What is Metrication or Metrification ?

My dear Young and Little Indians,

 

I met two boys yesterday….

I asked them-  “How tall are you? What is your height?”

One of them said he was 168 cms and the other said he was 5 Feet 6 inches.

 

Now you tell me…… 

Who of the two is taller ?

Why did they express their height in two different ways ?

What is the difference between the two ways of measuring height/ length?

 

They are approximately equal in height but not exactly equal. Right ?

 

Under the British Imperial System or Imperial System (IS) …..

Units like Pound, Feet, Inch, Gallon, Mile were used for weight, length, volume etc

 ·  These were confusing and difficult to remember.

·   The multipliers were not standardized.

For example-

1 yard= 3 Feet

1 Foot=12 Inches

 ·   To make matters worse, every society and country had its own localized units of measurement.

·   When countries trade amongst each other, different units of measurement used by buyer and seller creates a problem.

 

You would have also encountered such problems in your daily lives.

If you go to a baker to buy a birthday cake, some bakers offer cakes in weights of 1 Kg, 2 Kg , 4 kg etc and some bakers have cakes of 1 pound, 2 pound etc..

मम्मी ने कहा 1 kg  का केक खरीद कर लाओ

दुकान वाले अंकल ने कहा – “केक 1 Pound का है और 2 Pound  का है”

1 kg  कितना Pound होता है ?

 

This is how you feel when you ask for a cake in kgs and the baker offers to sell in pounds.

Metrication or Metrification

Metrication or Metrification is the act or process of converting to a metric system of measurement.

In the year 1795, France initiated a change to Metric system

On 20 May 1875 a treaty known as “Treaty of Metre” was signed in Paris by 17 nations..

  •  Under this system, every parameter like weight, length, volume has a basic unit and its multiples are created on the decimal base.
  • This means every higher unit will be in multiple of 10s. For example- Millimetre, Centimetre, Decimetre, Metre and Kilometre are all in multiples of 10s
  • This system is called the Standard International (SI) system.

Old system is IS (Imperial system) 

New system is SI ( Standard International)

IS-SI ….This way you can remember names of the two systems.

 

All countries in the world have adopted the SI system except three- United States, Liberia and Myanmar

India adopted the metric system in December 1956 with the passing of Standards of Weights and Measures Act

New Acts were later made in 1976 and 1985.

 

Later a more comprehensive law- The Legal Metrology Act, 2009 was passed.

Under this act, measure of many more parameters have been standardized-

 The base of unit of-----

  • ·         length shall be the metre
  • ·         mass shall be the kilogram;
  • ·         time shall be the second;
  • ·         electric current shall be the ampere;
  • ·         thermodynamic temperature shall be the Kelvin;
  • ·         luminous intensity shall be the candela; and
  • ·         amount of substance shall be the mole.

 

Lets do an exercise now…..

Ask your parents "the air pressure (along with the measurement unit) that they maintain in the wheels of their scooter/ car".

 

Usually when we get the tyre pressure checked, we ask the mechanic to maintain a pressure if 30 or 35 or 40 depending on the vehicle type.

What is the unit of this figure?

It is PSI.

PSI stands for Pound per square inch.

Though we have officially adopted the metric system we continue to use the Imperial system in our daily lives sometimes !

 

PSI is Imperial system. 

Pound is weight

Square inch is area

Weight divided by area is pressure.

Now, what can be the metric equivalent of PSI ?It is kg per square cm

 

This is the pressure measuring equipment that mechanics use.

The scale in black is PSI and kg per square cm  in red.

Can you think of some other transaction that we do in our daily lives where we do NOT use metric system? 

It is something we buy to eat.

There could be two such commodities….one is white in colour and the other is greenish yellow.

One is non-vegetarian and the other is vegetarian.

Yes, it is eggs and bananas.

We buy eggs and bananas in ‘dozens’ which is not metric.

 

So, my dear Indians, remember IS and SI.

 

Jai Hind !!

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