Why the U.S. should switch to the metric system

Time and again the issue of whether the U.S. should switch to the SI system is brought up. This controversy was brought to light during the 1970s when former U.S. president Gerald Ford was still in office. Former president Ford signed the Metric Conversion Act into law in 1975. This was supposed to help the U.S. slowly make the transition from U.S. customary units to SI units. Because this law did not completely restrict the use of U.S. customary units, it is still the most common system of measurement in the U.S. today.

Additionally, the implementation of this law was a failure because what was supposed to happen was that U.S. firms and manufacturers were supposed to adopt the standard metric sizes for well, everything such as nuts, bolts, screws and anything else that an engineer might use. Instead, what happened was that U.S. firms and manufacturers painstakingly converted from U.S. customary units to SI units for all of the parts they needed.

So what ended up happening was they were essentially using the U.S. customary system except in SI units. An accurate example of this would be purchasing milk at a local convenience store. Instead of purchasing a gallon of milk, an individual would, instead, purchase 3.785 liters of milk which basically defeats the purpose. The whole reason for this law was to slowly make the transition from a gallon of milk to the standard one liter of milk.

Up to this day, the issue is unresolved. It is understandable that many are hesitating. Change is not always easy. However, this change, however difficult, will benefit everyone in the long run. The only countries still using U.S. customary units besides the U.S. are Liberia and Myanmar. Clearly, other nations have realized that using the metric system is advantageous. International collaboration is easier when everybody is speaking the same language, or in this case, the same units.

While on the subject of international collaboration, there have been mishaps caused solely because of the failure to convert units. The infamous Mars orbiter accident that happened on Sept. 23, 1999 caused NASA to lose $125 million. The reason for this catastrophe? One of the teams working on this project failed to convert from U.S. customary units to SI units. This is just one of the many accidents caused by inconsistent systems of measurement.

Another accident, this time in Tokyo, Japan, happened on Jan. 26, 2004 at Disneyland’s Space Mountain. One of the axles broke mid-ride. This caused the roller coaster to derail. The reason for the catastrophe? The failure to convert from the original master plans in 1995 which were in U.S. customary units to SI units when reordering new axles.

While both accidents could have been easily avoided if engineers double checked their units, accidents like these could be completely eradicated if engineers did not have to deal with two systems of measurement.