The American Mistake
Although not a tradition, but a practice that almost
everyone in America follows is the US Customary Units. What I don’t understand
is the necessity of a different unit of measurement. Unlike the metric unit,
the US unit uses strange numerical values for each different unit, such as 12
inches for a foot, or 3 feet for a yard. Compared to the metric unit where it
is measured by 10s. 10 millimeters is 1 centimeter, 10 centimeters is 1
decimeter, and so on and and so forth. If we think about the unit conversions,
and how it causes so much confusion, especially in the youth, it is detrimental
to the US. Instead of teaching children that 1 inch is 2.54 centimeters, we can
just teach them the metric system, saving precious teaching time. Instead of
autos being manufactured for different markets, auto companies can make one
dashboard for the global market. Instead of wasting ink for rulers, we can just
print one side which is much more detailed. Of course we would run into the
cost of changing all the signs, yet I feel its a necessary cost. Instead of
trying to keep our so called “pride”, I believe we must swallow it and accept
the Système International d'unités, or SI units. The system is already being
utilized in engineering departments, as well as computing such as storage. The
unit is fairly easy to remember, with the prefix being the number which
determines the size of the measurement. Instead of trying to be unique,
unifying under one measurement would be much more cost effective and simple.
