, but this year I want to use the occasion to dispel some mutual misconceptions about the U.S. human relationship with the metric system.

You lot've probably heard that the United States, Liberia, and Burma (aka Myanmar) are the only countries that don't use the metric system (International System of Units or SI). You lot may have even seen a map that has been incriminatingly illustrated to show how they are out of step with the rest of the world.

Countries that have not "officially" adopted the metric system (The Us, Myanmar, and Liberia) in grayness.

Credit: AzaToth [Public domain], via Wikimedia Eatables

It's a compelling story and frequently repeated, but yous might be surprised to larn that it's only untrue!

While it's true that metric use is mandatory in some countries and voluntary in others, all countries accept recognized and adopted the SI, including the The states.

Russ Rowlett, retired Academy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of education and mathematics, emphasizes on his website that condign metric is not a i-time event merely a process that happens over fourth dimension. Every international economy is positioned somewhere forth a continuum moving toward increased SI utilise. In that location are still countries that are amending their national laws to adopt a mandatory metric policy and others pursuing voluntary metrication.

The U.s.a. was one of the original countries to sign the Treaty of the Meter in 1875, which is now celebrated annually on May 20, World Metrology Twenty-four hours. It's been legal to utilize the metric arrangement since 1866, and metric became the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce in 1988.

Metric system employ in the U.South. lies forth a continuum where some measures are entirely in metric and others are entirely devoid of it, at least at the consumer level.

Credit: Due east. Benham/NIST

Did y'all know?

• We use the SI every 2nd of every day. After all, the 2nd (s) is the SI base unit of fourth dimension.

• U.S. coins & currency are produced using metric specifications.
• Many U.Southward. products, like wine and distilled spirits, have been successfully sold with but metric measures since the early 1980s.
• Metric units are used extensively on packages to provide internet quantity, nutrition, and health-related information, and for prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicine, vitamin supplement dosing, and other consumer products.
• SI units are increasingly used on consumer product labeling in the U.Due south. lighting sector. Voluntary package labeling standards adopted past flashlight manufacturers assist consumers make product comparisons. While shopping, consumers easily evaluate light output (lumen), peak beam intensity (candela), beam distance (meter), and impact resistance (meter).

Information technology's impossible to avoid using the metric arrangement in the U.s.. All our measurement units, including U.S. customary units you're familiar with (feet, pounds, gallons, Fahrenheit, etc.), are defined in terms of the SI—and mass, length, and book have been defined in metric units since 1893! The SI's influence is pervasive and felt even if most people don't know it. I envision U.S. metric exercise like a huge iceberg. Above the water's surface, U.S. customary units announced to yet be in full consequence. In actuality, below the water'southward surface, nosotros find that all measurements are dependent on the SI, linked through an unbroken chain of traceable measurements.

The U.S. measurement infrastructure depends on the SI.

Credit: E. Benham/NIST

Although U.S. customary units are still seen alongside metric units on product labels and merchandise literature, it's common for the goods themselves to be made using SI-based manufacturing processes. Why? While some businesses are concerned that consumers look to see customary units on the package, when it comes to manufacturing processes, they are under abiding pressure level to stay competitive. Adopting the latest science and engineering, developed using metric pattern practices, enables innovation. In addition, many industries extensively use international supply lines to develop, industry and sell their products effectually the world.

I'one thousand the coordinator of NIST's Metric Program. Considering of my passion for all things metric, I encourage companies to investigate adopting metric practices whenever possible and testify them how doing so can brand a strategic economic bear on for their organization. Changes in technology and extremely competitive domestic and global marketplaces tin hogtie businesses with little previous experience to explore metric employ. Many accept found that going metric pays off, resulting in a competitive advantage.

Going metric pays off

During the recent recession, lumber companies located in the U.Southward. Northwest saw their U.Due south. customer base of operations shrink, but their Canadian and Japanese markets, both of which use metric, expand—especially after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Forest-production producers made adjustments and then that their production systems could flex between metric and U.S. customary measures based on what their customers needed. Because and so much of the world uses metric only, more than and more U.Southward. companies are recognizing the benefits of metric as they find new international markets for their products.

If your business is considering making the switch to metric, I would encourage you to deport small beta tests to explore how your customers react. Enquiry can help ensure decisions aren't based on out-of-date information or preconceived notions. You might be pleasantly surprised by how quickly customers accommodate—and how using metric benefits the bottom line.

And as always, if you need communication, be sure to give NIST a call. We're here to help!

*Editor'southward annotation: This mail service was updated on October 6, 2020, to include information about units of measure for lighting, to include a new "metric continuum" graphic, and to make other pocket-sized changes. Information technology was originally published on December 23, 2016.

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Source: https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/busting-myths-about-metric-system