Just visited South Africa. I can report that the place is 99,9% metric.
Everyone I came in contact with used meters in conversation when
referring to any length, everyone used kg for their personal mass. All
property signs are displaying m2 and Hectares. The only examples I saw of
FFU were ads for computer monitors in inches, yet on the same page were
ads for televisions with dimensions in cm. I did notice that McDonalds
had quarterpounder and quarterpounder with cheese on their menu. I doubt
any child in SA is aware that pounder is a reference to pounds or even
what pounds are. Pizza sizes are given in cm as are the equivalent of a
Subway sandwich, which are referred to as 15, 20 and 30 cm subs. I bought
a South African car magazine at the airport on my exit. It was a pleasure
to read, all dimensions were in mm, with the space after each 3 digits
and the comma used as the decimal symbol. Engine power was expressed in
kW and Torque in N/m. There was one article from a US source and the 0-60
mph times was also given as 0-98 km/h. One article referred to a Porche
as being able to do 3 ton (300 km/h). I'd be willing to mail this to
anyone should they wish to read it, I can see that maybe quite a few of
you may want to look this over, so I'll include a list of whose next on
the list.
Mike Payne
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
