My point exactly, do I think the US needs to go metric to stay competitive and for a million other good reasons? - Yes. Do I think we need to convert to A4 paper? No, at least not now. There are billions of sheets of paper out there in the US that are filed in millions of folders, binders books etc. Will US companies continue to be able to do business with the world if we don't eventually convert to metric? I believe in the long run not. But will the same business still be able to be profitable and do business with Europe and others without converting to A4 paper? I think so.
Howard Ressel, Metric Manager New York State Department of Transportation Region 4 Howard Ressel Project Design Engineer, Region 4 (585) 272-3372 >>> "John S. Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 01/02/04 10:52PM >>> Howard, I think it's worth pointing out that few people are bothered that a 2x4 is not even close to 2x4 inches, nor is a 1" board 1" thick. In fact, a 1" board is a lot closer to 20 mm, and a 2x4 is much closer to 4x9 cm than 2x4 inches. So there's an argument to be made to simply rename many old sizes to the closest rational metric value. This a tough problem. Manufacturing lumber, plumbing, etc. in new hard-metric sizes might sound great, the very large majority of the population who need to maintain their current non-hard-metric abodes will need current standard sized materials for a very long time. Further, houses aren't exported, so the usual economic arguments don't apply. I propose the following bastardized solution: change the lengths of boards and pipes to hard-metric sizes. But leave the other dimensions unchanged, just rename them to the closest round metric value. So I ask, hard conversion, or soft? John On Friday 02 January 2004 05:30, Howard Ressel wrote: > Culture, custom and economy. Even if we go metric 100% I don't see the > paper size industry changing too fast, if ever. Like pipes and lumber, > paper will probably just go to a rational nominal size. Pipe sizes have not > changed in many metric countries nor lumber and other products, just their > names have become rational metric. I don't see the use of A4 paper as a > metric issue rather an international standards issue. Certainly there are > bigger international standards we need to be concerned about other than > paper sizes (IE. formats for electronic equipment).
