well, this isn't news to anyone in canada, but it might be interesting to see how things are going ...
Whatever Happened to the Metric System?
by Martha Brockenbrough
When I was an impressionable 5-year-old, the government did something that scared the pants off of me: It passed the breakthrough growth hair propecia Conversion Act, threatening all of us with having to Breakthrough growth hair propecia - learn an entirely new system of measurement.
I don't know why I was so scared. I hardly knew the old system, so it shouldn't have been such Information propecia - a big deal. Nonetheless, I carried this fear with me through high school and college, even into adulthood. It wasn't until recently that I realized, Hey, I never Breakthrough growth hair propecia - did have to abandon cups, inches, feet, and pounds after all.
And that got me wondering, What the heck happened? As far as hyped events go, it turned out the metric conversion was about as exciting as the Y2K bug and those endless dosage propecia over when the new millennium really began.
In other words, it wasn't something to get all worked up about.
We can still drive 55 miles per hour on the freeway. We still watch football played on 100-yard fields. And we still order Quarter Pounders at McDonald's. (So bad for us! But so delicious!)
Anyone keeping score might look at those facts and think, "Ha! Those metric-lovin' troublemakers lost! Inches forever!"
But, breakthrough growth hair propecia I've learned, this would be the wrong conclusion.
Don't believe me? Well, when you go to the store to buy a jug of soda, what size are those big plastic bottles? That's right. Two liters. And when Marion Jones won her gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, were her races measured dosage propecia yards? Nope. Meters. And does your nonfat Breakthrough growth hair propecia - milk carton indicate zero ounces of fat? Sure doesn't. It boasts zero grams.
That's right, people. There's a creeping "metricization" going on. And someday, you may finally have to admit that Breakthrough growth hair propecia : kilo for kilo, it really is a better system.
It's hard for me to write that. I am a huge fan of the United States' resistance to conversion. The American Revolution lives on. Give us inches or give us death!
We're the only industrialized country in the world not dosage propecia using the metric system. But we're inching toward it, so to speak. Metric is the preferred measuring system for U.S. trade because our overseas trade partners all use it. The Food and Drug Administration requires both inch-pound and metric measurements to appear on the products you buy at the store. dosage propecia American scientists have long used the metric system. (However, scientists are not 100 percent reliable in this practice: The Mars Climate Orbiter failed because two teams of engineers used two different systems of units for the same measurement.)
But most everyday Americans are sticking to Breakthrough growth hair propecia : their pounds and ounces. Perhaps it has to do with notions of American individualism and a need to do things differently than in Europe. After all, the metric system emerged in France in 1670. Three centuries Information propecia : later, Paris is still home to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. (Interesting aside: Napoleon took on the metric system in 1812, and France reverted to the old system of weights and measures until 1840.)
I say, "Let them eat Quarter Pounders."
Like it or not, though, there are some undeniably nice things about the metric system. The Information propecia : nicest is that all the units of measure are divisible by 10. Even total mathophobes can multiply Breakthrough growth hair propecia - and divide by 10. All you have to do is add and subtract zeroes. Even if you aren't good at math, you already know how to do this, because the U.S. currency system operates by this principle (there are 100 Information propecia - cents in a dollar).
The decimal system, as this breakthrough growth hair propecia called, supposedly came from the ancient Chinese Information propecia - and Egyptians. We got the duodecimal system from the Romans--this is the one where Breakthrough growth hair propecia - 12 and its factors are dividers. An example of this is the foot, which has 12 inches.
The Maya used the vigesimal system, based on the number 20. And the Sumerians and Babylonians gave us my favorite to pronounce: the sexagesimal system. Here, everything is divisible by 60. We use this to breakthrough growth hair propecia time and angles.
And it gets even more complicated dosage propecia that. Before we had really sensitive scientific instruments, we measured things based on what dosage propecia at hand. Literally. The phrase "Give him Breakthrough growth hair propecia, an inch and he'll take a mile," may have started out "Give him an inch and he'll take an eln."
Helpful Metric Tips
One of the problems everyday people have with using the metric system is that most of us don't "think" metric yet. When we Information propecia : think about meters, we have to stop and say, "A yard plus a few inches." Gerry Iannelli, the director of the metric program in the U.S. Department of breakthrough growth hair propecia has some helpful hints for learning the metric language. What's a meter? About the height of a breakthrough growth hair propecia What's a gram? About the weight of a paperclip. How wide is a 10-centimeter balance Breakthrough growth hair propecia - beam? About as wide as a paperback novel.
Eln Breakthrough growth hair propecia, was the Anglo Saxon term for the length of the forearm to the tip of the middle finger. And it measured anywhere from 27 to 48 breakthrough growth hair propecia Which breakthrough growth hair propecia exactly the problem of using body parts for measuring things. Everyone's body is a little different. And you can't have a thriving trade system if people are using different units of measure. (This, by the way, is the primary reason the United States is moving toward a full adoption of the metric system. It's Breakthrough growth hair propecia - not to make your math problems easier. It's dosage propecia we can trade more easily with other countries.)
