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Whatever Happened to the Metric System?: How America Kept Its Feet by John Bemelmans Marciano
eljaspero's review against another edition
3.0
Dull writing doesn’t exactly help sell a pretty dull topic, and a meandering sprawl of a narrative really salts the sundae. I slogged my way through this thing while waiting for another book to come over the wire but can’t say I enjoyed it.
wescovington's review against another edition
4.0
The title of the book is a little misleading as the USA's failure to fully adopt the metric system is only a small part in a wide-ranging story about the desire for some to come up with one unifying standard for everything in the world, including money and language.
The metric system was born out of the Enlightment and put into place during the French Revolution. France's new government loved a standard and rational way of measuring things. And they loved the decimal system. Everything for a while was decimalized, even a calendar that featured 10 day weeks.
Eventually, the system changed into what is used today. It took a while for it to catch on as even France went away from it during Napoleon's time. But, it eventually caught on again, except in two notable places: the United States and Great Britain.
The British weren't about to have a the French tell them just how to measure things. The UK didn't go fully metric until the 1990s when the European Union forced them to. (And they still don't like it.)
Americans never have embraced the metric system. As far back as 1817, John Quincy Adams wrote a report stating that the metric system was more or less a passing fad. There was a push to adopt in the 1970s, but it fell prey to the problem that most changes have in America, i.e., people just don't want to change and learn new things.
Marciano points out that not all parts of customary measures (as the system in the U.S. is referred to) are illogical. Having measurements that can be divided by 2 or 4 or 8 or 3 are very handy.
The idea of a 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, and 24-hour day has probably been the one measurement that the entire world has agreed upon. Even the U.S. and North Korea agree on that.
Will America ever go metric? It sort of already has, even though we still use miles and feet and pounds. Our aircraft use metric measurements. We got to the moon on the metric system. We like buying soda in 2 liter bottles. We read nutrition information to see how many grams of fat are in it.
Technology has made all types of measurement universal. It's all just a matter of doing the math.
The metric system was born out of the Enlightment and put into place during the French Revolution. France's new government loved a standard and rational way of measuring things. And they loved the decimal system. Everything for a while was decimalized, even a calendar that featured 10 day weeks.
Eventually, the system changed into what is used today. It took a while for it to catch on as even France went away from it during Napoleon's time. But, it eventually caught on again, except in two notable places: the United States and Great Britain.
The British weren't about to have a the French tell them just how to measure things. The UK didn't go fully metric until the 1990s when the European Union forced them to. (And they still don't like it.)
Americans never have embraced the metric system. As far back as 1817, John Quincy Adams wrote a report stating that the metric system was more or less a passing fad. There was a push to adopt in the 1970s, but it fell prey to the problem that most changes have in America, i.e., people just don't want to change and learn new things.
Marciano points out that not all parts of customary measures (as the system in the U.S. is referred to) are illogical. Having measurements that can be divided by 2 or 4 or 8 or 3 are very handy.
The idea of a 60-second minute, 60-minute hour, and 24-hour day has probably been the one measurement that the entire world has agreed upon. Even the U.S. and North Korea agree on that.
Will America ever go metric? It sort of already has, even though we still use miles and feet and pounds. Our aircraft use metric measurements. We got to the moon on the metric system. We like buying soda in 2 liter bottles. We read nutrition information to see how many grams of fat are in it.
Technology has made all types of measurement universal. It's all just a matter of doing the math.
rabbaaliza's review against another edition
4.0
My favorite bit was the bit about the world calendar, and how seriously that was taken.
#notgoodforthejews
#notgoodforthejews
thomcat's review against another edition
3.0
Thin history of standardization, decimalization, and yes, metrification of the world. Many historical points were quite brief, but there was a lot to cover. One chapter on standardized spelling, two more solid chapters on the French revolution and their "interesting" calendar. Other calendar experiments are among the more interesting parts of the book.
In the penultimate chapter we get to the question of America and the failed 70s push for metric. Not as interesting as you would think - some baggage from the push in the 1870s, some political infighting. The final chapter summarizes the current state of affairs - a hodge-podge of units for the masses, metric for scientists, and only briefly touches on the Mars mission failure.
While interesting, it felt a lot more like an overview. The answer to the title question was unsatisfying - what we do today is okay, and computers can cover the rest. 2½ stars.
In the penultimate chapter we get to the question of America and the failed 70s push for metric. Not as interesting as you would think - some baggage from the push in the 1870s, some political infighting. The final chapter summarizes the current state of affairs - a hodge-podge of units for the masses, metric for scientists, and only briefly touches on the Mars mission failure.
While interesting, it felt a lot more like an overview. The answer to the title question was unsatisfying - what we do today is okay, and computers can cover the rest. 2½ stars.
drtlovesbooks's review against another edition
4.0
I am a big trivia fan, a lover of science, and I like to dip into unusual aspects of modern history every so often. This book provides all of these in spades. It is an entertaining and thorough look at how measurement, in its many guises, affects the world in real and powerful ways that we may not even consider. Along the way, it gives some interesting European and American history lessons.
