Jack wrote <<<<A thumb width is about an inch and about 2.54cm.>>>>>
You sure its about 2.54mm and not 2.55mm? My thumb is maybe wider than yours .... this illustrates one of the sillinesses of our use of the metric system - 1 inch is a good approximation but 2.54mm is not an approximation, its a direct conversion from an inch and accurate to 4 thou. This way of working leads to many similarly silly measurements appearing in the real world. In a previous post I mentioned bricks - in the previously Imperial world of the UK, their size was set such that the brick plus a normal thickness mortar joint below and to one side would form a convenient modular size. Only now, after almost 40 years, are bricks readily available in truly metric sizes but, while that is good for new-builds, they don't blend in with older brickwork and so you see walls with ugly infill panels where the mortar joints are almost as wide as the bricks! The metric system also seems to encourage a sloppy attitude which can easily lead to errors - decimal points in the wrong place or verbal use of the wrong units. Being involved with a local primary school, I have a constant battle with both children and teachers to get them to understand precision. For some unknown reason, about half the British public would say 2.54 as two point fifty-four - you even hear such rubbish on TV quite regularly, particularly on children's programmes. When I hear this at school I always ask - right, well which is the bigger then, two point fifty-four or two point a hundred and twenty-five? Most times I just get a glazed look and complete lack of comprehension!!! This may be a pet peeve of mine but it is the kind of stupidity the metric system encourages that ultimately leads to things like shuttle disasters...... Having said that, I use the metric system all the time - except for my weight which is in stones and pounds, pounds and ounces for cooking, miles and furlongs for distance and miles-per-gallon for fuel economy although I do have to buy my fuel in Litres as, I guess, the fuel companies have worked out that a price rise of a penny-per-litre would not have the same shock effect and backlash as a rise of 4 1/2 pence-per-gallon ( I wonder, is the US liter different from the UK litre just as the US gallon is?) - oh, and its still cheaper to buy some types of steel rod in 'standard' Imperial sizes rather than metric..... ;-) Best wishes, Ian ------------------------------- Ian W Wright Sheffield UK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day Trial Check out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimited royalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment. http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
