Mr. Price's email contained an error. Today, "letter size" is taken to
mean 8.5 in by 11 in, not "8x11" as he put it. Prior to President
Reagan's time in office, US Government standard paper size was 8 in by
10.5 in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_%28paper_size%29
I was on active duty in the US Navy when the federal government changed
its standard paper size. That was a mildly interesting drill. That was
also about the time that "memory typewriters" appeared on the scene,
which added a twist to the drill of retyping every doggone piece of Navy
instructions, etc.
Jim
On 2013-10-27 16:20, cont...@metricpioneer.com wrote:
Mr Price. As you can see on my http://metricpioneer.com/fact-sheet - A4
is the most commonly used paper size in the world. Your computer printer
paper tray has an adjustment to accommodate A4 which is a little taller
and a little narrower than what you are used to. By 1975 so many
countries were using A4 that it was established as an ISO standard, as
well as the official United Nations document format. You say that A4 is
not available, but that is not true; one may purchase A4 from Staples. I
buy it by the case and sell it on MetricPioneer.com and even though one
pays a little more here in the United States, I would think that
pro-metric people would be happy to pay a little more just to
demonstrate to others how we have become the change that we wish to see
in our nation, otherwise, we are not only waiting for others to catch
on, but waiting for ourselves too. How embarrassing!
Also, have a look at driver licenses around the world and you will see
that height is given in centimeters only, for example, you are 170 cm tall.
I weight 90 kg and I am 181 cm tall. It is common to avoid unnecessarily
using the decimal point when choosing an appropriate international unit.
For example, I would not say that I weigh 0.09 Mg (megagrams); neither
would I say that I weigh 90 000 g (grams) because it makes good common
sense to avoid so many zeros. That is one of the many beautiful things
about SI that we lack when using non-SI units. It is reasonably
comprehensible when some astronomer says that the observable universe is
estimated to be about 880 Ym (yottameters) in diameter, but it boggles
the mind when some duffus says that the observable universe is estimated
to be so and so many miles in diameter, giving some ridiculously large
figure that give us no sense of proportion because a mile is not an
appropriate unit to use for such vast distances.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have appropriate units like the
millimeter for measuring things like length of tardigrades, paper size,
rainfall level and camera film size; micrometers for measuring things
like bacteria, grains of sand, dust mites, thickness of paper, human
eggs, width of human hair, mist droplets, infrared wave lengths, white
blood cells, chromosomes and E. coli; nanometers for measuring things
like red light wavelength, viruses, DNA and transistor gates; picometers
for measuring things like glucose, X-ray wavelengths, carbon atoms,
water molecules and hydrogen atoms; femtometers for measuring things
like protons, neutrons, quarks and neutrinos. By the way, I show many
more examples with pictures in a booklet I have for sale at Metric
Pioneer - SI - An Educational Overview for Americans.
As far as most US road signs being in miles, while that is unfortunate,
it is not true what you say that kilometers are not available, because
we do have kilometers per hour (km/h) on our speedometers and kilometers
and meters on our global positioning systems when we change the setting
to metric, which I did the day I bought my GPS.
Your reaction to A4 surprises me; I think you would do well to do a
little more research on A4 paper size. Thanks for taking the survey; I
hope you share it with others.
David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
----- Message from skywatch...@yahoo.com ---------
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 06:13:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: Robert Price <skywatch...@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Robert Price <skywatch...@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [USMA:53349] Re: State by state approach and positive
response.
To: "cont...@metricpioneer.com" <cont...@metricpioneer.com>
I saw your survey regarding metric usage. I found interesting that
you specified either centimeters or "other" for height. I know my
height in meters (1.7 meters). While I would like to see the U.S.
transition to the metric system I should point out that most people
use feet, inches, pounds, miles, etc. To use metric units most people
I know won't know what you are talking about. Road signs are still
miles only, kilometers are not available.
I use 8X11 letter stock paper because that is what is available. A4
stock paper is not available. If A4 was available at the same cost I
would consider using it. I do wonder about that size, though, since
it is not in a round metric dimension.
On Saturday, October 26, 2013 10:29 AM, "cont...@metricpioneer.com"
<cont...@metricpioneer.com> wrote:
I agree with Edward B.
David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917
P.S. Please take this survey (if you have not already) and pass it on
to others just to get their feet wet: surveymonkey.com/s/N97FXGP
----- Message from edws...@gmail.com ---------
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:06:58 -0700
From: Edward Schlesinger <edws...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: edws...@gmail.com
Subject: [USMA:53348] State by state approach and positive response.
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Hi Paul Trusten , Eugene Mechtly, and all:
A national approach to complete the transition to the SI metric
system may
be ideal the Federal government still wishes to keep a voluntry
approach.
This leaves the decision to States and industries to decide when they
wish
to complete Metrication. With Hawaii and Oregon considering bills for
State
wide use of the metric system, now would be the time to plan a
strategy for
next year legisitive session.
I contacted my California State Senator to support a bill similar to
Hawaii. She responded she will file my letter for next session since
no new
bills can be introduced this session. She agreed that the metric
system is
easier for students to understand and use and keep her informed. I
feel now
is the time for members of USMA to contact their State House and Senate
Representatives.
Also I think the message to convey is the completion and how much the US
already uses the SI metric system. We need to get away from pointing
to the
outworn " only three Liberia, Myanmar, US".
--
Sincerely,
Edward B.
----- End message from edws...@gmail.com -----
----- End message from skywatch...@yahoo.com -----
