At 05:10 PM 5 October 2002 +0200, Han Maenen wrote: >The American way has definite flaws as it promotes cheating and endless >confusion. I know that some states in the USA have a so-called 'commercial >acre' which is substantially smaller than the statute one. ...
Sleezy business practices are not due to nor unique to colloquial measurement. Nor can I agree that our colloquial system "promotes" them -- it just makes it a bit easier in some contexts to be sleezy. The SI system may make it more difficult to practice such deceptions, but by no means will it eliminate them (are there no measurement-based deceptions practiced in all of Europe?). Adn while such practices may be deplorable, they hardly constitute a major problem in the US economy. I think we need stronger arguments for metrication than this. Jim Elwell, CAMS Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
