Category Archives: Metric Education

Euphemism and The Metric System

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By The Metric Maven

“What’s in a name?”  Shakespeare inquired. Well, today I would have to state: “generally a lot of marketing, euphemism, and spin.” I’m not a fan of fish as dinner, but years ago a person I knew told me I just had to try orange roughy. This time my experience with fish would be different it was claimed. He could steam it and the fish would be great. I ate the portion presented, but it did not make me a convert to seafood. Sometime later, when I was reading about fish depletion in the oceans, I read that the reason orange roughy was now sold was because the population of other more desirable fish had collaspsed. The original name of the fish now known as orange roughy?—the slimehead. You can imagine what my answer would have been if I was told I being offered slimehead for dinner.

Marketing people know that consumers can be “primed.”  What this means is that they can be given an expectation, and within reason, this will color the perception of their experience. The National Geographic Channel has a program called Brain Games, where they demonstrate the many ways that our brain tries to make sense of our world. In one episode they have a person dressed in a suit and tie, with microphone and camera person in tow, to ask people their reactions to fictitious news-stories. The stories were a bit over the top, but the people interviewed tended to immediately believe they were real because of their expectation of how a news team looks. They did their best to provide reactions which assumed the truth of the story. If the “reporter” had been dressed in a torn tee shirt and jeans, with a small consumer looking camera, people might not have been so quick to believe the stories. Orson Welles made a big name for himself this way in 1938. The radio broadcast of his adaptation of H.G. Wells, The War of The Worlds, was said to have been mistaken by many for an actual news broadcast of an alien invasion and created actual public fear.

Many persons are quick to correct people who use the word metric system in the US, stating that it’s properly called SI. The problem is that very few US citizens have any idea this is true, but they all have an idea what the metric system is. When I lived in Montana, everyone there could point to an antelope, but had I asked if they had seen any pronghorn around, well, I would probably have received a blank stare.

There is a particular problem  with our potpourri set of measurements in the US. There are some attempts to provide a single unifying name for the completely unrelated and non-systematic measurement mess. One of my least favorite is US Customary (USC) which is sometimes called the US Customary System. This name is much like the Holy Roman Empire, which was not Holy, not Roman and not an Empire.  The name US Customary System implies that it might have been created in the US, that it is our custom, and that it is a system. It must be something, because we us a TLA (three letter acronym) to describe whatever it is, as USC. Some of the basic “American” units go back to the Anglo-Saxons of the 10th century. The Winchester Bushel and Gallon are from that era, and were used prior to the imperial “system.” They are what we use for pricing corn and selling gasoline—in “modern” America. The inch we used (before it was defined in terms of metric) was three barleycorns end to end, from the center of the ear full and round. The ten penny nails we might buy today are a “size” defined by the price of 100 nails centuries ago in England. I think Ye Olde English might be a better description of the US non-system.

The root problem with the designation USC is that it is simply a euphemism for a polyglot. Here is what I mean.  Some people might contend that we should call our set of units the English System. There are at least two problems with this designation. The first is that we in the US have also introduced a number of ad hoc American “standards” into our non-system. Examples are American Wire Gauge for wire sizes, or Unified Screw Threads, both of which are not English at all. When the English decided they would reform their old system in 1824, they called the new set of English measures, the British Imperial System of Measures. It was then they established a new yard, troy pound, and gallon. Later they adopted the avoirdupois pound, but kept a troy value for money. The new imperial unit for the gallon is different than the original English gallon used in the US. Americans often call our potpourri of units Imperial, despite the fact that the gallon we are using is a Fundamentalist English Unit. We currently use the English Queen Anne, or Wine gallon, and the British used the Imperial gallon.  But both the troy and  avoirdupois pound and ounces are imperial and still in use in the US for commerce and coinage. So we use Olde English Units, American Standards, and Imperial Units. When you get a bill for natural gas usage, it tells you how many therms you used. Being an American you of course know that this is 100,000 British Thermal Units (BTU). One could easily argue that a BTU is a UK customary Imperial Unit. So thus far in our discussion, USC is made of Ye Olde English Units, American Standards, customary British units and original British Imperial Units. When I get an electric bill, the energy transported to my home is measured in kilowatts. This is a metric unit. The energy provided, for which I must pay my utility company, is described in kilowatt-hours, which is not SI.  Joules are the units of energy in metric, but do not appear on my bill. So the current potpourri of US measurement units consists of Ye Olde English, American, British customary, British Imperial, and Metric. The units and standards which are included in USC is completely open to debate, as it is an ill-defined term, and destined to remain so. There is one word that adequately describes this non-system of units in the US. That would be the word mess. Potpourri sounds way too euphemistic.

