Actually, no, that wasn't what I was questioning. I was asking if a person in a metric country would have a better chance of understanding FFU then an American would of understanding metric.
For example, if a person in a metric country would be told that the distance between point "A" and point "B" was 50 miles, would the most likely response be: 1.) one of understanding without a mental conversion to metric 2.) one of understanding with a mental conversion to metric 3.) asking a questions as to the meaning of the word mile or requesting a translation and the same situation for an American but with the metric/FFU role reversed. Who would better understand the other's units? Now to your comment. Is there a correlation between innumeracy and preference of units? Do numerate people tend to prefer SI over FFU or is there no correlation between the two? Euric ----- Original Message ----- From: "Pat Naughtin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Mighty Chimp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, 2004-05-08 16:36 Subject: Re: [USMA:29705] interesting question Dear Chimp, I wonder if your confusion is about numeracy - rather than a division between metric units and old measures. It is my experience that many (most ?) people are far less numerate than they want to show to others, and they are highly skilled at covering up their innumeracy. I recall a survey of adult Australians that showed truly remarkable levels of innumeracy (> 50 % for simple addition and > 90 % for extraction and addition or subtraction of a simple percentage) but alas, I no longer have the reference. An avoidance of discussing - or using - metric measures could simply be part of their innumeracy cover-up strategy. Cheers, Pat Naughtin LCAMS Geelong, Australia Pat Naughtin is the editor of the free online newsletter, 'Metrication matters'. You can subscribe by sending an email containing the words subscribe Metrication matters to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- on 2004-05-09 04.10, MightyChimp at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I'm curious to know something about the "understanding" of units world-wide. > Does anyone here have either knowledge, experience or feeling as to whether > more people in metric countries understand and have a working knowledge or > feel for FFU or more people in FFU-land have the same towards metric? > > In other words, would an American be more likely to understand metric, or a > foreigner more likely to understand FFU. > > I've encountered immigrants to the US who give me funny looks if I use metric > units and become resistant if I ask them to respond to me in metric. Many > claim to have forgotten metric and understand only FFU. Some being in the US > only a few years. Yet, when they speak with others of their kind they have no > problem conversing in their native language. How could one not forget one's > native language, yet forget SI. Can anyone here relate to this? >
