"Are Your Park Signs Ready?"

The Metrics Are Coming

By Michael Winter

It often seems that good things are a long time coming. So it has been with adoption of the metric system in the U.S. Efforts to place this country on that system of measurement extend back more than a century. Each effort met with total failure. But "times-are-a-changin'."

The archaic system of measurements used by the U.S. has its roots in medieval times when the width of a man's thumb was dubbed the inch, 36 of which happened to equal the distance from the King of England's thumb to the tip of his nose thereby creating the yard, etc. Even the English are no longer using such a mathematically difficult system. The majority of nations — the highly developed ones—are on the metric system. The French were the first to adopt the metric system, in 1795.

The merits of such a simplified system have finally broken the time-honored nonsense we Americans have suffered for more than 200 years.

Old Habits Are Hard To Break

Though most agree to the simplicity and ease of calculation inherent in the metric system, a mental confusion arises from familiarity with units of the English system. For example, few Americans relate to a highway distance of 24 kilometers but its English approximate equivalent of 15 miles has meaning. Such a concept of distance has meaning only because the unit of a mile was the only unit introduced to the individual for practical use with long distances.

When children are taught the metric system they find the English system illogical and very difficult to work with. The transition to metric units and their magical number of 10 will naturally be less difficult for our youth than for America's adults, but the American public is finally faced with the necessity of going metric.

The Change Is Already Underway

Distances measured in both miles and kilometers on this sign at Starved Rock State Park give visitors ready comparison of English and metric systems of measurement.

Perhaps you are unaware of this invasion of units and numbers. You won't be for long. President Nixon has endorsed the recommendations by the National Bureau of Standards in 1971 that the country change to the International Metric System through a coordinated national program over a period of 10 years. This type of thinking has taken shape in Ford Motor Company's new plant in Lima, Ohio, where the Mustangs and Pintos are manufactured to metric specifications. General Motors announced its new products will soon be designed and built to metric specs. NASA has used metric units exclusively since 1970 and the U.S. pharmeceutical industry has used only metric units for nearly two decades. Drive through Huntsville, Ala. and you will see the speed limit posted in kilometers and miles per hour.

Yes, the invasion is underway, has been for some time, and

Illinois Parks and Recreation 14 January/February, 1974

right in your hown home. Need proof?

Look at your latest bottle of Heinz ketchup and other canned foodstuffs. Note that the new weight of 14 oz. is followed by 397 grams, its metric equivalent. Also, expect the bottle to be eventually enlarged to accommodate 400 grams, a much more easily-remembered figure.

Conversion Begins At Starved Rock

Knowing that such an invasion was inevitable, the interpretive center at Starved Rock State Park devised in 1972 a plan to aid in the education of its visitors relative to the use of distance measurement in the metric system.

The responsibility for designing permanent trail-side markers and directional signs has been given the park interpreter.

So, with wheel type pedometer in hand, the interpreter proceeded to tabulate the distances in feet for every official park trail. The feet were converted to yards for a few signs indicating short distances, while most were converted to the nearest 1/10 mile. Then came the tedious part. Each yardage and mileage was converted to its metric equivalent.

Figures appearing on the signs are not necessarily exact equivalents, but do reflect the most accurate tabulations of distances in both systems.

The near equivalency of such signs is designed to introduce the public to the new system and give them an understandable basis for comparison. It is hoped that such an understanding will result in acceptance of the metric units.

Of course, the many Asians and Europeans who visit the park are immediately accommodated and pleased to find signs utilizing a system which has meaning for them.

This invasion of the status quo is happily a friendly invasion, designed to develop Americans into better competitors for today's world. Its rationale is sound as is the reasoning which precipitated inclusion of metric units on park trail signs.

The role of the Division of Parks and Memorials is an ever-expanding one. Interpretation and instruction to and for the public is an increasingly important duty-service of that Division. Let it not be said that Starved Rock, Illinois' second state park, came in second for the conversion-invasion.

(Editor's note: Michael Winter is park interpreter at Starved Rock State Park.)

Illinois Parks and Recreation 15 January/February, 1974