[USMA:23820] Re: CNN article

[Mike Joy]

Han, I think you may have over-reacted to this article - it wasn't supposed to be anti-metric. For instance the sentence:- " Eventually, he says, Americans will fully adjust. The metric system was meant to be global, and the meter created by the surveyors has become the worldwide standard. " indicates that the SI system will be accepted and the article didn't say that the small error mattered:- "The irony of the situation was that his mistake didn't matter. The scientists who created the meter wanted it to be close to the commonly used yard (or aune, in France), so Delambre and Mechain's mission was, in many ways, a fait accompli". Hope this helps Regards and Season's Greetings Mike   ----- Original Message ----- From: Han Maenen To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 2:51 PM Subject: [USMA:23805] CNN article The CNN article about the metric system angered me so much that I sent this message through their feed back page: "The article by Todd Leopold about the 'wrong' metric system has angered me. Another of these American attacks on the metric system. If the metric system is wrong, I suppose that it should be replaced globally by American units. I challenge Mr. Leopold to find out about the Mendenhall Order of 1893 and about an agreement by English speaking non-metric countries in 1959 about the standardization of their Imperial and US Customary measuring units. He will find out that the 'wrong' metric system now defines all those splendid and vastly superior American units." Han Historian of Dutch Metrication, Nijmegen, The Netherlands