On Tue, 28 Nov 2000 19:38:27 Gustaf Sjvberg wrote: >I am sick and tired of seeing cans measured in milliliters. The >ml-desease seems to have reached Sweden, influenced by import >legislations to certain countries. >Worst of all are the standard 33cL sodacans that are measured as "330 >mL". Dear Gustaf, I do sympathize with your problem. However, please allow me to tell you that you shouldn't worry that much about it. Please, look at it this way. The value you and most countrymen are familiar with is pretty much still right there! True, it's not been reported in the exact unit you're most comfortable with, the cl, I gather, but it's nonetheless right there. It would suffice for you to simply move the decimal comma (or point) one place to the left and you're back in familiar territory. This kind of problem is akin to what I face around here in North America whenever I encounter heights in metric measurements. People, for one reason or another, decided to adopt the cm for heights (something I actually strongly oppose!). But I won't quibble that much about it because what matters in the end is that I can "manipulate it" nearly instantly to fall in familiar territory. On a closing note, though, I'd prefer to not push/force specific units on people and allow them the discretion to choose whatever they'd prefer. However, please bear in mind that if there is no "unanimity" in this regard (some countries prefer ml, mL, cL, cl, cm3, dm3, etc) and if we have *global* companies trading globally it will be unavoidable that one will encounter a specific unit used regardless of borders. It may just be unfortunate that such "global" players may have settled for the ml (or mL) at the detriment of your country's specific choice. So, please be at least thankful that they have settled on a metric unit instead of some hazy/fuzzy gallon/ounce crap! >... >I think the USMA should take a stand for more user-friendly usage of the >metric system... >Unfortunately, many of the strong metric supporters in USA seem to be >"SI-geeks"... >Death to SI. Long live the metric system. > Finally, dear Gustaf, the SI IS the metric system AND vice-versa actually! The folks who came up with the... first metric system are the same who "created" the SI. Look at SI as if it were... "metric version 2.0". Therefore, there is no need for you to be adversarial towards the SI. But again, I do sympathize with your problem and agree that it would be desirable not to have this "push" towards specific units. And then again, that's one of the things that we may just have to tolerate because it's intrinsic/built in into the system: flexibility! Best regards and welcome to the list. Marcus Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
