In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dilwyn Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>> 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. The thing is that the English measuring system is all based around the practical world of experience. Some of examples that I can think of are the "inch" being the distance of the thumb to the first joint. The yard being a stride. So that without any special references there is an everyday practicality to all of it. -- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
