Americans in Great Measure

摘要

On the famed 1980s "metric highway" in southern Arizona, a 100 km section of Interstate 19 (I19) displays all of its distance signs and distance markers in kilometers, but its speed limit signs remain in miles per hour. America's Fair Packaging and Labeling Act requires metric units to be declared alongside non-metric units on consumer product labeling, but does not yet grant an option for a manufacturer to drop the non-metric units from the label. Apothecary units (e.g., minims, grains, drams) have been banished from American medical practice for more than 20 years, but it has only been since 2011 that household units, such as teaspoonfuls, have fallen into disuse in over-the-counter medicines and prescription directions. In some hospitals, nurses will report a patient's mass ("weight") in kilograms, but the patient's height in inches instead of meters. But, not newborn babies; clinically, their weights are recorded in grams or kilograms, yet, publicly, these continue to be announced only in pounds and ounces.