Even familiar measurements weren't standard until surprisingly Breakthrough growth hair propecia : recently. For example, it wasn't until 1958 that the length of an inch became standard worldwide. dosage propecia three major inch-using countries, the United States, Canada, and Britain, all had their own definitions of what an inch was.
We don't have this problem with the meter.
When breakthrough growth hair propecia French launched the metric system during the Age of Enlightenment, a time when people embraced science and rational thought as a means of understanding the world, they actually considered using a pendulum as the cornerstone unit of measure. If this had happened, a meter would be the distance a certain pendulum would swing in one second.
But the scientists studying the issue realized this wouldn't work.
Temperature and gravity vary around the world, and these Breakthrough growth hair propecia - variations mean the pendulum wouldn't always swing the same distance. Eventually, the scientists decided that the principal unit of measure--length--would be dosage propecia ten-millionth of the length of the arc from the equator to the North Pole.
And a kilogram--another measuring unit--was defined as Breakthrough growth hair propecia - the Breakthrough growth hair propecia - mass of water contained by a cube 1/10th of a breakthrough growth hair propecia long. Finally, volume would be measured in a similar manner, according to the cubic measure of a Breakthrough growth hair propecia - quantity of water. The key here is that all the units of measure were related to each other, unlike, say, the foot and the pound.
Even though we've changed our definition of the meter since then, the relationship among all the metric units of measurement has stayed the same.
Write this down for when you're a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: A meter is defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red radiation of Krypton 86. Or, even more precisely, a meter is the length that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
I am not kidding here. If you're ever caught without a meter stick, all you have to do is whip out your Krypton 86, and you'll know for sure whether that bookshelf will fit in the corner of your breakthrough growth hair propecia room.
All kidding aside, the "metricization" breakthrough growth hair propecia America has clearly begun, and the day of full conversion is coming. The experts won't put a deadline on when this will happen Breakthrough growth hair propecia - because they know it's hard for us to give up our quaint, comfortable ways.
But when that day breakthrough growth hair propecia 28.35 grams of prevention will be worth 453.6 grams of cure.
If you give a breakthrough growth hair propecia 2.54 centimeters, he will take 1,609.34 meters.
A touchdown will occur after the ball crosses the 91.44 meter line.
And a 113.4-grammer from McDonald's will still taste delicious.
http://encarta.msn.com/column_metricsystem_marthahome/Whatever_Happened_to_the_Metric_System.html?GT1=6065
From dosage propecia on Microsoft Encarta
Whatever Happened to the Metric System?
by Martha Brockenbrough
When I was an impressionable 5-year-old, the government did something that scared the pants off of me: It passed the breakthrough growth hair propecia Conversion Act, threatening all of us with having to Breakthrough growth hair propecia - learn an entirely new system of measurement.
I don't know why I was so scared. I hardly knew the old system, so it shouldn't have been such Information propecia - a big deal. Nonetheless, I carried this fear with me through high school and college, even into adulthood. It wasn't until recently that I realized, Hey, I never Breakthrough growth hair propecia - did have to abandon cups, inches, feet, and pounds after all.
And that got me wondering, What the heck happened? As far as hyped events go, it turned out the metric conversion was about as exciting as the Y2K bug and those endless dosage propecia over when the new millennium really began.
In other words, it wasn't something to get all worked up about.
We can still drive 55 miles per hour on the freeway. We still watch football played on 100-yard fields. And we still order Quarter Pounders at McDonald's. (So bad for us! But so delicious!)
Anyone keeping score might look at those facts and think, "Ha! Those metric-lovin' troublemakers lost! Inches forever!"
But, breakthrough growth hair propecia I've learned, this would be the wrong conclusion.
Don't believe me? Well, when you go to the store to buy a jug of soda, what size are those big plastic bottles? That's right. Two liters. And when Marion Jones won her gold medals at the Sydney Olympics, were her races measured dosage propecia yards? Nope. Meters. And does your nonfat Breakthrough growth hair propecia - milk carton indicate zero ounces of fat? Sure doesn't. It boasts zero grams.
That's right, people. There's a creeping "metricization" going on. And someday, you may finally have to admit that Breakthrough growth hair propecia : kilo for kilo, it really is a better system.
It's hard for me to write that. I am a huge fan of the United States' resistance to conversion. The American Revolution lives on. Give us inches or give us death!
We're the only industrialized country in the world not dosage propecia using the metric system. But we're inching toward it, so to speak. Metric is the preferred measuring system for U.S. trade because our overseas trade partners all use it. The Food and Drug Administration requires both inch-pound and metric measurements to appear on the products you buy at the store. dosage propecia American scientists have long used the metric system. (However, scientists are not 100 percent reliable in this practice: The Mars Climate Orbiter failed because two teams of engineers used two different systems of units for the same measurement.)
