Thursday, November 1, 2007

The *&%!@ Metric System

I am throughly confused. From the beginning, the girls have been weighed by the metric system - in grams. Apparently, the metric system is more precise. Of course, grams mean nothing to those residents of the most powerful and industrialized country on the world. Never mind the fact that every other country in the world, first and third world, use the metric system. But, I digress...

So, we get weights in grams and in pounds and ounces. Recently, I began noticing a discrepancy between the various scales they are weighed on and the lbs/ozs conversion. So I started doing some converting on my own. Now, I'm very confused.

An example...

Natalie birth weight: 604 grams. We were told that was 1 lb 5 oz. If you go to a conversion site and convert grams to ounces you get 21.30oz. If you do the math: 21.30-16(oz in a pound)= 5.30oz left. So - 1 lb 5 oz. However, if you convert from grams directly to pounds you get 1.33lbs. If you google (this is a new trick to me) "604 grams to ounces" you once again get 21.30oz. If you google "604 grams to pounds", you are back to 1.33lbs. If you multiply 604 by 0.0022(a conversion formula given by one site) you also get 1.33lbs.

(Abby's stats are either 1 lb 8.5 oz or 29.6oz = 1 lb13.6 oz (also what the hospital said. 840 * 0.0022 = 1lb 8.4oz.)

If you are still with me, you see my confusion. How is it possible that you get different answers if you go straight to pounds versus subtract the ounces? If there are any scientists willing to enlighten me, please, please, please save me!

So, now when I get their weights, I still have no idea how much they weigh! I think I'm going to go with the straight conversion to pounds since that also matches the formula conversion method. With that in mind, I changed the girls weights at the top of the page. Now, their survival and journey is even more incredible.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Never fear.....great grandma Courliss is on her way....and she is a whiz at math so maybe the two of you can figure this out!! Aunt Susie

Anonymous said...

604 grams = 21.305473 ounces
604 grams = 1.33159206 pounds
1.33159206 pounds = 21.305473 ounces

In metric system just shift the decimal point - no math required!
604 grams = 0.64 Kilograms


GO Metric NOW

www.METRICation.us site about metric system

the exact, official U.S. definition of inch, pound and gallon is since 1959:

* 1 inch = 25.4 millimeters
* 1 pound = 453.592 37 grams
* 1 gallon = 3.785 411 784 liters

Yes: All the English Imperial units are actually defined by metric units! The English system is just a tumor on the metric system!