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Convert To The Metric System Essay

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Our weight is measured in pounds and our height in feet, a system unknown to foreigners who have grown up solely with metric measures. So why use a system unfathomable to outsiders? The solution: don’t. America’s history contains many important leaders pushing for the use of the metric system but all were unsuccessful. America should convert to the metric system in order to reduce pharmaceutical errors, make conversions easier, and save money. Converting to the metric system may seem costly at first but in the long run we could be saving a great deal of money. Sticking with the US Standard system can cause costly mistakes as we saw when NASA lost $125 million because its Mars Climate Orbiter was destroyed after its altitude-control system mixed up U.S. customary units with metric units (CNBC). Pat Naughtin, whom worked with the …show more content…

Some opponents may argue that it is too late to convert to the metric system, yet America is already a metric-standard hybrid. Therefore, it would not be a drastic change. Moreover, it is an easy system to pick up and doesn’t require much skill to learn. To convert units in the metric system, you simply move the decimal point to the right or left. The metric system is a lot more logical as it uses powers-of-10, whereas our system is inconsistent. Also, the metric system really only has one unit for each item of measurement. For example, meters. Add a prefix such as kilo- for a bigger distance or a prefix such as mili- to make it a shorter distance. On the contrary, in the United State’s system, for example, there are inches, feet, yards, and miles, all of which don’t have much of a relation (twelve inches in a foot, three feet in a yard and 1,760 yards in a mile). As you can see, the metric system is a more logical, uncomplicated, and quick system of measurements compared to the standard

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