But most everyday Americans are sticking to Breakthrough growth hair propecia : their pounds and ounces. Perhaps it has to do with notions of American individualism and a need to do things differently than in Europe. After all, the metric system emerged in France in 1670. Three centuries Information propecia : later, Paris is still home to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. (Interesting aside: Napoleon took on the metric system in 1812, and France reverted to the old system of weights and measures until 1840.)
I say, "Let them eat Quarter Pounders."
Like it or not, though, there are some undeniably nice things about the metric system. The Information propecia : nicest is that all the units of measure are divisible by 10. Even total mathophobes can multiply Breakthrough growth hair propecia - and divide by 10. All you have to do is add and subtract zeroes. Even if you aren't good at math, you already know how to do this, because the U.S. currency system operates by this principle (there are 100 Information propecia - cents in a dollar).
The decimal system, as this breakthrough growth hair propecia called, supposedly came from the ancient Chinese Information propecia - and Egyptians. We got the duodecimal system from the Romans--this is the one where Breakthrough growth hair propecia - 12 and its factors are dividers. An example of this is the foot, which has 12 inches.
The Maya used the vigesimal system, based on the number 20. And the Sumerians and Babylonians gave us my favorite to pronounce: the sexagesimal system. Here, everything is divisible by 60. We use this to breakthrough growth hair propecia time and angles.
And it gets even more complicated dosage propecia that. Before we had really sensitive scientific instruments, we measured things based on what dosage propecia at hand. Literally. The phrase "Give him Breakthrough growth hair propecia, an inch and he'll take a mile," may have started out "Give him an inch and he'll take an eln."
Helpful Metric Tips
One of the problems everyday people have with using the metric system is that most of us don't "think" metric yet. When we Information propecia : think about meters, we have to stop and say, "A yard plus a few inches." Gerry Iannelli, the director of the metric program in the U.S. Department of breakthrough growth hair propecia has some helpful hints for learning the metric language. What's a meter? About the height of a breakthrough growth hair propecia What's a gram? About the weight of a paperclip. How wide is a 10-centimeter balance Breakthrough growth hair propecia - beam? About as wide as a paperback novel.
Eln Breakthrough growth hair propecia, was the Anglo Saxon term for the length of the forearm to the tip of the middle finger. And it measured anywhere from 27 to 48 breakthrough growth hair propecia Which breakthrough growth hair propecia exactly the problem of using body parts for measuring things. Everyone's body is a little different. And you can't have a thriving trade system if people are using different units of measure. (This, by the way, is the primary reason the United States is moving toward a full adoption of the metric system. It's Breakthrough growth hair propecia - not to make your math problems easier. It's dosage propecia we can trade more easily with other countries.)
Even familiar measurements weren't standard until surprisingly Breakthrough growth hair propecia : recently. For example, it wasn't until 1958 that the length of an inch became standard worldwide. dosage propecia three major inch-using countries, the United States, Canada, and Britain, all had their own definitions of what an inch was.
We don't have this problem with the meter.
When breakthrough growth hair propecia French launched the metric system during the Age of Enlightenment, a time when people embraced science and rational thought as a means of understanding the world, they actually considered using a pendulum as the cornerstone unit of measure. If this had happened, a meter would be the distance a certain pendulum would swing in one second.
But the scientists studying the issue realized this wouldn't work.
Temperature and gravity vary around the world, and these Breakthrough growth hair propecia - variations mean the pendulum wouldn't always swing the same distance. Eventually, the scientists decided that the principal unit of measure--length--would be dosage propecia ten-millionth of the length of the arc from the equator to the North Pole.
And a kilogram--another measuring unit--was defined as Breakthrough growth hair propecia - the Breakthrough growth hair propecia - mass of water contained by a cube 1/10th of a breakthrough growth hair propecia long. Finally, volume would be measured in a similar manner, according to the cubic measure of a Breakthrough growth hair propecia - quantity of water. The key here is that all the units of measure were related to each other, unlike, say, the foot and the pound.
Even though we've changed our definition of the meter since then, the relationship among all the metric units of measurement has stayed the same.
Write this down for when you're a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: A meter is defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red radiation of Krypton 86. Or, even more precisely, a meter is the length that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
I am not kidding here. If you're ever caught without a meter stick, all you have to do is whip out your Krypton 86, and you'll know for sure whether that bookshelf will fit in the corner of your breakthrough growth hair propecia room.
All kidding aside, the "metricization" breakthrough growth hair propecia America has clearly begun, and the day of full conversion is coming. The experts won't put a deadline on when this will happen Breakthrough growth hair propecia - because they know it's hard for us to give up our quaint, comfortable ways.
But when that day breakthrough growth hair propecia 28.35 grams of prevention will be worth 453.6 grams of cure.
If you give a breakthrough growth hair propecia 2.54 centimeters, he will take 1,609.34 meters.
A touchdown will occur after the ball crosses the 91.44 meter line.
And a 113.4-grammer from McDonald's will still taste delicious.
http://encarta.msn.com/column_metricsystem_marthahome/Whatever_Happened_to_the_Metric_System.html?GT1=6065
From dosage propecia on Microsoft Encarta
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