>From my recent experience while visiting Poland, I can tell you that the inch sizes in a metric country are just an arbitrary number, like the dress size you mentioned.  Advertisements that I've seen in Poland described the device as a 17" monitor, but clearly indicated the diagonal area in centimeters.  For the most part people there don't have an idea what an inch is, or how many cm it is. 

Poland converted to metric in 1918.  Four generations later, almost nothing remains of the old measures, other than their presence in historical documents and in fairy tales.  The fabled seven-league shoes are known as "the seven-mile shoes," and thumbelina is
Calineczka, or "The Inch-girl."

On 5/6/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
One of my co-workers is from Argentina. One day, she was showing me an online Buenos Aires newspaper, and I couldn't help but notice the an ad for 17" computer monitors. Most of the specifications listed are in metric - but some Imperial units still managed to make it there - like degrees F for operational temperatures. I wonder if the 17" designation has any meaning to the customers, or if it viewed more like an arbitrary number (like women's dress sizes in the US)?

The newspaper ad can be viewed here:


and the product specs are here:


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