MARK M. PEYTON 

The Village Naturalist

The “penny” and the “pound” are British monetary values. The British “penny” is worth about ½ cent American. The “Pound”, about $1.21.

Interestingly enough, the young United States under Thomas Jefferson was the first country to reject the British monetary system and adopt the decimal monetary system. In this, 10 pennies are a dime. Ten dimes are a dollar, etc, the metric system in money!

I was a recent graduate and was in my first teaching job when Jimmy Carter signed the Metric Conversion Act. The purpose of the act was to change our goofy measurement system, the English System, into one that made more sense, the Metric System. There was a huge pushback against making the change so, sadly, we haven’t and the law was rescinded.

In the English System the standard of a foot was based upon the size of King Henry’s foot. His foot was equal to roughly 12 knuckle-to-knuckle measures of his index finger, so that measure was called an inch, which translates as 1/12th. The standard yard was the distance from the King’s nose to the fingertip of his outstretched hand and it was equal to about 36 knuckle-to-knuckle lengths.

A mile was 1,000 paces of a Roman Soldier. Turns out there are 63,360 inches in a mile, 5,280 feet in a mile, and 1,760 yards in a mile.

In the metric system 10 millimeters are equal to a centimeter, 100 centimeters are equal to a meter, and 1,000 meters are equal to a kilometer. 10, 100, and 1,000. What could be easier?

As a scientist I had already converted to the Metric System, also called SI for “System International”. Thus, I was fully supportive of the United States becoming metric and leaving only the countries of Liberia and Myanmar using the outdated and cumbersome English System.

The Metric System is so easy to learn and use! It not only works for length, to measure volume you just change the suffix from meter to liter, and to measure mass you change the suffix to gram. Length, volume and mass are all related, leaving only the sexagesimal system for time, a system that dates back to 3,500 B.C. and the ancient Sumerians. Something I will discuss at a later time.

We actually use SI a lot. I need metric tools to work on my John Deere mower. In track we have the 100-meter sprint, the 1600-meter run, or a 5K-road race. The military is totally SI, the ammunition we use in our guns is in metric units, and for the most part so is everything in the medical field, oh, and bourbon, America’s signature whisky, and Coca Cola, our most popular soft drink, are sold in milliliters and liters.

So, America, in for a penny, in for a pound, why are we still using the English System when even the English don’t use it anymore?