Now, I am the first to admit that my grasp of the chronology of history is weak, but this book really helped to line up a lot of events I hadn't realized were so closely related in time. It also provided a fascinating look at the French Revolution, from both insider and outsider perspectives. As my greatest interaction with that historical event had been watching the movie adaptation of Le Miserable, I found these insights fascinating.
Definitely worth reading!
Now, I am the first to admit that my grasp of the chronology of history is weak, but this book really helped to line up a lot of events I hadn't realized were so closely related in time. It also provided a fascinating look at the French Revolution, from both insider and outsider perspectives. As my greatest interaction with that historical event had been watching the movie adaptation of Le Miserable, I found these insights fascinating.
Definitely worth reading!
johnmarlowe's review against another edition
3.0
I’m a bit of a “Canada-phile”, or Canada admirer. I’ve been this way from the first time I crossed over the Ambassador Bridge when traveling from Detroit to Windsor, Ontario. Passing through Detroit was like going through a 3rd world country, but just across the bridge was the clean, well maintained, and orderly city of Windsor. It wasn’t just this that made me a Canada admirer. The people were and are much friendlier than in the U.S., I thought. Everything that Canada does seems to make so much more sense too. Now, how does this relate to this book on the metric system?
I can’t recall the exact date I was driving from Ohio and through Ontario for a yearly canoe trip. But, that date sticks in my mind like few other things, because I knew it was the very day that Canada, I believe, converted road signs to the metric system. Even then I was totally impressed with Canadians taking the plunge and going metric. Even then I was wondering why the U.S. was not doing this yet. I’ll look it up if the book doesn’t say, but I believe this was probably the summer of 1973. (Looks like it was September 1977)
I knew the U.S. was converting to metric because my new 1976 Chevette was half English and half Metric. If GM was converting, the country couldn’t be far behind, right?. But, I shook my head when removing the coolant overflow tank in that car for cleaning every year because, of the two bolts that held it on, one was English, the other was Metric. After the second year, I wrote down the sockets required to avoid the inevitable cursing over GM doing this. I don’t remember this, but the book claims GM touted the Chevette as an all-metric car (hah!) I have no doubt that GM eventually made their cars all metric. No sense checking my two Toyotas, I’m sure they’re totally metric.
I only rated this book a “3” because it was slightly annoying to read about –every- person who ever had anything to do with the efforts of trying to convert to metric measurement. I’ll admit there were lots of wonderful facts in the book about the other non-metric things these same people were doing, but it made for lots of distractions. There was extensive discussion in the book on: simplified spelling, universal calendars and currency, standard time, and daylight savings time.
But, is it “bad” that the United States is not officially metric? Does it make a difference to us? The author proposes that we are metric where we need to be, and that where we are not does not matter. I’m still embarrassed personally that politics and procrastination have made us not embrace the metric standard in all measurements.
I can’t recall the exact date I was driving from Ohio and through Ontario for a yearly canoe trip. But, that date sticks in my mind like few other things, because I knew it was the very day that Canada, I believe, converted road signs to the metric system. Even then I was totally impressed with Canadians taking the plunge and going metric. Even then I was wondering why the U.S. was not doing this yet. I’ll look it up if the book doesn’t say, but I believe this was probably the summer of 1973. (Looks like it was September 1977)
I knew the U.S. was converting to metric because my new 1976 Chevette was half English and half Metric. If GM was converting, the country couldn’t be far behind, right?. But, I shook my head when removing the coolant overflow tank in that car for cleaning every year because, of the two bolts that held it on, one was English, the other was Metric. After the second year, I wrote down the sockets required to avoid the inevitable cursing over GM doing this. I don’t remember this, but the book claims GM touted the Chevette as an all-metric car (hah!) I have no doubt that GM eventually made their cars all metric. No sense checking my two Toyotas, I’m sure they’re totally metric.
I only rated this book a “3” because it was slightly annoying to read about –every- person who ever had anything to do with the efforts of trying to convert to metric measurement. I’ll admit there were lots of wonderful facts in the book about the other non-metric things these same people were doing, but it made for lots of distractions. There was extensive discussion in the book on: simplified spelling, universal calendars and currency, standard time, and daylight savings time.
But, is it “bad” that the United States is not officially metric? Does it make a difference to us? The author proposes that we are metric where we need to be, and that where we are not does not matter. I’m still embarrassed personally that politics and procrastination have made us not embrace the metric standard in all measurements.
richardmtl's review against another edition
4.0
Started off very interesting, but the author spent too little time in the modern era to really satisfy the ultimate question of why the US still isn't using the metric system. I get that some people "don't like it" and argued against switching, but I didn't see any concrete reasons why they didn't like it, and why US society as a whole didn't "take" to the attempted switch in the 70s and 80s.
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