Dear Ezra and All, All official weather reporting in Australia went metric in 1974. By 1982, Kevin Wilks, in 'Metrication in Australia' was able to write:
'All weather reporting was in metric except that the old metric unit, the millibar, had not yet been replaced by the kilopascal. Only when temperature and rainfall reached extremes recognisable in old units was reference made to feet and inches'. Professional weather folk and professional farmers quickly adopted metric measures and adapted to them quite smoothly. Consider the relationship: 1 millimetre of rain falling on 1 square metre= 1 litre of water As Kevin Wilks noted: 'This latter piece of information enormously simplifies drainage and irrigation calculations, bringing them within the capability of farmers and other trades, which was not something they could have done before'. However, having noted the official and technical response to metrication, there are still some, usually with low numeracy, who hold a belief that inches and points are more understandable. I suspect that this has to do with being able to compare recent events to those that happened in the far distant (sometimes mythical) past. Fortunately there are very few of these folk left and their numbers are diminishing with time. Sadly, media folk often seek out such anachronistic people to provide a linguistic tension to their reports. By the way, a 'point' of rain is one hundredth of an inch; it is part of yet another old attempt to decimalise old measures to try to save them from the tide of metrication. 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 2004-06-23 06.46, Ezra Steinberg at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel about locusts in > Australia. I did not get to see the whole show, so I did not watch the > production credits to see when the show was produced. However, based on > references to certain dates in the show, I'm certain that the show was > produced within the last 10 years (probably last 2-5 years). > > I heard the usual ifp stuff in the narration (done by an American) and the > metric stuff when the Aussies were talking. However, I caught one reference > by one of the employees (an Aussie) of the Australian national agency that > handles outbreaks of locusts to "inches of rainfall" that he feared might > fall and fuel the growth of the newly hatched locusts. I think he also > mentioned "points" of rain as well. > > Can Pat Naughtin or anyone else comment on this? Did I hear things right? If > so, what's happening here? > > Ezra >
