From: Paul Doherty (pauld@exploratorium.edu)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 08:48:39 PDT
Message-Id: <l0311070bb8f71044bdaa@[192.174.3.125]> Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 08:48:39 -0700 From: Paul Doherty <pauld@exploratorium.edu> Subject: history of U.S. non-metrication
>Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 11:32:43 -0400
>From: James Frysinger <frysingerj@cofc.edu>
>Subject: Re: units of measurement
>To: tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu
>Organization: College of Charleston
>MIME-version: 1.0
>Reply-To: tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu
>Sender: owner-tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu
>
>The United States Metric Study, initiated in 1968 as directed by Congress,
>was completed in 1971. It's report to Congress was titled, "Report to the
>Congress: A Metric America, A Decision Whose Time Has Come". This 13-volume
>report concluded that the U.S. should go metric and should do so in a
>deliberate manner over a 10 year period through a carefully controlled
>national program.
>
>In 1974, the Education Amendments of 1974 (Public Law 92-380) urged schools
>to prepare students to use of the metric system.
>
>In 1975, the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-168) formed the
>U.S. Metric Board to coordinate the voluntary conversion to the metric system
>that was already taking place. However, no target dates were set. President
>Jimmy Carter ensured the board would have the power and teeth of a euglena by
>carefully constructing a board of pro- and anti-metric "shareholders"; this
>excellent balance resulted in a net force of zero. (Physics in your everyday
>politics.)
>
>BATF required wine and liquor producers to use only certain metric container
>sizes in 1979 and 1980 respectively. Today, soft-drink and "spring-water"
>bottles are increasingly going to rational metric sizes, as are many other
>products.
>
>In 1982, President Ronald Reagan defunded and disbanded the U.S. Metric
>Board, passing its duties to SecCom (who tasked NIST to act for him).
>
>In 1988, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (Public Law
>100-418) strengthened and amended the Metric Conversion Act and required all
>federal agencies to metricate, except where to do so would be impracticable
>(waiver required), by 1992.
>
>In 1988, NASA issued a "Metric Directive" that requires all programs started
>on or after that date to be designed and operated in metric units, unless
>doing so would be unreasonably costly (waiver required). The Human Space
>Flight program predates this so it has inherited a lot of non-SI software,
>procedures, and designs. New add-ons, such as Canada Arm 2 for the shuttle
>orbiter are often all metric, however. So was the Mars Climate Orbiter, for
>which Lockheed-Martin provided non-SI data, resulting in its loss.
>
>In 1991, President George Bush (Senior) signed Executive Order 12770, Metric
>Usage in Federal Government Programs, requiring all federal agencies to go
>metric.
>
>The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA) was passed in 1994, requiring dual
>labeling in order to make the public aware of metric quantities and to get
>used to using them. (An amendment to this has been drafted and is now in the
>preliminary stages of preparation for presentation to Congress to allow
>metric-only labeling.)
>
>In 1996, the National Weather Service shifted to the Celsius temperature
>scale for recording and transmitting all surface temperature observations.
>The NWS uses millibars (= hectopascals, exactly) for pressures.
>
>In 1999, the National Conference on Weights and Measures (the association of
>the various states' weights and measures officers) amended the Uniform
>Packaging and Labeling Regulation to allow metric-only indications (markings
>indicating the contents of packages). This is a model regulation and 14
>states automatically follow it. Most of the others accept it or portions of
>it by overt actions to revise their laws or regulations. Over half of all
>Americans now live in states that allow metric-only indications on goods not
>regulated by the federal government. See
> http://www.metricmethods.com/UPLR.html
>
>In 1999, the European Union, at the urging of the Trans-Atlantic Business
>Dialog (a cabal of multinational corporation CEOs, largely representing US
>interests), granted a third delay in the implementation date for ED
>80/181/EEC for barring the importation or manufacture for sale in the EU of
>any good containing non-SI indications on the product, its packaging, its
>documentation, or its advertisements. The due date is now the last day of
>2009. Australia, Japan, and South Korea (among others) already ban non-SI
>indications (markings).
>
>In 2000 Congress cancelled the impending due date for all state highway
>authorities to metricate. Some stayed the course so that today more than half
>of our country's highway dollars are being spent on metrically designed and
>built highway projects. Some states had metricated but then reverted!
>
>The trend in the U.S. is towards metrication but it is uneven and
>uncoordinated. My web page that provides a timeline of the history of the
>metric system in the U.S.
> http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/background.htm
>is not yet finished. The above extends that timeline. The information on that
>web page might be useful to teachers in their lessons on the SI, though,
>allowing them to bring the history of the SI into the classroom along with
>its technical details.
>
>Teachers might wish to brush up on the SI if they are under the mistaken
>impression that the following units are SI or accepted for use with the SI:
>calorie, molar, molal, micron, fermi, degree Kelvin (it's just kelvin now),
>ppt, ppm, ppb, VDC, VAC, amp (it's ampere, not amp), torr, lambda, gamma,
>rem, rad, or curie. See
> http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj/SIguidelines.htm
>
>Jim
>
>On Thursday, 2002 May 02 0929, you wrote:
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I think that you will find that it was even earlier than that. I think I
>> remember an article in Readers Digest from 1964 about being all metric
>> in 1964. I still do my part for in my classroom, as just the mention of
>> an English unit of measurement .....
>>
>> Dick
>>
>> "Science is nothing more than learning how to communicate with nature in
>> such a manner that it will talk back."
>>
>> Helping teachers who facilitate, motivating students who learn.
>> Dick Heckathorn 14665 Pawnee Trail Middleburg Hts, OH 44130
>> 440-826-0834
>> Physics Teacher CVCA 4687 Wyoga Rd Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44224
>> 330-929-0575 VM 120
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: owner-tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu
>> [mailto:owner-tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu] On Behalf Of Duane Warn
>> Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 1:25 PM
>> To: tap-l@listproc.appstate.edu
>> Subject: Re: units of measurement
>>
>> Good Morning Jim,
>>
>> In the 70's, the federal government decreed that in the next 10 years
>> the US will be converted completely to the metric system, so all science
>> and math teachers should teach it. So I did my part with some
>> interesting feedback. The students didn't want to learn that "communist
>> system", they just wanted their " 'Merican system". Actually they
>> didn't want to learn ether. Well, 30 years has passed with little
>> improvement, but their grades are much higher.
>>
>> Duane
>> Boise State.
>....
>
>--
>James R. Frysinger University/College of Charleston
>10 Captiva Row Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
>Charleston, SC 29407 66 George Street
>843.225.0805 Charleston, SC 29424
>http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj frysingerj@cofc.edu
>Cert. Adv. Metrication Specialist 843.953.7644
>
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