That movie depicts and grossly distorts a bit of World War II history but in the process makes a pretty decent Hollywood story. As a submariner who served a few decades later, perhaps I can add a bit of "local color" to Nat's message. In the 70s and the 80s I served on four nuclear submarines (plus a small, nuclear powered research sub). While still bound to certain oaths (I am still a Navy officer, but "retired"), I can still assure you that the Cold War submariner was cognizant that submariners of other countries controlled the keel depths of their submarines in terms of meters. That knowledge of course has certain tactical value. American submariners measured their own keel depths in feet, however. During that same period, American submariners did their target analysis and ranging in terms of yards, as well as their torpedo settings. These were the practices in WW II and they continued on through the Cold War. Of personal interest to me was some of the fire control equipment I used. This term refers to equipment used to solve target motion problems and to aim and provide settings for torpedos, not for fire fighting. Some of that equipment grew out of WW II equipment. One sub I served on was built in the 50s and it still used a very old style Position Keeper that grew out of the WW II hand-held "is-was" board; we used the same techniques on it for periscope approaches (to the firing point) that were used in WW II. Why mess with success? Jim Nat Hager III wrote: > > Context is very important. In a technical or business context (cellphone, > GPS, network cables, etc) meters is OK, but in a casual or consumer context > (floppy disks, personal heights, road directions, etc) it is not. I guess > the rationale is you need to give the technical people flexiblity to do > their job, but no more than that as it would be invading American culture. > > I enjoyed the WWII sub movie U-571 a week ago, in which an American crew > commandeers a Nazi U-boat, and are reading its depth gauges in meters. The > use of meters throughout the dilaog is pervasive, even in one tense seen > where they're approaching crush depth: "180 meters!....190 meteres!....200 > meters!....", with lots of tight shots of metric depth gauges and perspiring > faces. > > Later, however, they give the range to target as 1000 yards. > > Nat .... -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