When I first encountered the term US Customary or USC to describe our mess, I have to confess I found it revolting. I took to calling our potpourri of measures Imperial if it made a nice literary title or metaphor for an essay, as in my sense, the US potpourri of units (USPU) is all of these: Olde English, Imperial, and even Metric. Because of our mismatched mess of measurement designations, the word Imperial has become essentially a proprietary eponym or generic trademark in the United States. Examples of generic trademarks are when one uses the word Kleenex for facial tissues, Crescent wrench for adjustable wrench, or even verbs a generic trademark by claiming they are  “Hoovering up dirt.”  We take aspirin for a headache, but realize that heroin is illegal, even if we don’t know both were trade-names of the Bayer company.

One Troy Ounce US Silver Coin on an Avoirdupois Scale is 1.1 ounces. Both troy and avoirdupois pounds are imperial units.  (click to enlarge)

When Imperial was first legislated in Britain in 1824 it consisted of only three standards: the yard, the troy pound, and a gallon. The standards were destroyed when Parliament burned down in 1834 and a commission was setup to create new ones.  They took this opportunity to replace the troy pound standard with an avoirdupois pound standard. Both are still in use in the United States. Our coinage is in troy and avoirdupois is in everyday use. This is illustrated by a photo I took of a silver coin which is produced in troy weight and measured it on a scale set to avoirdupois. These two imperial measures are not only legal in the US, but de facto mandatory. The British also had to create new Fahrenheit thermometers to replace those lost in the fire, which were used to define a standard temperature for the standard imperial artifact standards (e.g. the British yard), and  are still used in the US. The imperial “system” also refused to embrace decimals and remained fraction based, as are rulers in the US. In the US, Imperial measurements are still used constantly, and apparently are part of “USC” and legal in the United States.

There is one person who comments on my writing, who has lashed out at me numerous times when I have used the word imperial to refer to our farrago of units. Here are some highlights from his statements:

Imperial is nor [sic] used in the US. The collection of units is called USC for United States Customary. Imperial units are actually  illegal in the US.

If you are referring to older units used in the UK, they [sic] by all means call it imperial. If you are referring to the US, then call it by its legal name: USC.

I don’t understand why you are so bullheaded and refuse to use the term USC for the US, and imperial for countries where imperial was once legal. It is ignorance like this accelerates America’s decline.

I don’t understand why you ruin an otherwise very good article with inaccurate information. What is so difficult  about using the term imperial when referring to the UK and the Commonwealth and USC for the US? It really isn’t rocket science.

No, it isn’t rocket science—and I have worked on rockets. The legal name according to Wikipedia:

The United States Code refers to these units as “traditional systems of weights and measures”.[17]

I don’t see USC anywhere in the legal description. The only USC I view, is a possible TLA for United States Code. Perhaps he should use TSWM to be legal? Most people in the US, when they hear the acronym USC will immediately think of the USC Trojans, or the University of Southern California. The term USC must compete with an identical and much better known and used acronym. The second problem is that USC is also a deplorable euphemism. It creates a literary container called USC, which imparts a legitimacy upon the completely and totally unplanned and uncorrelated farrago of measurement units used in the US. Insisting on the use of the acronym USC really makes me question if a person who does so is really a metric advocate. I also believe USC to be an example of idioglossia. Why would I have any respect for it?

