Metric conversion: Why poet Michael Hofmann stopped 'wreaking destruction' on his family in verse Michael Hofmann made his name with poems documenting his fraught relationship with his German father.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie Back in the 1970s, the Metric Conversion Board (since subsumed by CSIRO), showing an unexpected sense of humour, stated that converting time would take a "gigawhile".

Anyone who grew up in the 1970s, as John Bemelmans Marciano did, was immersed in talk of abandoning this archaic system and replacing it with the pristine beauty of metric measures.

And, we didn’t forget to include a baking temperature conversion chart. After all, there’s a world of difference between 200 degrees Fahrenheit and 200 degrees Celsius!

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Metric Conversion Act into law. It made metric the “preferred” system, though using it was strictly voluntary.

The strongest push in the U.S. actually came at the start of the 20th century, Alexander Graham Bell, and other notables testified at congressional hearings on metric conversion.

His book might have done more to weigh benefits against the risks: quantification brings issues, but it may still be better than relying on uninformed personal judgement and the biases of race or ...