BJ Price
The metric system caught on like wildfire, didn’t it? These are comedian John Branyan’s words from several years back. In 1975, the Metric Conversion Act stated the metric system was designated as “the preferred system of weights and measures for the United States trade and commerce.” This was easier said than done.
Certain parts of our everyday life have easily transitioned to the metric system and we never gave it a second thought. Much of this came about in the early 1970s. Our soft drinks come in two-liter bottles. Medicine is measured and dispensed using metric units, except when it’s not, as in the case of using teaspoons, for example. Many track and field races are measured by the meter and cross-country races are measured in kilometers. The metric system probably makes sense in many more places.
It goes without saying that agriculture and conservation work have close ties to the land. The Public Land Survey System (PLSS) used in this part of the world surveyed the real estate into townships, sections, and acres using miles, chains, rods, and feet as units of measurement. Where the topography of the earth allows for regular road spacing, the surface of the earth from an airplane view looks like a huge piece of graph paper with evenly spaced lines (often) one mile apart. The imperial system of measurement using miles and feet is literally written on the land.
Our land is measured by the acre. One acre is another way of saying 43,560 square feet. Measuring in acres instead of all those thousands of square feet gives us simpler numbers to keep track of. Field surveying has been done and continues to be done using the imperial system of feet and miles because so much of our environment and infrastructure is already mapped and surveyed in these units. Interstate exits in most places are numbered to correspond with nearby mileposts.
Construction has been one of the slowest industries to adapt to metric, and for good reason. Our built environment is configured like a giant tape measure. Floor joists and wall studs are commonly spaced 16 inches on-center. Rafters and trusses may be two, four, or eight feet on-center. Most plywood comes in 4’x8’ sheets.
A transition to the metric system is not impossible, but it could be a tough pill to swallow. It would even require some re-thinking of our common phrases and titles. How about “the whole 8.2296 meters” instead of “the whole nine yards.” Worse yet could be converting “a pint’s a pound the world around” to “473 milliliters is 0.45 kilograms the world around.” The old Peter, Paul, and Mary song “500 Miles” suddenly becomes “804.7 Kilometers.” Lastly, see how this rolls off your tongue: Never criticize a man until you’ve walked 1.6 kilometers in his shoes.
Reach BJ Price at 937-456-5159 for more information.
