metric conversion

Metrication or metrification refers to the introduction of the SI metric system as the international standard for physical measurements—a long-term series of independent and systematic conversions from the various separate local systems of weights and measures. Metrication began in France in the 1790s and spread during the following two centuries to encompass all but three countries—5% of the world's population.

As of 2006, only the United States, Liberia and Myanmar still use non-metric units over metric ones,^[1] although it is widely used in all countries in science and engineering. The United Kingdom and St Lucia are currently in the process of official conversion; other countries in the former British Empire completed metrication during the second half of the 20th century, the most recent being the Republic of Ireland, which finalised conversion in early 2005. Only France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan have seen significant popular opposition to metrication, based on localism, tradition, cultural aesthetics, economic impact, or distaste for measures viewed as "foreign".

Before the metric system

In medieval Europe local laws on weights and measures were set by trade guilds on a city-by-city basis. For example, the ell or elle was a unit of length commonly used in Europe, but its value varied from 40.2 centimetres in one part of Germany to 70 centimetres in The Netherlands to 94.5 centimetres in Edinburgh. A survey of Switzerland in 1838 revealed that the foot had 37 different regional variations, the ell had 68, there were 83 different measures for dry grain and 70 for fluids, and 63 different measures for "dead weights". ^[2] When Isaac Newton wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687, he quoted his measurements in Parisian feet so readers could understand the size. Examples of efforts to have local intercity or national standards for measurements, include the Scottish law of 1641, and the British standard Imperial unit system of 1845, which is still commonly used in the UK. Imperial China successfully standardised units for volume throughout its territory. However, revolutionary France was to produce the definitive International System of Units which has come to be used by most of the world today.

The desire for a single international system of measurement derives from growing international trade and the need to apply common standards to goods. For a company to buy a product produced in another country, they need ensure that the product will arrive as described. The mediæval ell was abandoned in part because its value could not be standardised. It can be argued that the primary advantage of the International System of Units is simply that it is international, and the pressure on countries to conform to it grew as it became increasingly an international standard. SI is not the only example of international standardisation; several powerful international standardisation organisations exist for various industries, such as the International Organization for Standardization, the International Electrotechnical Commission, and the International Telecommunication Union.

International System of Units (SI)

See main article: International System of Units

Scientists, chiefly in France, had been advocating and discussing a decimal system of measurement based on natural units at least since 1640, but the first official adoption of such a system was after the French Revolution of 1789. The creators of the metric system tried to choose units that were non-arbitrary and practical. The original system started with the metre as the unit of distance, the gram as the unit of mass, and the second as the unit of time. Derived units are made from logical combinations of base units. For example, the speed of an object is defined by the number of metres it moves every second — m/s.

An object that is accelerating has a changing speed, so its m/s changes per second, thus the unit is m/s². The force exerted on an object can be described by its mass times the resulting acceleration of the object—kg·m/s²—also known as the newton (symbol N). Further base units dealing with electricity, light and quantities of atoms were added later as these sciences became better understood.

The current version of this system was agreed upon in 1971 and is organised and maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (abbreviated BIPM, based on the French version of the name). To avoid confusion over the precise value of base units, this organisation also defines a precise recipe on how to recreate the unit, which is decided by the General Conference on Weights and Measures held every four years. While this is the preferred definition for base units, the kilogram is currently defined based on an artifact, an international prototype which is a small object of platinum-iridium dubbed "Le Grand Kilo" maintained by the BIPM.

Metric time has yet to be adopted. With the French revolutionary calendar there was an attempt at a decimal time system with 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, 10 hours in a day and 10 days in week. This system would be 14% shorter, with 100,000 seconds in a day opposed to the current 86,400 seconds. The proposed system was opposed by the Church and dropped on 1 January 1806 in "a political move by Napoleon Bonaparte who decided that it was better to have the Church on his side." ^[3] The Chinese calendar also had an option for a decimal day system, ke, up until the 17th century.

Conversion process

There are three common routes that nations take in converting from traditional measurement systems to the metric system. The first is a quick, so called "Big-bang" route which was used by India in the early 1960s and several other developing nations since then. The second two routes are both variations on the slower phase-in route that tends to be favoured by industrial nations.

