Any system must have its basic reference, because without, it says nothing.
The metric system was based on the standard meter etc., that is kept in
Paris. I guess that the English system has its standard somewhere, but do
not remember, London is my best guess. Now the standards are referenced to
physical spectral wavelength, since it give a better accuracy and is
necessary for todays finer sizes. The physical base standards had the
deficit to be varying with temperature etc. and are only museum pieces today.
It does not really matter which system that is used, as long as the bases
and conversions are defined properly. The two systems that are widely used
are the British and the French and as usual they are competing, a game were
the French looks at the winner and with a clear majority of followers.
Systems are necessary communication tools, but if you do a one time task
and do not have a meter, you can decide on your own base. It is not much to
argue about, other than maybe the mathematical benefits of the base choice
for fractions of the base. The meter could easily be divided in fractions
of 12, if you find it useful for some reason. A physical meter is about the
same size as the base yard stick and can be divided in any base number of
pieces that you prefer.
Hakan
At 05:21 AM 1/22/2005, you wrote:
robert luis rabello wrote:
Legal Eagle wrote:
Unhealthy ? When everything is multipliable by 10 you would think that
the Americans would be able to catch on no? I mean, moving around a
decimal point isn't THAT hard a feat is it ?
Some of us DO get it, Luc. We were supposed to "convert" to the SI
system in 1976, but Congress got cold feet under pressure from industry
and it never really happened. What we're left with is a bizarre blend
of two systems that often requires us to own two sets of tools, for instance.
[snip]
If memory serves me correctly, all of the US Departments of
Transport, DoT, require all engineering plans/calculations to be in
metric, things such as road alignments, bridge design etc, etc. I think
this is due to the US Federal Government, Federal Highway Administration,
controlling funding and they deciding that the easiest way to get people
to go metric is to tie it to their funding.
Something I found:
"The International System of Units (SI) is a modernized version
of the metric system established by international agreement. The metric
system of measurement was developed during the French Revolution and was
first promoted in the U.S. by Thomas Jefferson. Its use was legalized in
the U.S. in 1866. In 1902, proposed congressional legislation requiring
the U.S. Government to use the metric system exclusively was defeated by
a single vote."
from http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/metrics/
Regards,
Andrew Lowe
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