At 04:05 PM 11 April 2002 -0400, Joseph B. Reid wrote: >There has been a prolonged discussion of the pros and cons of compulsion in >the conversion of a country to the metric system. Two non-compulsive >measures would go a long way to achieving conversion. > >In Australia government policy was to "progressively withdraw the legality >of non-metric units used in contractual arrangements".
This has the interesting presumption of "what is not legal is, by definition, illegal." In general, at least in the USA, we have the opposite presumption: what is not specifically forbidden is, by definition, allowed. Therefore, "withdrawing the legality of non-metric units" would, in fact, require that they be prohibited. This is a compulsive measure. >In Canada after about 1975 all formal education was converted to metric >units only. In the USA this has to be considered in two forms: public education and private education. Should public education be in metric only -- of course it should, and as a taxpayer I have every right to influence it in that direction Should private education be in metric only? That is the concern of those who pay for and run the institution, and no one else's. Jim Elwell Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
