English Vs. Metric Measurement
Sumner Wiesman wrote-
Why do we Americans run away from the Metric system? Do we think we know
more than all the rest of the world combined? Isn't standardization worth
the effort in this day of international manufacturing and trade? EVERY
other industrial nation uses the Metric system.
The idea that we would have to deal with both systems for at least
30 years
during the transition is certainly a factor. The inertia of the
inch-based
system is enormous, and the benefits would be slow to develop, so
payback is harder to
realize. The entire US machine tool industry, and all the machines
they have made
for the last 100 years have been "inch-based". Almost every
blueprint is in 'inches',
as are all the property surveys, highway mile markers, road signs,
etc. If you think Y2K is a biggie, wait til you see Metric USA!
NASA's confusion of Metric and English units recently resulted in the loss
of a $125 million Mars space probe!
If we were to try and convert, this type of error would be common!
Would you trust
the Crankshaft Grinder to properly convert the diameters on your
journals?
I fully anticipate that a few people will say, "We're the biggest and the
richest, let the other countries change to our system!" Some have already
said that to me when I got up on my Metric soapbox, so I know what to
expect. They are the same people who swore, a few hundred years ago, that
the Earth was flat and you could sail off the edge.
I certainly agree that life under a unified metric system would be
simpler.
But I think that the cost of changing would be enormous, and the
benefits would be difficult to financially justify. Sorry to be
negative, I would like to live in a metric USA, too. But I doubt it
will happen.
B Westerdale
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