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by ksaj
1480 days ago
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Given how hard it is to convince most Americans to use prefixed metre measurements instead of inches, feet, yards and miles, I think it would be even harder to convince the world that a megametre, picometre, etc is the way to go. Not that I don't agree (I fully do!), the ease of using multiples of 10 is way easier. But it is very difficult to introduce change to the masses, no matter how sensible it is. The US is one of the only countries on the planet that still fully stick to the old system. And they're also one of the only countries that spell 'meter' instead of 'metre.' For everyone else in the world, 'meter' is a measuring gauge or tool, and so is everything that rhymes with 'thermometer' except for the American pronunciation of 'kilometre' that too many have adopted up here. Likewise, adult Canadians still use pounds at the gym and their body weight, and feet/inches for their height. Young people are far more reasonable about measurements these days. Change is hard, and seems to get really messy when everyone goes in different directions from the start. |
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... But as we speak about metric measurements I doubt that the US insistence on weird units apply. The average US citizen would presumably be confronted with "mega" and "giga" in their day-to-day lives, and millimeter, micrometer and nanometer are commonly used. Even femtosecond is a common, practical unit that anyone receiving refractive surgery will hear.
Picometer is unpopular because it only makes sense for sub-atomic lengths giving it few practical uses at the current time, not because "pico" is hard to grasp.
Also note that German, Dutch, Danish (my native tongue), Swedish, Norwegian, even Hindi and presumably many others also refer to the unit as "meter", so that particular disagreement is not "the US against the rest of the world".
(All languages have quirks - in Danish, we call a folding ruler in meters an "inch stick", and say the number "53" as "3 and half three's twenties" (skipping the "twenties" part in modern speech). Learn to enjoy the differences rather than hate on them.)