Pascal is also a French boy's name and the name of a computer
programming language.
But I really found unbelievable was the guy's attack on Europe, saying
that Europe is dying, has no power and is going to die out. He thinks
that the USA and China are the world's great superpowers. But Europe is
incredibly strong, powerful and ready to dominate the world, given the
chance. I don't think that this is necessarily a good thing, but, for
this American to be blind to how strong Europe really is, then
everything he says must be taken with a pinch of salt.
I also agree with Phil on the temp forecasts in Celsius, I have never
heard a forecast given in tenths of degrees. And even if they give F
temps, it is always temps like in the 60s, rather than a specific temp.
When temps are recorded as the highest recorded temperature, then it is
quoted to the nearest 0.1 degrees in C, and if in F, also to the nearest
0.1 degree.
I would say that this American in Australia is not really good at
observation.
David King
Buy UKMA's report "A Very British Mess" ISBN 0750310146
http://www.ukma.org.uk/Docs/pubs.htm
Avoid confusion with conversion, just learn to think metric!
http://www.thinkmetric.org.uk
Pierre Abbat wrote:
With other metric measurements, they have introduced hard to pronounce
and spell wog names which I simply can't be bothered with such as Pascal
as in kPa. And why should we be bothered with that kind of thing? They
could have picked easy to remember or self explanatory names (like
centigrade) but they chose to immortalize long dead people.
"Pascal" doesn't sound odd to me in English; there is a word "pascal" which
means pertaining to Easter or Passover or a kind of celery. "Ampère" does
sound odd in English (probably because I gargle the r). I think more unit
names sound odd in French (newton, gray, henry) than in English.
Then, still fiddling, they have changed the unit of measurement for
torque and others to suit engineers but which are unintelligible to the
reasonable man. They are more suited to engineering than everyday use.
AFAIR torque has always been measured in newton meters. And I don't think
torque comes up in everyday use, except for mechanics who use torque
wrenches.
And even though we have gone metric here in Oz we still stay 20', 40',
48' and 53' for shipping container lengths, and still measure truck
engine outputs in horsepower and lb ft of torque, and US thread, bolt,
and nut sizes are still in wide use. And my new rainwater tanks are in
gallons (with litres in the fine print).
Got a long tape? Check if the 53 is really 16 meters.
phma
