The Metric System of measurements should be used universally. This includes the use of the Celsius temperature scale. Also, rainfall, snowfall, and other precipitation should be denominated in terms of centimeters, not millimeters.

Angles and degrees should have their units redefined so that they will be logically simpler and easier to learn. Angles could be redefined so that there would be 100 degrees in a circle, 100 minutes in a degree and 100 seconds in a minute. Maybe a circle could have 200 degrees so that a semicircle would have 100 degrees and a quarter of a semi circle would have a nice, round 25 degrees. In many or even most applications, semicircles have more importance or relevance than do full circles.

Light bulb descriptions should be standardized through the use of lumens as a measure of light intensity. Energy usage (wattage, for example) and quality of light are also very important factors in describing light bulbs, but the primary descriptive feature of light bulbs should be light intensity.

All earthquakes should be described with two sets of numbers, each based on the widely accepted Richter scale, at least for public discussions. The first set would be the moment magnitude, indicating the actual energy released by the quake. This number would be the most important number for identifying the quake. The second number would be a measure of the intensity of the earthquake at a given spot on the earth by measuring the local intensity of the shaking (i.e., centimeters of ground movement, velocity of ground movement (units of length divided by units of time, or acceleration as a percentage of gravity). Such numbers plotted on a map would give the most accurate representation of the relative shaking experienced throughout the affected area.

The standard unit for the measure and comparison of energy (including work and quantity of heat) should be a new unit (though still could be called a ‘calorie’) which is equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one liter of water 1˚ Celsius. Such a standard unit of energy would be much simpler to visualize than the current standard because a much more common volume of liquid is used (1 liter) as the basis for determining this unit.

Another option may be to define this new unit according to the energy required to raise the temperature from 0˚ C to 100˚, but this is a relatively large amount of energy and may result too often, perhaps, in the uncomfortable use of centi-, milli-, etc., in the laboratory and when measuring the energy/calories in foods, among other things. Also, defining the new unit as a measure of a 100˚ C change, even though it’s from the freezing point to boiling point of water, may not be as logical as a one-degree change because everything related to the standard would be at the single unit level.