on 2003-09-08 23.14, Phil Chernack at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I think this topic is getting a little out of hand. I don't think there is > any real good reason to metricate football or even horse racing (which still > uses furlongs).
Dear Phil, Furlongs are not used in Australia. Horse races here seem to be run in multiples of 200�metres. It is not unusual to hear something like, 'It passed the favorite at the six hundred'. Miles became 'sixteen hundreds', and even the very traditional 'two-mile' Melbourne Cup was re-rated to 3200�metres (pronounced 'thirty-two hundred'). Metrication of horse racing in Australia was regarded as a high priority by the Metric Conversion Board because of its high profile in the community. Two of the reasons why I believe that metrication was successful in Australian horse racing was that they only used one unit, the metre, and they avoided the use of any fractions, vulgar or decimal. For example the Melbourne Cup is a thirty-two hundred metre race; it is not a 3 kilometre and 200 metre race and it is not a 3.2 kilometre, or a 3�1/5 kilometre race. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia --
