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What I always find interesting is that people who
think in yards, feet etc actually decimalise unconsciously. They will typically
estimate height as 20 ft, 50 ft 100 ft etc or distances as 50 yd, 100 yd, 200
yd, 500 yd and so on. No one says 24 ft, 36 ft 96 ft or 48 yd, 144
yd, 576 yd, ... (all multiples of that magic number 12)
Phil Hall
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 10:55
PM
Subject: [USMA:32694] Re: UK Public
Servant
Unless I need
precision, I think of an inch as 25 mm, a foot as 30 cm, translate a yard to a
meter and think of a mile as 1600 m. For weight, � lb is 125 g, � lb is
250 g, etc. Volume, a cup is 240 to 250 ml and a pint becomes 500 ml (or
� liter in colloquial terms).
Interestingly, when
thinking of a mile as 1600 m, it gives the nice divisible numbers (400, 800,
1200) for �, � and � mile that you don�t get with dividing 5280 feet.
Isn�t that one of the arguments about why numbers like 12 inches and 16 oz are
supposed to be much easier? J
Phil
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hillger, Don
Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2005 4:29
PM
To: U.S. Metric
Association
Subject:
[USMA:32693] Re: UK Public Servant
Nor do I! Then
we would still have a layer of unit names that would mask the simplicity of
the metric system.
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper
Sent: Wednesday, 2005 April 13
15:25
To: U.S. Metric
Association
Subject:
[USMA:32692] Re: UK Public Servant
On 2005 Apr 13 , at 12:33 PM, John Nichols wrote:
Finally it is a pity that the US
did not define the inch as 25 mm, then this whole mess would not exist.
I don't think that would have helped anything at all.
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Go Metric America! Or get left behind!
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