Ah ha!! ... judging the spelling contained in the messages below, one
has to wonder if English (American or otherwise) is the common
language of anything (certainly not aviation, for which there is no
one international standard!) but I would agree that it is early to
give up on feet and yards as measures of automotive tolerance!
Cheers!
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Wrenches (spanners in the UK)
Author: JONES_M2@popmail.firn.edu at Internet
Date: 1/11/98 9:59 PM
Dave Massey wrote:
>
> Odd Hedberg writes:
>
> >and as You know it's virtually only the US that still haven't
> >jumped on this very effective train...
>
> Don't forget Brunei! Its the the U.S. AND Brunei that have not
> adopted the metric system! How dare you single us out like that!
>
> Just kidding. Your point is well taken. Although the metric system
> is 200 years old it is far more modern and logical than the old "English"
> system (which isn't necessarily "English" in origin) which is based on
> the length of somebody's FOOT! And how many rods are in a furlong?
>
> I read an editorial by a woman railing against the metric system because
> when one converts a recipe to metric and the recipe calls for which
> calls for one cup of milk the the metric equivilant is 236.6 cc and
> where are you going to find a container with 236.6 cc? Of course this
> is what they call the "Straw man defense". The quantities recipes are
> called out in recipes are "rounded out to convienent measurements. Ever
> notice that recipes always call out an integral amount of eggs? 1 egg
> or 3 eggs. Never 0.8 eggs or 2.3 eggs. And when converting to metric
> one cup could be 225 cc or 250 cc with equivivent results.
>
> I know that a lot of the people on the list don't like the metric system.
> Actually what they don't like is converting to the metric system.
> Converting to a different system is like changing to a different
> language. Why learn something new when the old works perfectly well?
> Well these are geo-political issues and I am a technical person so I
> will not try to change the world here. As for myself, I have no problem
> with the metric system. I am quite comfortable with it and could change
> over in a month or so. As for my fellow Americans, they will have to
> get with the program when the EC finally congeals and dominates world
> economics.
>
> Dave (1.78 m tall) Massey
> St. Louis, MO United States of Americus Vespucci
Dave:
I beg to disagree. Just as good ol American English has become the
standard of the aviation world and the computer world, don't give up on
the inch, foot and pound. As for the EC dominating the worlds economy,
your going to have to change more than just the money for that to
happen; the endless vacations for one thing. With computers, the
reasons given for us to convert are not as valid as some thought they
were years ago. Thank God that Triumph didn't mix it up like they said
they were going to when they changed the brake caliper connection.
In Nam the army used meters and the grunts thought in feet. Maybe thats
the reason all the rounds didn't land where they were supposed to.
Bob
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