On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:09:03 +0100, "Mike Stevens" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:33 PM [GMT+1=CET], >Malcolm Nixon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> I learnt the metric system in school in the 60's - used it exclusively >> in engineering since my apprenticeship and college in that 60's early >> 70's. > >I learnt "the" metric system at at school in the 50s, then had to learn a >new metric system when the mks system came in alongside the cgs system, then >again when SI displaced them both. Perhaos that's why I still think in >ounces ad inches, which haven't changed. > Well even the imperial system has it's problems and has caused deaths. The US gallon is 3.785 litres and the British gallon is 4.56 litres. Aircraft have been refueled with the pilot thinking he had more fuel than he really had - and ran out of fuel. In this day an age - isn't a worldwide system of measurement just an obvious and sensible solution. I'm as patriotic as any Brit - but don't see imperial worth defending. We can still have our pints in the pub - just make the glasses the appropriate size - but maybe more important get trades and standards to enforce the weights and measures as most "pints" are undersized - i.e you are being ripped off. maybe Victor Meldrew and his grumpy men have something to say here :-))) -- Malcolm
