I don't know the full history behind it but the last formal definitions of
the inch and pound in Britian (1963) were for legal and contractual
purposes. Metric and imperial were not being "brought together" in the sense
that they have equal status or are being deliberately maintained as viable
alternatives. The world of metrology has moved on and the only system that
is being maintained and developed is SI. No efforts are being made to fill
the gaps in Imperial which has no equivalent units for such things
electricity and magnetism.
Phil Hall
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Humphreys" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 16, 2005 9:00 AM
Subject: [USMA:34487] Re: Long live the good old British pint!
But can't we be a bit more realistic and say that x km = y miles and, as
such, y miles = x km?
The fact that the two were brought together to finalise an exact
conversion and make imperial the most accurate its ever been in its
history is a plus for imperial. Not a minus.
The fact that the metre is based upon a phenomenon and that the yard was
compared to the metre to find an exact conversion, that makes the yard
based upon that same phenomenon. OF course all of this is unknown to the
vast majority anyway.
Anyway - you won't find me saying that, for example, a millilitre a
simply 1/568th of a pint.
From: "Philip S Hall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"U.S. Metric Association"
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [USMA:34480] Re: Long live the good old British pint!
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:36:28 +0100
That's ok then.
If all imperial terms are just metric terms in disguise you no longer
need to try to get us to be metric, erm, "really" metric. Your job is
done.
All those miles on the road aren't really miles so what's the issue?
The issue is that it fails to make proper use of that underlying system of
measurement and ignores the advantages it offers. Before metric came along
no one woud have calibrated odometers and map scales in lots of 1 3/5 mile
would they?
Phil Hall
