Celty Crow

Dr. Gregory
Chemistry
November 27, 2017
Which unit of measurement should we use?

Write a 500-word letter to the president of the United States explaining why we should either
keep our system of measurement or switch to the metric system. Provide a justification and
history of each system including what major countries use which system and why.

Dear President,

I believe that the United States of America should switch to the metric system because the

metric system is much easier to convert from millimeters, meters, kilometers, and grams. Also

the metric system is used by all but three countries, the United States, Liberia, and Burma, so

we would be able to travel to most places of the world and understand their units of

measurement. And, there are fewer measurements to learn.

The metric system is used in all but three countries, The United States, Liberia, and Burma,

which means that traveling is sometimes difficult if you don’t know much about the metric

system. The metric system is also known as “The international language of science, medicine,

and international commerce” to all but those three countries. Converting to the metric system

would fix any confusion between the united states and countries that practice the metric system

about measurements of distance, liquids, weight, mass or temperature.

There are also much fewer measurements to learn in the metric system. This would make it

much more understanding and easier for kids in school to learn, grades would go up, and they

wouldn’t need to be taught the confusing United States customary system of measurements for

so long. For example in the United States to measure distance, we would typically use inches,

feet, yards, or miles which can be very confusing when trying to convert, while the metric

system could use millimeters, centimeters, kilometers, (all can be easily converted) they would

typically just use meters. For measuring liquids, the United states would use cups, pints, quarts,

or gallons while the metric system would typically use liters, or another measurement that could
easily be converted to liters. And for weight/mass we would use ounces pounds or tons while

the metric system would typically use grams. So, there is less confusion when using the metric

system on which unit to use when measuring.

If we switched to the metric system, the rest of the world that uses the metric system would

think of us as less foolish and we would probably gain more of their respect as a country if we

did make the transition from the US customary system to the metric system.

When converting units in the metric system, all that you need to do is simply multiply or divide

by 10, 100, 1000, etc. For example, 10 millimeters is 1 centimeter, 100 centimeters is 1 meter,

and 1000 meters is 1 kilometer. This would be much easier to teach kids in schools and they

wouldn’t struggle as much when learning to convert units in the US customary system which

can get very tricky. For example, 1 yard is 36 inches, 1 cup is 16 ounces, and 1 mile is 1760

yards, which can be very hard to remember. Typically, schools still need to teach the metric

system so that we understand it when we see it, and teaching two units of measurement can be

very confusing, so why not just teach one, the metric system.