Dear Markus, I am particularly pleased that no-one thought of this idea earlier. It seems to me that one of the great impediments to progress toward complete metrication is an easy conversion factor. When there is an easily calculated conversion, people feel comfortable converting back to old measures and this can seriously delay metrication. It's a bit like using a two sided ruler, which can delay metrication indefinitely.
Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS Geelong, Australia on 2002-07-31 21.18, Markus Kuhn at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > It just occured to me, had the inch been chosen to be 25.6 mm instead of > 25.4 mm, then all commonly used binary inch fractions would have been > multiples of 0.1 mm, something that no doubt would have significantly > simplified metrication in many industries. > > 1/2 in = 12.8 mm, 1/4 in = 6.4 mm, 1/8 in = 3.2 mm, 1/16 in = 1.6 mm, etc. > > Just a thought, unfortunately two centuries too late ... :( > > Markus
