Defend the use of the metric system?

Answer 1

There are several advantages. Some of them are:

1. They are internationally agreed as standard. Not like a gallon which can mean one amount in the US and another in the UK.

2. Orders of magnitude for the same measure are related by simple decimal (multiples of ten) conversions and only a handful of prefices are required (although there are a lot more). By way of contrast, the Imperial system uses:

• 2 pints in a quart
• 3 feet in a yard
• 4 quarts in a gallon
• 6 feet in a fathom
• 8 furlongs in a mile
• 9 square feet in a square yard
• 12 inches in a foot
• 14 pounds in a stone
• 16 ounces in a pound

and so on, and on and on. The decimal structure also makes it very simple to use scientific notation for small and large quantities.

3. It is used by most people in the world. The main recalcitrant countries are USA, Liberia and Myanmar. Even in the US, scientists normally use SI. When they don't they have disasters like the one that trashed NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter!

4. There are many simple relations from measures for one characteristics to another. For example, the SI unit of length is 1 metre. 100 square metres = 1 are, the unit for area. 1 cubic metre = 1000 litres, the unit for volume.

I would have great difficulty finding one line of defence for the Imperial system.

Answer 2

This would require a long answer. In order to keep it short, I will give you some examples.

1. There are no plurals for SI symbols -e.g. 'km' not 'kms'.

2. There are no full-stops (periods) used with SI symbols -e.g. 'km' not 'km.'.

3. Symbols for units named in honour of someone are capitalised, but not the units themselves -e.g. 'volt' not 'Volt', but 'V' not 'v'.

4. etc.

Answer 3

The metric system is used in scientific literacy. This is taught in school.