I just returned from two weeks in Germany, and had a chance to inspect a wholly
metric country for the first time.
As you might expect in a country that never knew WOMBAT,my German friend's
speedometer was scaled in km/h only, and the odometer in kilometers only.
Interestingly, she had a tachometer which was styled in "x1000 min (-1)"
(minutes to the negative first power) instead of "x100 RPM."
Speed limit signs are similar to the ones that just went up in Ireland.
Berlin's famous KaDeWe department store sells loose goods by the kilogram only.
However, my friend admitted to knowing about a "pfund" of 500 g.
Germany flies in the face of U.S. metric volume packaging. For example,
beverages are labeled in liters only (Coca Cola and bottled water are bottled
in 0,2 ml, 0,5 ml, and 0,7 ml, using the comma as a decimal marker. There are
no reference to milliliters. Some beverage products were bottled in 0,75 l. The
uppercase symbol for the liter was not used, but the "l" was of such an unusual
style that it could not be confused with the numeral "1."
But, whatever the difference in practice, it was a delight for me to see the
LIVING metric system! It was just as simple as we American metricationists have
imagined it to be.
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 USA
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"There are two cardinal sins, from which all the others spring: impatience and
laziness."
---Franz Kafka
