This is VERY disappointing. Unfortunately, it seems like metric hasn't really "caught on" much in the English-speaking world. How deeply sad! :-(.........
Marcus On Sun, 1 Feb 2004 11:38:46 Chimpsarecute wrote: >Can anyone verify this? > > >Ok, here is the promised information on weights and measures on my trip. > >First, let me start by saying that India is primarily metric. All education is >metric. Imperial units may be taught as a means of demonstrating conversion factors. > >However, here is the key point: People in India understand and feel comfortable with >many imperial measures. If someone asked how far something was down the street, most >people would answer in kilometers, however, if someone answered in miles, the person >asking would not consider it strange or unusual in any way. This would apply to >lengths (miles, feet, inches - I never heard yards used), and weights (pounds and >ounces), but not volume or temperature. I never heard anyone mention volume or >temperature in imperial in conversation. I do remember one billboard advertising a >pint of something, and CNN America did display degrees Fahrenheit alongside >Centigrade when displaying the weather on the screen. But average people in daily >conversation did not use those units. > >Another interesting one: Bombay public buses, directly above the tire, have the >required tire pressure labeled in both psi and ksc. At petrol pumps, there is usually >a conversion chart displayed. On the intercity highway, I saw several trucks that >very closely resembled some I have seen in the US, brown in color and labeled on the >back in white letters with gross and net weight in "kgs" followed by "lbs" and >capacity in "cu m" followed by "cu ft". I am positive the same company makes these >trucks worldwide. > >Anyway, in summary: > >areas where only imperial is used are, as far as I can think of, heights of people, >areas of real estate, and tailoring (inches only), > >areas where metric is usually used but people would feel just as comfortable using >imperial include the heights or dimensions of other things (buildings, bridges, etc.) >in feet, and for most other things people would feel more comfortable in imperial. > >The only commonly used imperial units that I did not see refered to by a native >Indian or in the media during the week and a half that I was there were the gallon, >quart, fluid ounce and yard. > >btw, when English-language newspapers in India print stories from the US, Associated >Press or New York Times for instance (which they have been doing a lot of in recent >months), the measurements are always kept the way they originally were, which is >usually in imperial. ____________________________________________________________ Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus! Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus
