Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/08/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]i was in jr high school when ford and carter were presidents and were pushing this "ferrin" stuff. from all the educational materials, i still recall that 1 inch is 25.4 mm. and 1 lb is 454 grams. my knowledge of physical facts is largely imperial. the sun is about 93 million miles away, the moon about a quarter of a million miles away. the speed of sound is something like 750 mph and the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter. the speed of light is about 86,000 miles per second. my first corvette had 460 ft-lbs of torque, my current one 365 ft-lb. but a falling object falls at 9.8 meters / sec^2. and the 35mm frame is 36mm x 24mm. so i'm getting there. -rei On 08/09/2010 11:39 AM, Aram Langhans wrote: > Ah, to be metric. I sure remember the ill-fated attempt in this > country to "Go Metric". I had just started teaching in this little > town in Washington, Odessa. I was teaching 6-8th grade science. The > law gave all kinds of money and materials to schools to teach the kids > metric. The school looked around at the staff and classes they had > and asked, "Hmm. Who should we give this task to. I know. Science > teachers. They use metric anyway." So the task was mine. But they > also looked at all the materials that were send and saw that there was > a "lot" of math involved, so the said the math teachers could assist > the science teachers. Let the fun begin. The materials, or at least > the ones that I got, were all conversion based. Lets teach our kids > how to convert from the English system to the Metric (or should I say > SI) system. I looked at that and said, forget that. They will never > learn it that way. So, the math teacher and I devised an immersion > curriculum. For 15 minutes each day (at the start. It expanded as > time went on), we started talking in just "metric". We would hold up > objects and ask what length, volume, mass, etc. they were. Just > "Think Metric". We went on metric field trips around town, walking > about and asking how far that was, sizes, masses, etc. The kids were > really learning the metric system. Of course, after they left our > classes, they were back in the English world again. It didn't take > many years and the school district said stop. Too bad. I felt we > were really making progress and the students were bilingual in > measurement. > This country has always been afraid of change. From things as benign > as metric to civil rights. If I remember correctly, when Canada > changed, they just said this is the way it will be and did not teach > how to convert. As Nike says, Just Do It. Change all the signs, order > forms, product labels, etc. Just Do It. Mass confusion for a bit, > but if you have to, you will. Of course, any politician who votes for > something like that would not be reelected. > So, as a scientist and science teacher, I just plug along an in my > class, we Just Do It until it is second nature. > > Aram > > Aram Langhans > Semi-retired (retarded?) Science Teacher > & Unemployed photographer > > "The Human Genome Project has proved Darwin more right than Darwin > himself would ever have dared dream." James D. Watson > >> Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:07:57 -0400 >> From: Rei Shinozuka <shino at panix.com> >> Subject: Re: [Leica] Today is 8/9/10 >> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org> >> Message-ID: <4C5FEF9D.40406 at panix.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed >> >> On 08/09/2010 03:34 AM, Jeff Moore wrote: >>> While I don't want the world to be boringly culturally homogeneous, >>> there are some things we should all just get with the program on: >>> >>> >>> - Use the metric system, dammit. >>> >>> >> Metric? We might as well dissolve the NFL and watch guys in shorts >> maneuvering black and white Archimedean Buckyballs using only their >> feet. >> >> :-) >> >> But any American born in the 1960s should remember this: >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metric_Marvels >> >> The article closes: >> >> "Ultimately, /The Metric Marvels/ failed to convince Americans to >> convert to the metric system. ... Americans largely ignored governmental >> attempts to push them in the direction of metrication, and the USMB [ >> (U.S. Metric Board <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Metric_Board>) ] >> was eventually disbanded in 1982 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982>." >> >> -rei >> (the ugly american, whose favorite lens is the 1.97 inch noctilux) >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information