The digital US post office scales I've seen show the weight as pounds and decimal ounces (ounces are measured in 0.05 ounce increments, or is it 0.1 ounce increments?). I'm not sure if there is an option for metric, but I doubt it because of the following.
The US post office website shipping price calculator provides the option of inputing the weight in decimal pounds or a combination of pounds and ounces. The website does not provide an option for metric, unlike the calculators in the UPS and FedEX websites. See http://usps.com/tools/calculatepostage/welcome.htm? from=home&page=0061calculatepostage The printed US post office shipping rate booklets mention prices for various ounces and pounds, but not for and metric weights/masses. Employees at the local US post office claim that the post office is no longer a part of the USA government (though their website has both a .com and .gov domain and though they are listed in the government pages of the local phone books) and I've seen TV advertising by the USA post office. Years have gone by without me seeing any TV ads by the USA government, and thus I suspect that the USA post office is not part of the USA government. That may explain why they don't seem to use metric at all. The good news is that some at the post office do like metric. A few days ago one of the customer counter clerks at the local post office told me that she wishes the USA was using metric instead of the Imperial system. She said she considers metric to be more accurate than the Imperial system, and not simply easier and more consistent. Quoting john mercer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > In the U S do most post offices have digital scales? The reason i ask this > is because if they do wouldn't it be quite easy to metricate the postal > service. On July 1 1979 Canada post went metric at a cost of 1.5 million > dollars. At that time i don't know if digital scales were available. I > remember going in to a post office just after the metric change and the clerk > had a little trouble using the scale. If the USPS uses digital scales it > would probably be quite easy to metricate it. When Canada post changed they > called a one oz letter 30 g. I have another question in the States if you > mail a parcel and use your bank card to pay for it when you get the receit > does it give the weight of the parcel. If it does how easy would it be to > change it from lbs to kg. i wonder how hard it would be to change the rates > from pounds and ounces to metric. Gavin Young http://www.xprt.net/~hightech , http://www.renewableelectricity.com, http://www.electric-automobile.com
