If the banks here or anywhere should start to fail in the next 6 months or so it is beneficial to know that a Krugerrand is an ounce of gold which should buy more than enough food for a month for a family, and that an MOA is a little more than an inch at 100 yards (or 93 some odd meters if you prefer), and what 150 grains at 2700ft/s can do...
Sent from my iPad On Dec 14, 2011, at 14:25, Jim Lux <jim...@earthlink.net> wrote: > On 12/14/11 12:44 PM, Justin Pinnix wrote: >> Contrary to popular belief, most of us in the U.S. have heard of the metric >> system and understand how it works. Personally, I agree that it is a >> simpler and superior system. >> >> But, English is the system we "think" in. We know that if a person is 300 >> lbs they need to lose weight, you need to drink 8 cups of water a day, and >> wish for 70 degree days. Grandma's cookie recipe uses 1 cup of flour. >> Trying to convince 300 million people to re-learn all of that is a tough >> sell when there is no obvious advantage to them. Most are not scientists >> or engineers and aren't likely to do business with a foreign country. >> > > > Based on practical experience (moving to another country several times over > the years), the disruption in day to day life is minimal. Pretty soon, you > ask for a half or third kilo of cheese instead of a pound. You know that 10 > degrees is cool, chilly in the shade, 20 degrees is nice, 30 degrees is > pleasantly warm, and 40 is hot. -20 is where spit goes clink. > > A yard and a meter are about the same, so if you're buying fabric or rope or > wire that works out pretty well. > > A square meter is about 10 square feet, so if you're looking at apartments, > 40 sq m is smallish, 200 is palatial. > > People by gasoline by money amounts (or "fill it up"). Back when gas started > to go over $1/gallon, some stations changed their pump to read in liters, and > it was only moderately inconvenient, and after a while you get used to it. > > I think if we did the "massive cutover" there would be whining and > complaining for about a month or two. > > In a year, all the recipes would be printed in metric, except for books > specializing in archaic styles.. but those exist today.. my wife has screwed > up more than once using a recipe originating from her (English) mother or > grandmother. > > If you buy a graduated measuring cup today it likely has both metric and US > Customary units on it. Yes, you need to know that a teaspoon is 5ml and > tablespoon is 15ml, but that's not exactly an ordeal. > > > The tricky thing is manufacturing and customary sizes. That 1/4-20 bolt has > a long and enduring history and we'll be making them for decades to come. > But over 10-20 years, instead of bolt bins at the local hardware store having > mostly customary units with a smaller section for metric, we'll have more > metric, with a smaller section for customary. > > Most folks have both sets of wrenches and hex keys, etc. (or, they just use > the adjustable wrench or those ChannelLok serrated pliers, so they can rip > the corners off any nut, metric or US) > > >> Those of us who are scientists and engineers likely use metric at work and >> English at home. Is that wrong? Maybe, but we're smart people and we can >> deal with it :-) >> >> It's not like metric is totally absent. We drink 2 liter cokes and defend >> ourselves with 9mm pistols. Our cars use mostly metric parts. Even ham >> radio operators, arguably the most jingoistic and set in the past bunch >> around, get on the 80, 40, and 20 METER bands. >> >> Furthermore, I've been to some of these countries that supposedly use the >> metric system. One of them measured distance between cities in km and >> speed limits in MPH. Now THAT was annoying! >> >> "Progressives" tried to force Metric on the U.S. in the 1970s and it didn't >> catch on. Besides, we've got bigger standardization problems to deal with >> these days - getting everyone here to speak English! >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
