You might be surprised of what you find at the Canadian gas stations. I went to Canada just last week and I paid extra attention on SI use. It's a mess. The pressure gauges at the pumps are made in the old US of A and all they know is psi. In terms of Europe I agree that they use more atmospheres than anything else for tire pressure. Bars are largely used in Germany in the industry, industrial gases etc. Adrian -----Original Message----- From: kilopascal [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Sunday, 12 November, 2000 21:00 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:9164] RE: tire pressures 2000-11-12 When I was in Singapore and Malaysia a few years ago, the tire pumps at the gas stations were in kilopascals. I think they are that way in Canada too. I think that any country that recently converted, the gauges will be in "kPa". The USA is the only country still using psi. And you are right, people call it pounds. I think most just look for the "pounds" on the tire so they can set the pump to that value. If the pumps were in "kPa", people would get use to those numbers just as easy. Radio Shack sells a Pistol grip digital tire gage that goes from 6 to 100 psi for 12 $. I asked the clerk if it could be switched over to kilopascals. He said no, and I told him I wouldn't waste 12 $ plus tax on a product that was not metric friendly. What pressure units are your students use to? Pascals is foreign to many who are use to bars, atmospheres, kgf/cm^2, etc. I think old metric countries are just hearing about pascals now. Can any of our friends (present and past) from the Continent verify this? John -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Dennis Brownridge Sent: Sunday, 2000-11-12 17:45 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:9155] RE: tire pressures US auto tires give the pressure in kPa in first position with psi or PSI in parentheses. This seems to be one of the few areas we are ahead of the world in using SI units. However, no one here pays the slightest attention to them--virtually everyone refers to tire pressure in "pounds" or "pounds of air." (Never mind that this makes no sense. I have queried students on this and found that some actually think you could weigh the tire with and without air and figure how many "pounds of air" it contains). Bicycle tires (virtually all made in Asia) usually give PSI and BAR [sic] in that order, although within very recent months I have seen a few brands with PSI and kPa. Electric tire pumps are usually labeled in PSI and kg/cm� [meaning kgf/cm�], or PSI and bar if designed for bicycles. I have not yet seen one with kPa, like the one Jim found. Gas station gauges are invariably labeled in PSI only, although you can find a few cheap gauges with kPa too. I am sure that as long as gauges and tires are labeled in psi, people will use psi. Only the government can bring about a switch. Curiously, psi does not seem to be well known outside the USA. My foreign students will sometimes ask me what a "sigh" means (some have mistaken it for the greek letter, psi). > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 2000 November 12 Sunday 14:53 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Cc: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:9153] Re: discovery programme > > > On Sun, 12 Nov 2000 17:36:34 +0000, you wrote: > > >'Big machines' programme on today seemed to be totally metric but I am > >not sure about the quote for tyre pressures in kilograms per squatre > >centimetre. Are these the normal units ? > > 'mbar' is more usual, Ian, but I have seen kg/cm2 on gauges. > > Chris > -- > Metrication information: http://www.metric.org.uk/ > UK legislation, EC Directives, Trading Standards links and more > Pro-metric mailing list now available. > >
