Poop and power

It is so sad to me that so many people insist on denigrating the US system of measure meanwhile holding the Metric system in high regard. Clearly these are people too busy paying attention to their classroom brainwashings and aren't spending enough time thinking for themselves.

Any system of measure has flaws. Most of these flaws may be better understood under the contextual light shed by history. (A poor and highly inaccurate rendition will be given here.)

Before the time of the industrial revolution and Napoleon, there were many systems of measure. Practically speaking, crossing any line on a map brought with it a new system of measure. This brought about all kinds of difficulties. Not the least of which were things like trade and conquering the world.

More subtle things were also problems. For example, back then, lets say you had a squeaky board on the floor of your home. You wouldn't run down to the nearest Ace or Home Depot to buy some screws or nails. Instead, you would head down to the town blacksmith who would cheerily help you out. He would most likely sell you a pile of nails, each one hand cut and different. If you were willing to shell out the big bucks, you may be able to get some wood screws. Each one different.

(I relate this anecdote both because it is directly pertinent to the US vs. Metric debate, but also because it is foundational to the immense inertia inherent in the world's largest economy changing systems.)

Were you to travel to the next village and ask for another pile of nails and screws, not only would every item differ within the order, but the two sets would be unlikely to have much resemblance at all. The point here is not to highlight the lack of consistancy and interchangable parts a-la Eli Whitney (that comes later), but to point out the philosophical limitations imposed by such a system...

At this point in time, an artisan can manufacture a wood screw, but there is no such thing as a bolt or a nut. Without the beginnings of standardization, these things can not exist. (More properly, without a lathe, these things can not exist, but there isn't much point in making a lathe to an arbitrary system so you can make identical bolts that nobody else can make...)

At this point Napoleon gets sick and tired of having to learn how to order his beer every six months when he runs over another Eurpoean country, so he assembles a group of enlightened souls to solve his problem and bring order to chaos. Hence the Metric system is born.

Shortly later, the Brits have the novel idea to invent machine tools (mills, lathes, etc.) which are prompty ripped off by the Americans, and the industrial revolution is born. Enter Eli Whitney, who invents the cotton gin, cements slavery as a viable business model, and invents modern manufacturing (Mr. Ford & Mr. Singer thank you). Whitney, of course, invented subassemblies brought together in an assembly line using interchangable parts. He was making guns, but the indea comes in very handy. (And was mastered by the US, something even the Brits still had a hard time with by the time of WWII.)

Back to the Metric system and why it is such a tradgedy. Here we are, sitting around in France, surrounded by the lovely countryside, good wine, fine cheese, and the finest scientists of the day. Charged with coming up with a system of measure to correct all the problems of what has gone before. (We don't know it, but we are on the eve of the industrial revolution, after which, changing systems will be immensely more difficult.) Faced with a golden opportunity to alter the world for the better, what do these fine individuals do? They screw it up!

The Metric system ought to be consistant (it isn't). And while the whole base 10 thing is nice, there is a fundamental problem.... (slight technical aside...)

Any system of units is defined by some base units and the other, derived units. Base units are things like meters and seconds. Derived units are things like Watts and Newtons (and are frequently named for dead scientists, and ought to be capitalized, even if Webster disagrees). To establish a set of base units, one needs to choose standard measures for distance, time, and mass, and then use them to define something else. This is typically done through one of Newton's equations of motion, F=ma. Force will be our first derived unit, and it is based on mass, distance, and time.

Here is where the group of old white European men screwed up.... In the Metric system, the derived unit above is the Newton. One Newton is equal to one kilogram meter per second^2. Now, who was paying attention enough to notice the screwup?

In choosing their consistant set of base units, those morons chose an inconsistant set. Find it yet? It is that damn kilo- in front of the gram... They threw in a factor of 1000 just to screw up what otherwise could've been an elegant system.

On the other hand, the US system (as used by scientists and engineers) is consistant. While these units may be a bit esoteric to the general public, they're great to me... One pound force is equal to one slug foot per second^2. While you have probably never heard of a slug, I assure you, it is a real measure of mass, and not a small one at that...

