评论
打印
Ok, I have a confession to make.
好吧。我得说明一下
I've lived in the US since 2010.
2010年以来我一直都住在美国的
and...Alexa, what’s the weather today?
嗯……Alexa，今天天气怎么样
Right now in New York. It's 65°F with clear skies and sun.
纽约现在是65度，晴天
Today’s forecast has partly sunny weather
今天，纽约局部地区晴
with a high of 77°F and a low of 61°F.
最高气温77华氏度，最低气温61华氏度
UHHHH… I still don’t understand the use of Fahrenheit.
呃……我还是搞不清华氏度
Virtually every country on earth uses Celsius to measure temperature.
基本上所有国家使用的温度单位都是摄氏度
but the US still uses Fahrenheit.
美国用的却还是华氏度
And for that reason, we —at Vox— often get comments like these.
因为这个，我们——在Vox——经常收到这样的评论
Okay, we get it.
好的，我们知道了
Besides the fact that the majority of the world uses it—
世界上大多数地区都用公制单位
the metric system makes conversions a lot easier.
除此之外，公制单位换算起来也更简单
The Celsius scale even looks simpler.
摄氏度的数值看上去都更简单
It has freezing and boiling points at nice, round numbers— zero and 100.
它的冰点和沸点的温度都是整数——0℃和100℃
Where in Fahrenheit, it’s a bit of a mess.
而华氏度里的冰点和沸点就有点儿混乱了
And of course, this isn’t just an issue of aesthetics or weather updates.
当然，这不单单是审美的问题或最新天气的问题
America’s unwillingness to switch over to the metric system has had serious consequences.
美国不愿意改用公制单位，为此还曾引起过严重的后果
In 1999, a 125 million dollar satellite sent to Mars, disappeared in the Martian atmosphere.
1999年，一个被送往火星，价值1.25亿美元的宇宙飞船在火星的大气层消失了
It’s a setback to years of work already done in the vastness of space—
多年心血为此付之一炬，消失在了浩瀚的宇宙之中
all it takes is one navigation error.
而这一切都是因为一次导航失误
And this colossal mistake was largely
而这一严重的错误很大程度上
due to a conversion error between US and metric measurements.
都应归咎于美制单位和公制单位之间的一次换算失误
Fahrenheit was really useful n the early 18th century.
18世纪早期，华氏温标曾经非常管用
At the time, no one really had a consistent way to measure temperature.
那时，还没有人能较为恒定地测量温度
but then a German scientist, came up with the Fahrenheit scale
但也是在那时，一位德国科学家发明了华氏温标
when he invented the mercury thermometer in 1714.
他在1714年发明了水银温度计
To make the scale, the most popular theory is that
为了设计温度计的数值——最流行的假说是——
he picked the temperature of an ice/water/salt mixture at the zero mark.
他选择了零华氏度作为冰/水/盐混合物出现的温度
He then put the freezing point of water,
接下来他把水的冰点
which is higher than a salt mixture, at 32.
水的冰点比盐混合物的温度高，设置在32华氏度
And placed the average temperature of the human body at 96.
把人体的平均温度设置在了96华氏度
From there, he placed the boiling point of water at 212 degrees.
再接下来，他把水沸腾的温度设置在了212华氏度
In 1724, Fahrenheit formalized that scale and was inducted into the British Royal Society,
1724年，华氏将这些数值固定下来，并将其引入了英国贵族圈
where his system was a big hit.
在那里他的系统得到了热烈的反响
As Britain conquered huge parts of the globe in the 18th and 19th centuries,
十八、十九世纪，英国在全世界各地征服了大量土地
it brought the Fahrenheit system and other Imperial measurements,
从而把华氏温标和其他英帝国的量度也带到了他们的所到之处
such as feet and ounces along with them.
比如英尺、盎司
And Fahrenheit became a standard system for the British Empire across the globe.
华氏温标成了大英帝国各个殖民地的标准单位
In the meantime, the metric system was gaining popularity during the French Revolution.
在那期间的法国大革命时期，公制单位逐渐得到了大家的认可
It was put in place to unify the country at the national level.
为了能够将他们国家统一起来，法国开始使用公制单位
So by the second half of the 20th century,
到了20世纪后半叶，
Celsius became popular in many parts of the world,
摄氏度在世界各地都已流行起来
when many English-speaking countries began using the metric system.
甚至有许多英语国家都已开始使用公制单位
Even America attempted to switch over.
连美国也企图推翻它曾经的单位系统
The change would have been good for trade and scientific communications with the rest of the world.
因为这种变化将有利于美国与世界其他地方的贸易、科学交流
So, Congress passed a law, the 1975 Metric Conversion Act—
为此，美国国会还通过了一部法律，也就是1975年的《公制单位转换条例》
which led to the United States Metric Board that would educate people about the system.
而这一条例又促成了“美国公制小组” 专门的成立，专门教人们学习公制单位
This created the only metric highway sign in the US—
美国唯一一条用公制单位标识的高速公路也因此诞生，
the Interstate 19 connecting Arizona to Mexico.
它就是连接亚利桑那州和墨西哥州的19号洲际公路
but it didn’t go much further than that.
但改变并未继续深入下去
The problem was that unlike the UK, Canada or Australia,
因为，美国不同于英国、加拿大或是澳大利亚
the law made the switch voluntary instead of mandatory.
美国的法律是自愿遵守而不是强制遵守的
And of course people resisted the change,
人们当然会反对这一变化
and the Metric Board couldn't enforce the conversion.
公制小组又不能强制推行这一转化
So, President Reagan ended up disbanding the board in 1982.
因此，里根总统在1982年废除了这一小组
The next nudge to metricate came
后来差点又促成美国改用公制单位
when the metric system became the preferred measure for American trade and commerce in 1988.
1988年，美国商贸行业出现了偏向使用公制单位的迹象
but nothing really stuck with the general public......
但这一变化并未因此影响到普罗大众
Even though bizarre measurements like Feet and Fahrenheit are not doing them any favors.
尽管英尺、华氏度这类比较混乱的测量单位对学生们的学习并没什么好处
Students have to train for two sets of measurements,
但他们还是要接受公制和美制单位两种系统的学习
making science education even more difficult.
科学教育为此更加困难
And companies spend extra dollars producing two sets of products, one for the US and the other for metric.
此外，商家为了生产两种系统的产品，一种给美国人用，一种给使用公制单位的人用，又不得不提高成本
There’s also an argument for public health.
甚至还有人提出了公共卫生的问题
According to the CDC, about 3 to 4000 kids are brought to the ER
据疾控中心的消息显示，每年有大约3到4千儿童
due to unintentional medication overdose, every year.
因为无意的药物过量摄入而进了急诊室
And conversion errors for dosage are to blame.
罪魁祸首则是剂量单位转换失误
So it seems like a no brainer—
所以似乎理所当然地——
America needs to switch to the metric system to match the rest of the world.
美国应该改用公制单位，与世界其他地方接轨
but it is still struggling to make that change.
但美国至今仍在纠结这一问题
That’s because it’ll take a lot of time and money
因为这一改变不仅需要投入大量的时间和金钱
but there’s no financial proof that this will all be worth it.
而且，目前也没有证据显示这一改变能够带来经济利益
So unless that change is proven to be economically better…
所以，除非能证明这一改变能带来经济利润
We’re not going to be using celsius anytime soon.
短期内我们是绝不会改用摄氏度的
What’s 77°F in Celsius?
77华氏度是多少摄氏度？
77°F is 25°C.
77华氏度是25摄氏度
Ah! Okay.
啊，好的
