10 points to NH
I saw this sign in New Hampshire and was really impressed:
Ten points to NH for metric system use. Sadly, I only found three signs like this...
I really think this is how the US should be addressing the issue of SI ignorance. If they were simply to use both systems on new signs, we'd get huge benefits in the long-run at an extremely low price. I'd imagine that a kid seeing a sign like this every day for 5 years would have about as much trouble telling you what a mile was in kilometers as you'd have telling me how many inches are in a foot. The just go together so much that it becomes more than even just connectedness - it becomes identity.
2 comments:
Do you really think so? Speedometers have both metric and imperial units, but I don't think that's done much to improve "metric literacy" in the 'States.
Listing metric measurements after the imperial units doesn't quite say "these units are the ones we will be using." Even then, the things that list both don't really have "teeth." Switching speed limit signs to metric only would, I think, have a much larger effect since people could be punished for failing to process the information.
But, yes. Hooray for New Hampshire!
Also, Australia's conversion to metric is a pretty interesting case study.
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