Dear John and All, on 2002-08-01 14.08, kilopascal at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
<snip> > Concerning Automobiles, there are a lot of Americans to this very day who > still believe American cars are made to inch specs. There are those who > will argue that nuts & bolts on American cars are still in inches, only > because they can fit a standard size inch wrench over a metric bolt. And no > matter how much explaining one does about diameter and pitch, one might as > well talk to the wall, because it never gets through. I have estimated that there are 10 000 parts in an average car, and that each of these is specified by an average of ten measurements. This makes a total of 100 000 measurements for each car � and all of them are metric. If you then put the letters: 'mph' on the speedometer, 'miles' on the odometer, 'psi' and the number '14' on the tyres, you will have done sufficient to convince the car's owners that they live in an 'English' units nation, driving an 'English' units car and all is alright in this 'English' units world. Four measurements out of 100 000 is enough to produce this effect. Clearly, 99.996 % metric units is not sufficient to change people's mindsets. Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS Geelong, Australia
