These are the hard-hitting questions Americans should be asking themselves in the face of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is incrementally facilitating the conversion of the United States from the Imperial system to the metric system. According to its Web site, the organization, which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, aims to "accelerate the nation's transition to the metric system, the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce."

Not surprisingly, the topic was recently posed to The Washington Post in its "Ask Your Government!" Web column. Washington Post reader Glassboro Frank asked, "One of responsibilities of the federal government is to 'fix the Standard of Weights and Measures,' and yet we now live with a hodgepodge mix of Imperial and metric units. When are we going to fully commit to becoming a metric country?" The Washington Post responded to Frank's query in the form of an online video where Emily Kotecki of Washingtonpost.com visited the NIST for answers.

What's discovered upon entry to the NIST is that the current level of adherence to the metric system or the Imperial system--or any other system for that matter--is, basically, unmeasurable. Look at any food product, and the evidence is simple: The prominent serving-size measurement is delivered in ounces. But hidden in parentheses directly below is that same serving size offered in grams. It's as though the metric unit is patiently awaiting the moment that it can overtake its counterpart's main position.

The same is true for speed limit signs, popping up all across the nation. Signs that once announced the speed limit in the expected miles-per-hour fashion now have made room for the international standard. Sixty-mph zones share the road with 96-kmph.

Long story short (whether the length of the story is measured in inches or in millimeters), the U.S. manufacturing sector practically paved the two-way road. For years, OEMs and fabricators have been placing metric measurements on its labels in addition to U.S. measurements for its products that have varying destinations, whether stateside or on the other side of the planet. It's a global marketplace, after all.

With the United States being only one of three countries to pseudo-boycott the metric system, it makes me wonder whether the dual-labeling is actually more work than what it's worth. Will the United States ever fully commit to the metric system? And if so, is it something we can swallow as easily as our foot-long sandwiches?