Great Modern Swindles (3).

The Metric System."Ah", say the saloon bar bores, "we don't understand the Metric System because we weren't brought up with it. Young people learn it in school and don't have any trouble".Well, I'm not so sure. The Metric System isn't difficult to understand. That's not the point. Let me ask you something. If you see two ants making off across your kitchen window sill, carrying grains of sugar, how many are there? Obviously two. You are quite sure of what you have seen. Now, if you lift a stone in the garden and disturb a nest ...then how many ants do you see? Obviously you can't possibly tell.What has this to do with anything? The point is that small numbers are obviously more easily visualised and understood than large numbers. This is a fundamental law. The great flaw ...or, I should say, one of the great flaws... of the Metric System is that we are required to imagine much larger numbers of units, and this is bound to lead to a loss of comprehension.If any young people doubt me, let me ask them ...for they are still familiar with Imperial measurements of distance... which they most easily comprehend; 2ft 6ins, or 76cm? I think anyone would say the former. Two of something and six of something are more easily visualised than seventy-six of something. To take the example of our coinage (for some reason the term "Decimalisation" rather than "Metrication" was always used in this context), 12 pennies made a shilling and 20 shillings made a pound. You never needed to visualise a number greater than 19. 7/9d (seven shillings and ninepence) is, I would suggest, easier to comprehend than 39p. When you come to the measurement of distance, where there is no unit between a metre and a thousand metres; or fluid measure, where there is nothing between a millilitre and a litre, you are into serious vagueness. How far is 695 metres? How much is 280 millilitres?All this is a great gift to those who would deceive us. At the time of decimalisation it was suggested by some unhelpful people that the purpose of the exercise was to disguise increases intended to equalise British and European prices, thus easing British entry into the EEC. I know nothing of such matters ...but as a state-registered conspiracy theorist I wouldn't put it past them.So what are we paying for petrol these days? 91.9p per litre for unleaded at Tesco. But how much is that? When it was shillings and pence per gallon I would have known. I knew what a shilling was and I knew what a penny was. And a gallon was eight pints ...eight milk bottles. Easy. What's a litre though? Is it more or less than a gallon? I haven't a clue. All I know is that it's a thousand millilitres ...but I don't know what a millilitre is. And 91.9 pence? All that communicates to me is "almost a pound".