Hi Gustaf I am staying in USA and in a recent visit to a Korean grocery shop, I found some items labelled in Korean language alone without a single word in English. Yet I can recognise the measures written as "500 ml", "250 g", etc. Dont ask how can I buy such a product without reading the label. One can easily differentiate between fish and the noodles if we look through the transparent cover. Both the numbers and the metric symbols as mentioned above are universal and this makes the metric system a global system of measurements. If we have to give a single word for terms like kilogram, centigram, etc, then we should give similar words for distance, volume, etc and the very purpose of metric system will be defeated. After all when many illiterate people can use this system in many parts of the World, why not the educated British use it. Regards Madan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! Mail. http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
2001-03-04 I don't know what all the fuss is about. So what if packages show only millilitres or grams . It is so easy to convert to centilitres, or decilitres in ones mind, without the aid of a calculator. The choice of units in groups of thousands comes from engineering practice. It allows a number to be small for common use without the need for a decimal point. Unit names over 1000 should be converted to the next unit. There is nothing wrong with 2500 mm being labelled as 2.5 m. In fact, this is what is required. I too would like to see the kilogram renamed, but others don't see the need for it. I've seen arguments on how height should be stated. Some want it in the form of x.xx m and others xxx cm. I don't think it matters, because one can always mentally change it to the other form. The only problem I see concerns the people who use FFU; because of the great difficulty in doing the math required to do internal conversions the practice is avoided. One can not mentally convert inches to feet and inches in less than a second of time. So, the practice is avoided. Those who use FFU know it is a difficult collection of units. They falsely believe SI is equally difficult. Let's not try to make SI like FFU with variations for different peoples tastes. Let's have one standard version with the option of people easily changing it to their choice mentally. Otherwise, SI will become just like FFU, and nobody will understand it. John Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrtümlich glaubt frei zu sein. There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they are free! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gustaf Sjöberg" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, 2001-03-04 10:49 Subject: [USMA:11445] You are missing the point > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Gustaf, > > > > You have been had by the BWMA propaganda. > > No absolutely not. I'm just as pro-metric as you are. > But I'm also interested in implementing it the way I and people in common seem to > want it to be. Then maybe people would like it and it would gain ground. Don't you > know anything about human nature? > I'll tell you about my nature: > I would never dream of measuring beer in mL or measure the wideness of a door in > mm. We don't do that in Sweden, and we are about as metric as a country can get. > It is uncomfortable and there is no reason for it whatsoever. Also I don't like > grams dispite that I was born with them and never knew anythimg else. They are too > small and too many. > I think a lot of people have the same nature as I have, and then I can understand > if a british person gets a bad impression from the metric system when a pint is > over 500 of that metric unit or when a 8 oz cheese is over 200 of that other > metric unit. > > The metric system as it is today is INCONSISTENT. A base-unit should not be based > on another unit. > With a new name for kilogram we would have the perfectly consistent , comfortable > and userfriendly > 1 m = 100 cm ( = 1000 mm) > 1 L = 100 cL ( = 1000 mL) > 1 X = 100 cX ( = 1000 mX) > where X stands for the new name. > > Then I think it would be much less trouble of implementing it in Britain and USA. > The centi-sizes are all about a third of their old counterparts (in, fl oz and oz) > and thus in the same order of magnitude. Another (not so important) thing to do > would be to spell the words as they sound, to get rid of their foreign touch. A > metre could be spelled "meter" as in USA, and a litre could be spelled "liter" or > even "leater". > > Adjust the metric system for everyday use and human nature. > > > DON'T BE HAD BY BWMA PROPAGANDA! > > Don't be silly. I am Swedish and I know how to use to use the metric system. It is > my "motherlanguage of measure", so don't tell me how to use it. Some of you people > don't seem to have got that at all. > >
