Since I came to US 10 years ago there have been 4 things that bothered me. I
wonder if any of these almost exclusively (as far as I know) items have
anything to do with Metric vs. Imperial.
1. Why the heck every calendar has Sunday as first day of the week? For the
religious in this group, even god rested on the seventh day, not the first!
2. AM/PM To this day I have no clue what noon is. I cringe when someone calls 13:00, military time.
3. January 1, 2004. In Europe, it would be written 1 January, 2004.
4. Letter sized paper vs. A4.
Any comments please?
Thanks, Predrag
Answers:
1. Saturday is still the Jewish Sabaoth, but Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Putting Monday as the first day of the week is a modern commercial distortion.
2. I have been unable to find AM and PM in any of my dictionaries. However, I surmise that *AM* is an abbreviation for *avant midi*, meaning *before noon*; and *PM* an abbreviation for *post midi*, meaning *after noon*.
3. There are six possible permutations of year, month, day. I have seen five of them in use. The most logical is year-month-day, the next most logical is day-month-year. Most references to date are to month-day only. American practice when year is required is to add it after the month-day reference.
4. The Committee on Simplification of Paper Sizes, a committee set up by the (American) Permanent Conference on Printing, in 1923 or earlier established the 8 1/2 x 11 inch standard for letterheads.
The A-series of paper sizes was adopted in Germany as a DIN standard shortly after World War I, although the idea for this standard has been traced back to the time of the French Revolution. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted The DIN paper sizes as International Standard ISO 216-1975. I believe that US patents, in common with other countries patents, have the A4 dimensions of 210 x 297 mm.
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
