Fischer: A hot topic

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

It’s a question heard round the world.

Why is the United States still using the archaic imperial system of measurement when just about every other country on the planet has transitioned over to the metric system?

When it comes to measuring distance, there would definitely be some benefits to going metric. The imperial system doesn’t really have a good way to measure things that are significantly longer than a yard, but too short to be measured in miles. If looking at a 900 foot tall building, the metric system would say it’s a hectometer tall, whereas an imperial system user would have to say “That’s as tall as three football fields are long!”

Unfortunately, so much of our infrastructure has been built with feet and miles in mind that it’s unlikely a conversion will ever happen.

That said, other metric units can be more easily adopted. The gram and liter systems would certainly be easier to keep track of than the inconsistent fractions we use to break down pounds and pints.

A pint is two cups, a quart is two pints, but a gallon is four quarts? Who came up with that conversion?

And that’s not even getting into the nonsense of using ounces to measure either volume or weight, depending on the state of matter.

There are definitely aspects of the metric system that would make things easier for us.

However, while I may acknowledge that the imperial system is overly arbitrary and confusing, there is one unit of measurement that I maintain is inherently superior to its metric counterpart.

It’s the one we’ve all been obsessing over recently.

Fahrenheit temperatures.

The Celsius system of measurement is based on a 0-100 scale, with the start and end points being the freezing and boiling point of water. There is some logic to this. Water is a pretty universal constant so the system designates the range that it can exist in a liquid form.

And while that’s great for water and a bunch of scientists working in an air conditioned lab, it’s not quite as practical for the rest of us.

I don’t know what the exact origins of the Fahrenheit are, but its 0-100 scale is the much more practical range of “too darn cold” and “too darn hot,” and once you get to the far end of either side of that range you need to start seriously considering protective measures.

For as much as the metric system focuses on the scale of 10, the effective usefulness of Celsius caps out at about 40. Otherwise you have a system where 0 signifies that you should probably put on a jacket and 100 signifies that the planet is burning and you’re already dead.

I could get used to driving kilometers, buying ground beef by the kilogram, drinking a half-liter of beer, but when it comes to temperatures I’m Fahrenheit forever.

— Travis Fischer is a news writer for the Charles City Press and will be happy with 15 degrees, regardless of the measurement system.