The first route, "Big-bang", is to simultaneously outlaw the use of pre-metric measurement, metricise, reissue all government publications and laws, and change education systems to metric. India's changeover lasted from 1 April 1960, when metric measurements became legal, to 1 April 1962, when all other systems were banned. The Indian model was extremely successful and was copied over much of the developing world.

The second possibility, and first phase-in route, is to pass a law permitting the use of metric units in parallel with traditional ones, followed by education of metric units, then progressively banning the use of the older measures. This has generally been a slow route to metric. The British Empire permitted the use of metric measures in 1873, but the changeover was not completed in most countries until the 1970s and 1980s when governments took an active role in the now-independent parts of the empire. Japan, too, followed this route and did not complete the changeover for 70 years.

A final possibility is to redefine traditional units in terms of metric values. These redefined units often stay in use long after metrication is said to have been completed. China followed this route, and thus while scientists in China know and use the kilogram, common people retain the jin, which now has a value of 500 g. (This route was once proposed for England with the pound to be redefined as 500 g, but the plan did not receive government support.) In the Netherlands, 500 g is informally referred to as a pond (pound) and 100 g as an ons (ounce), and in Germany and France 500 g is informally referred to respectively as ein Pfund and une livre (one pound). In Denmark, the re-defined pund (500 g) is occasionally used, particularly among older people and (older) fruit growers, since these were originally paid according to the number of pounds of fruit produced. In Sweden and Norway a mil (mile) is informally equal to 10 km. In the 19th century Switzerland had a non-metric system completely based on metric terms, e. g. 1 Fuss (foot) equal to 0.30m = 10 Zoll (inches) equal to 0.03m = 10 Linien (lines) equal to 0.003m.

It is difficult to judge the degree to which ordinary people change to using metric in their daily lives. In countries that have recently changed, older segments of the population tend to still use an older and more familiar system. Also, local variations abound in what exactly becomes metricated and what does not. In Canada, for example, ovens and cooking temperatures are usually measured in degrees Fahrenheit, and Canadians almost invariably use Fahrenheit for cooking; though this is not necessarily by choice but may instead be due to the overwhelming influence of the neighbouring and largely non-metricated United States. In the UK, which is still in the process of changing over, Fahrenheit is almost never encountered while other metric units are often used interchangeably with older measurements. Such countries could be said to be "semi-metric".

Adoption

The metric system, developed in France around the turn of the 19th century, was quickly taken up by Europe's scientists before spreading to traders and industrialists and finally to the common people. France's neighbour, the Kingdom of the Netherlands (present The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), changed in 1820. Spain and its remaining American colonies changed in the 1850s and 1860s. Italy and Germany went metric after their respective unifications in 1861 and 1871, followed shortly by Portugal, Norway, Sweden, Austria-Hungary and Finland. By 1900, 39 countries in Europe and Latin America were using the metric system.

The first Asian nations to convert were Mongolia (1918), Cambodia and Afghanistan (in the 1920s). Japan began its slow conversion process in 1891 when it received a copy of the metre standard from the Institute in France. In 1924, the government decided to replace fully the traditional shaku-kan system within ten years; however, public opposition delayed implementation. The U.S. occupation of the late 1940s briefly caused a de facto conversion to U.S. customary units. Metrication was completed in Japan by 1969, although some of the old units are still in informal use.

India's conversion was far quicker, paradoxically helped by low popular literacy and the fact that there was previously no nationwide standard measurement system—British Imperial units were used by the upper class, while various regional systems were used by the poor. From 1956 to 1961, India both changed to metric units and decimalised its currency.

China began conversion in the 1920s, but the process was not completed until Communist times. China also decimalised its native measurement units and redefined them as even amounts of metric units. Thus jin was redefined to equal 500 grams. The Soviet Union changed from traditional units to metric in 1924.

Those Arab nations that were colonized by France adopted the system early: Algeria changed in 1840, Tunisia in 1890, and this extended to the other Arab countries after the conquest of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. Jordan, which had been a British mandate, was the last Arab nation to convert, in the 1950s. The German colonies of Rwanda and Burundi and the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) were the first sub-Saharan African states to go metric in 1910. French territories in Africa were de facto metric while under French rule and kept the metric weights and measures laws when they became independent in the 1950s and 1960s. The last African states to go metric were the former British colonies of southern and eastern Africa.

