Donielle Allen
NCSU
Maths 103
Ms. Blackman
June 29, 2010
Abstract This paper is to inform my readers on the question “Should the United States Adopt the
Metric System?” In this paper you will see the difference between the US and the Metric System.
You will also see how easier it is the go with the Metric System instead of the US System. The
Metric System makes life easier for everyone.
I think the United States should adopt the Metric System, because nearly every other major country in the world uses it as their primary system of measurements of distance, volume, temperature, energy and so forth. It is comparatively simple to make conversion in the Metric
System as the system was designed for making conversions. It will greatly simplify life for us students when we have only to learn that a kilometer is 1000 meters instead of learning that a mile is 5280 feet. The Metric System would not only simplify life for us students, it will also simplify life for Scientist and engineers, making their computations less error prone and consequently, the products better and cheaper. The question is always been asked, why not use the US System instead of switching to the Metric System. But it is always known that the Metric System is better. To compare both systems here, I will list all English Imperial units in use, and all SI units describing the same range of the same physical quantities. These are: Length, area, volume, mass, force, pressure, energy, power and temperature. For a fair comparison, we omit those SI units which are commonly used in both systems, like second, ampere, volt, ohm etc. To measure the above mentioned quantities in the English Imperial system, all the following units can occur: * Length: inch, foot, yard, mile, fathom, rod, furlong, league, mil, pole, perch, hand, link, chain * Area: square inch, square foot, square yard, acre, square mile,