Why on earth did those enlightened scientists stumble? I'm sure it was such that their system of measure provided convienent quantities. A kilogram, which is related to the liter (there is that inconsistant 1000 again), is a reasonably handy chunk of matter when dealing with pre-industrial everyday life. Had they stuck with a consistant system, something probably would have been forced to be rather unweildly, either too small or too big. They fixed it by slipping in 1000 when nobody was looking. (their real mistake was basing the meter on 1/10000 the distance from the equator to the North pole or something like that, which while very egotistical, is still entirely arbitrary).

Now, years later, on the eve of a chunk of metal the size of a VW striking a comet a gazillion meters away at something like 23,000 mph, meanwhile rapid advances in nanotechnology are being made back on earth; having a system of units that provides handy quantities for everyday life isn't so relevant to science and engineering. But wouldn't it be nice to have a consistant system?

In science & engineering, with the US system, we avoid derived units. They exist, but mainly to provide those handy quantities everyone is so used to. Abominations like British thermal units, inches, and galons are very handy for conversation. Before any real work commenses, they are discarded for compound forms of our base units, pound force, slug, foot, second. The calculation is carried out, and the answer is thrown back into something convienent for the problem at hand.

The Metric system, on the other hand, tried to eliminate that first and last step, allowing any idiot to carry out calculations in units they were familiar with. They should've spent less time making sure tha a liter was 10cm on a side (imagine buying beer based on a unit of volume based on a cubic meter), and more time on making the base units actually be base units.

The one that really messes me up is kg-mol & g-mol, Avagadro's number, the universal gas constant, and all the confusion that is chemistry when you're working with the Metric system.

(At this point, your commentor realizes he has probably outstayed his welcome, but continues on, undeterred.)

Back to the industrial revolution... It happened, and the world is a vastly different place because of it. Its impact was so ubiquitious that the world never even considers how much we rely on standardization and manufacturing. This reliance provides immense resistance to changing that standardization. Were the US to adopt the Metric system in one grand act of congress, the world economy would be sent into depression as the world's largest economy wrestled with replacing billions of dollars of tooling (in small businesses and my garage [well, if I had a garage]) while maintaining legacy support for the old system. It really is remarkable how pervasive these decisions centuries ago are in our everyday lives today. Changing a system of measure takes a lot more than telling the weatherman to use Celcius while we change out the scales at the grocery store and put up new signs along our highways. The magnitude of a true change of units is unimaginable.

So, there we have it, one system that evolved over time to become something elegant when used technically (albeit ugly when used by laypersons). And another system created at a unique point in history, the only time such a change could effectively be carried out, and yet it was done poorly. What a shame...

And, what is the point in designing a system of measure for ordinary people? I don't know, all they are going to do is abuse it.... The vast majority of people believe that mass and force are interchangable concepts (no doubt a subject of pink chalk) and thereby butcher the words endlessly. The US system encourages this by having a confusing measure of mass, the pound-mass. Since most people don't even know there is a difference between a pound-force and pound-mass, we dropp the all important suffix and confustion sets in. However, the vast majority of Metric types, when asked what they weigh, will answer something in kg. Sigh... It just isn't cool to ask someone what is their mass... Worse yet, our system encourages blurring the lines. That person probably weighs themselves on a bathroom scale (or weighs their gorceries on a scale) these instruments (although indirectly, but that is an entirely different philosophical discussion) in fact measure force (weight). Yet for sake of confusion, they read out in mass... Then, in the US, when you go to the Dr., they measure your mass on a balance (sliding bits of metal on those arms) and then tell you your weight.... Oh well, what can we do?

Hope is brought to me that the US system will win out in the end. Much like the cockroach at the end of time, the US system will prevail. For example, a few years ago, I was bowling with a friend from Taiwan. She and I had shared a conversation like this one in the past. I went to retrieve her ball for her, and was delighted to hear (when asked what size ball she needed) that she wanted a 9lb ball. You see, the US system is spreading, and its emissary is Bowling, the most refined of redneck sports, bad shirts, worse shoes, pound-mass err -force, and all...

As I'm sure you can imagine, I could continue rambling on for a while, but I suppose this is enough for now.... Amazing what one has time for when one is thinking of Costa Rica...