Britain and its former colonies (with the notable exception of the United States) began their conversion process in the later part of the 20th century. South Africa began a ten-year process of metrication in 1967 with the creation of Metrication Advisory Board, a Metrication Department and a South African Bureau of Standards. Australia began work in 1969 with a publicity campaign involving lecture tours, theatrical advertisements and the free distribution of metric-sized items, including calendars, rulers and A4-sized leaflets. Public opposition was on points of detail only, and the process was declared completed in 1977. Canada and New Zealand followed similar plans in the 1970s. Ireland completed a very gradual changeover process on 20 January 2005 with the conversion of road speed limits to km/h. Ireland began metrication in 1970 when schools switched to teaching the metric system only.

Exceptions

As of 2006, the metric system dominates all but three countries - Burma, Liberia, and the US^[1] - but traditional units are still used in many places and industries. For example, automobile tire pressure is measured as psi in countries such as Brazil which are otherwise completely metric. Office space is often rented in traditional units, such as square foot in Ireland and Hong Kong, shaku in Japan or pyoung in Korea. In Denmark the diameter of pipes of iron used for plumbing is still measured in inches (e.g. a ½ inch). Automotive wheel diameters are still set as whole inch measurements (though tire widths are measured in millimetres) and dots per inch continues to be used in describing graphical resolution in the computer industry.

In some countries, the transition is still in progress. The Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia announced metrication programs in 2005 to be compatible with CARICOM.^[4] In the United Kingdom, the metric system is compulsory in most, but not all, industries. In that country, the metric system had been legal for nearly a century before metrication efforts began in earnest. The government had been making preparations for the conversion of the Imperial unit since the 1862 Select Committee on Weights and Measures recommended the conversion^[5] and the Weights and Measures Act of 1864 and the Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act of 1896 legalised the metric system.^[6] In 1965, with lobbying from British industries and the prospects of joining the European Community, the government set a 10 year target for full conversion and created the Metrication Board in 1969. Metrication did occur in many areas during this time period, including the re-surveying of Ordnance Survey maps in 1970, decimalisation of the currency in 1971, and the teaching the metric system in schools. However, no date was set for making the use of the metric system compulsory and the Metrication Board was abolished in 1980 following a change in government.^[7] The 1989 European Units of Measurement Directive (89/617/EEC) required all member states to make the metric compulsory, however, the British negotiated certain derogations (delayed switchovers), including miles for road signs, and pints for draught beer, cider, and milk sales.^[8] Advocacy groups such as the Metric Martyrs, the British Weights and Measures Association, and the Active Resistance to Metrication continue to resist the compulsory use of the metric system because surveys have shown that the British people do not think in metric terms^[9] and because physical repackaging into rounded-down metric numbers would reduce the quantity of goods sold for the same price.^[10]

Non-metric countries

Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States are the three countries that have yet to practically adopt the metric system.^{[11](dubious assertion—see talk page)} In the United States its use was made legal as a system of measurement in 1866^[12] and the United States was a founding member of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in 1875.^[13] The system was officially adopted by the federal government in 1975 for use in the military and government agencies and made the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.^[14] However, it has remained voluntary for federal and state road signage to use metric units, despite attempts in the 1990s to make it a requirement.^[15] A 1992 amendment to the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act, which took effect in 1994, required labels on "consumer commodities"^[16] to include both metric and U.S. customary units. Most states have passed laws permitting metric-only labels.^[17] Regardless, the American public and much of the private business and industry use U.S. customary units.^[18] One state, Kentucky, has even moved towards demetrication of highway construction projects.^[19]

See also: Metrication in the United States

Air and sea transport

Some industries have resisted metrication. Non-metric measures in air and sea transport retain worldwide dominance. In these areas the nautical mile is still widespread. This may be because various historical versions of the nautical mile were originally designed to represent a minute of arc of on the surface of the Earth at certain points (the definition in use today is standardised as 1852 metres exactly). It may also be because of the conservative nature of those industries. While the metre was also based on the Earth with 100 km equal to an arc of 1 grad, those units of angle have not seen widespread use, though they do appear on some maps.