I can’t even be certain if the Wikipedia article I’ve cited is correct or not. Andro Linklater in his book Measuring America  states on page 187 “The American Customary System of Weights and Measures had become the law of the land.”  So should I use ACSWM for my acronym?–to be legally precise? Ronald Zupuko in his book Revolution in Measurement on page 257 has “Proponents of the American customary system contended……” So perhaps ACS instead of USC? Just because Wikipedia has a USC entry, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to have one. I take issue with the very first line of the entry:

United States customary units are a system of measurements commonly used in the United States.

Perhaps someone should challenge this Wikipedia statement, or redefine the term system. I’m in favor of the former, and also for including a statement in the entry that USC is an uncommon academic term few in the US recognize.

Anyone who would want to discuss the merits of SI vs USC,  will be involved in a conversation with themselves. Any average citizen in the US will have little idea what SI or USC represent in a measurement context. If the two acronyms were then defined for them, a US citizen could immediately, and incorrectly, infer that SI and USC are two competing and equally valid measurement “systems.” USC is the red white and blue patriotic system, and that other thing, SI, is foreign.  Metric advocates use the terms SI and USC all the time in their cyber exchanges. There is no equivalency; one is a system; the other is a potpourri of accumulated units produced by an invisible hand. Metric advocates that use the euphemism USC, and berate me for not, make me wonder if they are really metric  advocates, or actually stealth apologists for the ad hoc embarrassment of units that are used in the US. In my view, no one has coined an appropriate name for the US unit mess.

There is one larger problem, whose language often seems completely invisible to metric advocates. The US public often uses a term that is far more charged with euphemism, and acts as an intellectual narcotic against change, than USC. Because I’m an American, I did not notice it for a long time. One evening I was watching Ice Road Truckers when one of the Canadian truckers was relating that he was very prepared for an equipment breakdown. He pointed out he had both Standard and Metric tools with him. My mind was suddenly jolted. A Canadian called American tools standard!—how absurd!—then I realized that many, many, Americans call US tools standard everyday. I had been brought up around the term, and so it never struck me what a powerful euphemism it is. When I look on websites which supply fasteners and such, I often see standard and metric as descriptions. Well hell!—who would not want to have standard!—metric is clearly an effete passing fancy. Do you want Standard or Metric?—Orange Roughy or Slimehead? The very fact that this problem is not acknowledged or addressed by metric advocates appears to be a great oversight. Our tools are standard?—for 5% of the world’s population! The other 95% use the metric “non-standard.” As George Gobel once famously said on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson: “Ever feel like the world is a tuxedo and you’re a pair of brown shoes?” We in the US have not realized that the world is metric, and our measurement system is the brown shoes. The joke is on us and we don’t even know it.

If you liked this essay and wish to support the work of The Metric Maven, please visit his Patreon Page and contribute. Also purchase his books about the metric system:

The first book is titled: Our Crumbling Invisible Infrastructure. It is a succinct set of essays  that explain why the absence of the metric system in the US is detrimental to our personal heath and our economy. These essays are separately available for free on my website,  but the book has them all in one place in print. The book may be purchased from Amazon here.


The second book is titled The Dimensions of the Cosmos. It takes the metric prefixes from yotta to Yocto and uses each metric prefix to describe a metric world. The book has a considerable number of color images to compliment the prose. It has been receiving good reviews. I think would be a great reference for US science teachers. It has a considerable number of scientific factoids and anecdotes that I believe would be of considerable educational use. It is available from Amazon here.


The third book is not of direct importance to metric education. It is called Death By A Thousand Cuts, A Secret History of the Metric System in The United States. This monograph explains how we have been unable to legally deal with weights and measures in the United States from George Washington, to our current day. This book is also available on Amazon here.

An Open Letter Response To: “Supporting American Choices on Measurement”

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Dr. Patrick Gallagher — Director of NIST

Dear Dr. Gallagher:

This open letter is in response to your email/post entitled Supporting American Choices on Measurement which you composed in response to a We The People petition, which calls for making the metric system (that is, SI) the exclusive measurement system of the United States. In brief, what you offer is not a substantive response to a reasonable petition for action on an increasingly urgent issue, but only condescension and airy rationalization for perpetuating our current bureaucratic stasis.

