> > I honestly don't think so, Nat. I'm simply laying it out as it > is. Those who advocate this sort of change do *not* have ANY > *real* intention to "metricate", but rather influence metric > consumers into accepting ifp-designed-and-defined products with > the added 'benefit' of destroying "decimal thinking". And THAT I > would fight with all my breath, with all my strength, with all my soul!!!
Again Marcus the reality is today, 2002 November 27, if I go out in the mall and expect every person I run into to be speaking millimeters I'm going to be sorely disappointed. And as a physicist of 30 years, who's never done technical work in imperial and rarely does personal work in imperial, I have no intention of converting to "inches". So the need for a quick-and-dirty mental scheme for converting from inches to millimeters is unavoidable, given the present reality. The same problem exists for metric-educated children emerging into a still-ifp world, and unless you want them reverting completely to ifp after school, you'd better teach them similar skills. Not my preference, but the reality of the situation TODAY. > > This is purely a personal > >tool for thinking millimeters while those around you talk inches. > > ?? But, Nat, that's **precisely** what we DON'T want, is it not? > Why in the world should one tolerate this state of affairs (one > 'thinking (using) mm while (others would) talk inches)? When one > breaks up with a girlfriend and dates another one does not > continue to flirt or date the old girl *while* going out with the > new!!!... Oh I don't know, I guess whatever floats your boat. But that's another subject... <g> > > And as an > >educational tool, it would help children understand "Grampa's > units" during > >a transitional period. > > > ? Again, it begs the question, why should 'children' have to > 'understand' what is in actual fact *museum stuff*??? The > objective is the pure and simple ***replacement*** of a system of > units and its ill-conceived "philosophy" (ugh... there is > actually no such a thing behind the ifp thing, but I'll let it > pass, for now...) by a far superior one. Again, so they can speak to their parents still using legacy units. Once the generational change is over, the situation no longer exists. > >I'm not out to formally redefine the inch, and that could never happen > >anyway. > > > And I hope for our sake that you're absolutely right! However, I > keep hearing this kind of "strategy" from some folks in the ifp > camp. And that scares the witts out of me!... :-S Never happen! Can you imagine every ruler, micrometer, machine tool, etc in the US suddenly being shrunken 1.6%, to fit some new "definition" of the inch?? Talk about Esperanto analogies! Nat >
