>> <rant> >> You probably forget the inevitable British resistance to change. >> How >> long have we been "thinking" of going metric? > > We actually went metric on 1 July 1959 when: > > The yard was redefined as 0.9144 metre /exactly/[1] > and > The pound was redefined as 0.45359237 kilogram /exactly/ > > ie the yard and pound since 01 July 1959 have been defined in > /exact/ terms > of the metre and kilogram - not exact multiples of 10 I grant you, > but > defined /exactly/ none-the-less.
> Just I expect nobody noticed - like normal. Gone metric in 1959 and nearly 50 years later - hardly aybody's noticed. Sounds about right. So for about the next 40 to 50 years we carried on expecting a pint of milk, a pint of beer, filling station pumps deliver litres of petrol and we still think "miles per gallon", ask for a quarter of a pound of sweets or cooked meat in shops, road signs in miles or miles per hour, speedometers predominantly in mph. Start a rumour that Brussels will soon metricate time and people will panic and believe you! Shall we ponder how this rumour will work? Start with clock faces changing from 1-12 to 1-10. Work out the number of seconds per day, all months same length (can't have 12), adjust the years so we don't need leap years every 4 years (forget about how leap years vary at the turn of the century). Ah, hang on, slight problem, I don't think the earth's orbit around the sun (or is the other way around???) is accurate enough ;-) Let's get this rumour started. Marcel will now program this new official metric time into SMSQ/E by 1st April next year! And he thought Easyptr 4 was "fun". Well, he never could resist responding to a challenge ;-) Hmmm, insanity has definitely set in here, time to give up for today I think. -- Dilwyn Jones -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.12.8/455 - Release Date: 22/09/2006 _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