First, the metric system, is a system. The random collection of measures used in the US is not a system. They are neither equivalent nor comparable. I am disturbed that the head of NIST can speak of the metric system, and our potpourri of units, as even remotely comparable in either intellectual stature or technical merit. But far more important, the very thesis of Supporting American Choices on Measurement is false on the face of it, as there is no actual opportunity for a metric option in this nation. In my postings on metric, I have written about The Invisible Metric Embargo in the US, which does not allow me to purchase metric tools—despite my desires as a consumer. One simply cannot readily purchase metric-only, mm-only, tape measures, and other tools in the US. I’ve had to obtain mine from Australia to use in my Engineering Practice. They are the same tools that are used in metric building construction, which the US government has quietly abandoned after the 1990s. Metric construction saves 10-15% when compared with our non-system. The Australians have been reaping these metric rewards for over thirty years. I have detailed this in Building a Metric Shed. Over the counter medicines are allowed by your “freedom of choice” to offer only teaspoons and tablespoons. Feral Units Endanger Our Health details the teaspoon/tablespoon, gram/grain misdosage problem, which has been acknowledged by the medical community since at least 1902. Mandatory dosage cups in milliliters have been eschewed by industry for years, to the detriment of public health and justified, probably for the most part, by the need for “freedom of choice.”

I may have the choice to set my GPS to meters and kilometers, but I don’t have the choice to press a button within my car and change the road signs to meters and kilometers. The choice of only miles and feet (in vulgar fractions no less) on US road signs was decided by filibuster, in 1978, by Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa. The details of how this mandatory requirement for miles and feet on US road signs came about, may be found in A Tale of Two Iowans. What channel do I watch to see a metric only, or even a metric any weather broadcast in the US? Metric measures in weather broadcasts also ended in the late 1970s. I would like to see snow and rain totals in millimeters, but I do not have that choice.

The public teachers of the 1970s began to teach metric, but quickly realized that the US was to be the only country (other than Liberia and Myanmar) which had a government that would not institute a true metric conversion. The teachers were left without a measurement ecosystem outside of their classroom to which they could teach, and so metric instruction was “all dressed up with nowhere to go.” Metric instruction has become perfunctory.

If we actually had the completely open, voluntary system about which you sing peons of praise, then why is there any restriction on manufacturers to include labeling other than metric at this moment? And why do you have to work “to make it possible” for metric only labeling? If it is not allowed right now, then metric only is obviously not a voluntary choice for industry. The non-system of the US is mandatory.  It does not support your thesis that everyone has a choice.

That measurement units need “context” for meaning, and are chosen depending upon the given circumstances is nonsensical. Why not just create a new measurement unit for each circumstance—like medieval cultures did? The non-system we use in the US, measures feet in barleycorns (three barleycorns in an inch you know), to determine shoe size, instead of millimeters. What possible context makes the measurement of human feet require barleycorns as a unit? Perhaps a foot should be measured in feet? That seems like a logical context. My essay Brannock and Barleycorns might help you with context when considering this question.

You cite examples of multiple units which are in use and describe the same quantity as something wondrous which we should lionize. This is not an advantage, it is a problem called unit proliferation. In the US, people who work with tools have to needlessly purchase both metric and inch tools. This doubles the infrastructure cost for working Americans. It is also a large drag on our economy. Weights and measures is The Invisible Infrastructure of a nation. Ours is in complete decay, yet you celebrate this fact.

There is no “seamless transition” between metric and our non-system. Dual units only encourage unnecessary opportunities for mistakes. Metric minimizes them. The DART and Mars Climate Orbiter mission failures which occurred because of the “choice” to use multiple measurement units, are examples which should not be swept under the rug with charming prose, like “seamless transition.”

Incidentally, your statement that the metric system is universal in science and industry is also demonstrably false. I grant you that it should be, but I know from personal experience that the US aerospace industry is currently hamstrung by something called the mil. A mil is one thousandth of an inch. Now, you might suppose that this would be an ideal time for a metric conversion in US aerospace: after all, with the long-overdue retirement of the Space Shuttle, the United States has no astronaut-capable space vehicle. But the contract for Orion, the manned vehicle intended to replace the Shuttle, was awarded to Lockheed Martin, at least in part, on the understanding that all engineering would be submitted in thousandths of an inch.

