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Show I Home School and By Dr. Duryl J. lUtCarty Executive Secretary Utah Education Association If you re an average parent, the chances are your child knows more about the metric system of weights and measurements than you do. So says Carl Jones, president of the Utah Council of Mathematics Teachers. Today, elementary textbooks must refer to weights and measurements in metric terms or they're not ap- teacher gives: "The metric system is simpler." The National Weather Service is proposing that newspapers and broadcasters broad-casters begin reporting weather entirely in metric terms by 1980. Mr. Jones gave some pointers on understanding un-derstanding the Celsius (metric) scale for temperature. tem-perature. "Zero degrees is the freezing point, and 100 degrees is the boiling point for water," he explained. He added that when you learn that the temperature is 40 degrees on a summer day, "it's pretty hot." That proved for use in Utah schools. In some textbooks the customary terms are used only in appendices. That's entirely in line with the Utah State Constitution, which says: "The Metric System shall be taught in the public schools of the State." The math council president said eight major publishers of elementary textbooks use terms expressed ex-pressed by the S. I. metric system. ("S.I." is short for "System Internationale," a French term, because the main office of the system is in Paris.) Mr. Jones says the most compelling reason for changing to metrics is world trade--the possibility that the United States may suffer economically unless we switch from the customary quarts and miles to metric liters and kilometers. Another good reason the means it's more than 100 degrees in terms of the measurement to which we're accustomed. As an illustration of the ease in using metric measurement, Mr. Jones gave this observation: To convert 1,746 meters to kilometers, you simply move a decimal three places to the left. The answer is 1.746 kilometers. To get some idea of how complicated the customary system is, convert 1,746 yards to miles. Mr. Jones said he doesn't foresee any abrupt adoption of metrics. When today's children, who are learning the system in school, become adults the metric system will be here, he said. Just for fun, why not spend an evening reviewing the differences in the two systems with your children? |