The same is true with regard to the lack of a logical relationship among ounces, pounds and tons.
Furthermore, what is the logic in the Fahrenheit system in defining water as freezing at 32 degrees and boiling at 212 degrees?
And how in today’s world can we continue to use a system that awkwardly measures volumes in fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, gallons and barrels? (By the way, exactly how large is a hectare or even an acre of land, or a peck or a bushel of grain?)
On the other hand, there is a natural beauty and logic to the metric system.
Does not the Centigrade system in which water freezes at zero degrees and boils at 100 make much more sense?
As a result of this sensibility, the sciences of chemistry, physics and medicine in our country long ago shifted to the metric system.
And we have already joined the rest of the world’s athletic communities by using the metric system in our track and field events.
When countries like Canada converted to the metric system in the 1970s, they used slogans like “Metric: 10 times better.”
They were right. As a result, the phrase “Speak in English, Measure in Metric” controls life in most of the rest of the world.
Conversely, the only countries in the world in addition to us that are holding on to the imperial system are Liberia in West Africa, and Myanmar Republic, formerly known as Burma. So we are not exactly in vibrant company.
The metric system was designed during the French Revolution of the 1790s to bring order out of the numbers of conflicting and confusing systems of weights and measures that were then being used in different regions within their country.
Soon this system spread to other countries of Europe because merchants, scientists and other educated people realized the need for a uniform system among all of the nations.
