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Decimals are almost always used with metric measurements, and are associated with terms denoting length, weight, or volume, depending on the industry. Outside of formal schooling, however, you almost never hear about the geographical side of measurement - specifically, those ever-present invisible lines of latitude and longitude.

How are metrics shown in geographical terms? Who uses traditional Degrees/Minutes/Seconds? How popular will decimals and geographic metric measurement be in the future?

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== American Metric History ==

Originating in France in the 1790s, the metric system (officially known as "SI", short for "Le Systeme International d'Unites") grew in popularity due to increasing global commerce. Through trade with Europe, the U.S. awareness of metrics trickled into existence, eventually prompting Congress to permit its use in 1866. It was legal, but voluntary.

The first official metric conversion legislation was passed by congress in 1974, adding metrics to our elementary and secondary education curriculum. One year later, Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act, declaring that the U.S. federal government use metrics as its preferred measurement system. (i.e. The nutritional information on any package of food shows grams instead of ounces.)

Ever since its beginnings, the U.S. government has striven to promote and stabilize metrication, with limited results: Mostly those in the sciences, military, manufacturing, and other technical fields use the metric system. The general public, however, continues to show comparatively overwhelming disinterest in adopting grams, liters, and meters over the traditional ounces, quarts, and feet. The United States is the only remaining industrialized country whose general population does not use metrics as its primary measurement system.

To learn more details, dates, and other information about metric measurement, visit the U.S. Metric Association (USMA) web site (http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hi llger/.

== Metrics And Geography ==

Despite the average American's apathy for metrics, those who use geographic coordinates on a daily basis see plenty of evidence that decimals are out in full force. On any given day cartographers, engineers, geographers, surveyors, and other in the earth-related sciences will see data with a decimal somewhere in the latitude or longitude.

As technology has developed over the years, allowing more accurate measurements, the number of digits on the right side of the decimal point is

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