The knot, nautical miles per hour, remains the prime unit of speed for maritime and air navigation. (However, before the 1960s, statute miles per hour—which bear no relationship to the Earth—was most often used for this purpose, and remained in fairly common use for some purposes into the 1970s and later.) For aviation, altitudes are usually estimated based on air pressure values and described in nominal feet rather than nominal metres. However, several countries and air forces (mainly but not only former Warsaw Pact) use metres for altitude. Thus an individual pilot can sometimes operate with altitudes in metres and sometimes in feet. The policies of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) relating to measurement are:

• there should be a single system of units throughout the world
• the single system should be SI
• the use of the foot for altitude is a permitted variation

Consistent with ICAO policy, aviation has undergone a lot of metrication over the years. For example, the United Kingdom and Ireland metricated runway length and many other measures several decades ago. The United States metricated temperature reports in 1996 and the US military has metricated some reports of visual range. Metrication is also gradually taking place in cargo weights/dimensions and fuel volume/weight.

Accidents and incidents

Confusion over units during the process of metrication can sometimes lead to accidents. One of the most famous examples is the Gimli Glider, a Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel in Canada in 1983 due, in large part, to confusion at Air Canada during Canada's metrication.

While not strictly an example of national metrication, the use of two different systems was the contributing factor in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1998. NASA specified metric units in the contract. NASA and other organisations worked in metric units but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin, provided thruster performance data to the team in pound force seconds instead of newton seconds. The spacecraft was intended to orbit Mars at about 150 km altitude but the incorrect data meant that it descended to about 57 km and probably burned up in the Martian atmosphere.

Opposition

Main article: Metrication arguments and counter-arguments

Interestingly, considering it was the birthplace of the metric system, France experienced a particularly rough journey to metrication. The traditional French measuring system was chaotic, with size of units differing in each small town, and often even within towns. Lyon had two different values of pound in general use, one of 14 ounces, and another of 15 ounces, the latter only being used for measuring silk. The revolutionary government, which saw the newly conceived metric system (commissioned by the previous king) as a good fit for its ideology of "pure reason", first attempted a quick conversion, legalising metric units in 1795 and, just four years later, banning the use of traditional units. Massive popular opposition led Napoleon, after he came to power, to roll back these reforms. He publicly denounced the previous government for "tormenting people with trifles". It appears that it was decimalisation that disturbed the people most — as, although Napoleon decreed that there should be "such fractions and multiples as were generally used", he redefined the old base units in metric terms. The original metric system was made law again in France in 1837.^[2]

Japan also saw popular resistance to its 1920s metrication program, where opponents of the metric system believed that the adoption of a foreign measuring system would have a bad influence on national sentiment, cause dislocations in public life and needless expense to the nation, prove disadvantageous to foreign trade, and hurt the national language and culture. In 1933, the government postponed the date of the first stage of conversion by five years, and the date of the second stage by ten years. The U.S. occupation resulted in a temporary conversion to U.S. customary units. The post-war manufacturing boom required an international standard measurement system and the issue was pursued again in the 1950s and 1960s. The process was not completed until 1969. Traditional units are, however, still used for measurements of sake and the area of land and apartments. Nevertheless, local units had been defined in terms of metric units (e.g., 1 shaku = 10/33 metre) as early as 1891. For the measurement of sake, 10 Japanese cups (180 millilitres each) equal 1 shoh (traditional flask size of 1.8 litre capacity). Rice cookers are typically sold as having capacities such as 5 cups or 10 cups. (Note that the traditional Japanese cup is 180 millilitres while the American cup is 240 millilitres.)

Overall, few countries have experienced much popular opposition to metrication. Some, such as 19th century European countries, Russia, India and China, converted before most of their populations were literate, so the initial conversion affected few people. For others, such as Ireland, the previous system was seen as foreign.^[2]

See also

• Conversion of units
• Metric clothes sizes (EN 13402)
• Preferred numbers
• Metric meterstick
• Language reform
• Anti-metrication

Notes

External links

• A timeline of the metric system and its use

Websites supporting metrication:

• The Metrication Board of Ireland
• The United Kingdom Metric Association campaigns for a total metric switchover in the UK
• Timeline of metric system in UK
• U.S. Metric Association discusses progress of metrication in several countries.
• Metrication matters provides resources to support your metrication program.
• One Metre: Metric in Canada
• Canadian Metric Association

Websites opposing metrication:

• Freedom to Measure discusses the freedom to choose a measurement system
• British Weights and Measures Association