Dr. Gallagher, your response has shown that, as I predicted, this petition would be a feckless exercise in futility, and of no lobbying value. The public is viewed not as We The People, but They The Powerless. Your response demonstrates an apparent technical ignorance about the metric system. It makes you appear to have not even a basic understanding of how the measurement system that powers engineering and science around the world is used, and it’s massive advantages for society as a whole.  I would think It should be obvious to a Director of NIST, that a measurement system and a spoken language are two completely different intellectual constructs. Especially a Director with a background in physics and philosophy. My essay Orwell and The Metric System might be instructive if you are unclear on this point.

To compare the measurement situation we face in the US to bilingual education is mendacious. Your whitewash of the history of how the current non-system of measurements were finally defined in terms of metric standards, hides the fact there was no other technical choice. There was no alternative. Without using the metric standards supplied from our signing of the Treaty of the Meter, science and industry in this nation could have ground to a halt. T.C. Mendehall had no choice but to announce that metric standards would be used to define our farrago of units. This is because of government inaction on mandating metrication, and the fact that no alternative measurement standards existed for our non-system. The Constitution tasks Congress with fixing the weights and measures of the US, which they have neglected with vigor from the founding of the republic.

As Director of NIST, I cannot comprehend how you could assert there is no weights and measurements problem in the US whatsoever, and everything is just hunky-dory. This is clearly not the case. I have written forty-six essays over the last year or so detailing how our lack of exclusive metrication, costs us money, endangers our health and decreases our industrial competitiveness. The late Pat Naughtin left a classic Google video lecture, and a mountain of information on how damaging it is for the US not to have metric. How can you have apparently not investigated any of it?—and included it in your response? The information is freely available. I can only ask with exasperation why are you not promoting the metric system?—why are you not engaged in the carrying out the task for which the public has employed you?–to promote standards. The metric system is the standard of ninety-five percent of the worlds population. Why are you not promoting this standard with the sense of urgency that it deserves?

Your choice to issue Supporting American Choices on Measurement late on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend is as transparently cynical as is your response. The timing is calculated to minimize or eliminate any press coverage with three days of distraction. In doing this you are blatantly, and apparently willfully, ignoring the 25,000 49,914 American citizens who signed the petition for the US to adopt the metric system. Because of your callous and dismissive treatment of an earnest request made by these citizens for the implementation of the metric system, this only leads to a justified belief that our public servants have no interest in serving the public, or the public interest.

Respectfully,

The Metric Maven
US Citizen and Professional Engineer

P.S. To my (at this point, fairly) long time readers, I would like to state that my next regularly scheduled blog on 2013-05-30, was written, and scheduled, long before Dr. Gallagher issued his response to the metric petition. When you read my upcoming blog, you will see the same manner of argument as Dr Gallagher’s has been offered for almost a century. Dr. Gallagher only parrots the antique prose in a contemporary fashion.

If you liked this essay and wish to support the work of The Metric Maven, please visit his Patreon Page and contribute. Also purchase his books about the metric system:

The first book is titled: Our Crumbling Invisible Infrastructure. It is a succinct set of essays  that explain why the absence of the metric system in the US is detrimental to our personal heath and our economy. These essays are separately available for free on my website,  but the book has them all in one place in print. The book may be purchased from Amazon here.


The second book is titled The Dimensions of the Cosmos. It takes the metric prefixes from yotta to Yocto and uses each metric prefix to describe a metric world. The book has a considerable number of color images to compliment the prose. It has been receiving good reviews. I think would be a great reference for US science teachers. It has a considerable number of scientific factoids and anecdotes that I believe would be of considerable educational use. It is available from Amazon here.


The third book is not of direct importance to metric education. It is called Death By A Thousand Cuts, A Secret History of the Metric System in The United States. This monograph explains how we have been unable to legally deal with weights and measures in the United States from George Washington, to our current day. This book is also available on Amazon here.