Yes and that's one item which I think should transition at the same time. Road signage and fuel by the liter should transition at the same time so as not to have driving in miles and fuel economy per 100km or worse in liters/mile.
Those two at least can go hand in hand MIke On 1/18/07, Martin Vlietstra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Mike, It is usual in Europe to measure fuel consumption in L/100 km. If you regard a litre of fuel as a unit of currency, then this is directly analgous to buying apples at 75c/kg or gold at $624.45/troy oz etc. Also, expressing fuel consumption that way round makes it easier to calculate the cost of fuel per km, the cost of tyres per km, the cost of tax and insurance per km (assuming a fixed annual amoutn of travelling) etc. Martin ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Bill Hooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *To:* U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 16, 2007 5:49 PM *Subject:* [USMA:37754] piecemeal metrication On 2007 Jan 16 , at 8:38 AM, Mike Millet wrote: That's why the best and smoothest transition in the US ... (will be) ... rather from slow gradual economic and societal change. "Slow" and "gradual" means difficult and expensive. During a long, slow transition, both the old and new systems would be in effect causing a great deal of confusion and extra work. Furthermore, when two systems are both in effect, people would tend to continue using the old, familiar system. They would not "gradually become familiar" with the new one. Mike goes on to say: give the US consumer some time ... (to become accustomed to dual labeling) ... then gradually introduce temperature and fuel and finally road signage changes. It's difficult to change one things at a time because there are so many interconnections between units. If one changes fuel measurement at one time and road signage (including distance) at another time, when do you change fuel economy figures from miles per gallon to kilometres per litre (or litres per 100 kilometres)? Do you first change from miles per gallon to miles per litre (when litres are adopted) and then change from miles per litre to kilometres per litre at a later time (when kilometres are adopted). That would mean having to make TWO changes instead of just one for fuel economy alone (in addition to the necessary changes from gallons to litres and from miles to kilometres. Thus, instead of making a total of three changes at one time: gal. to L, mi. to km, mi/gal to km/L you'd have to make FOUR changes spread out over an extended period of time: gal. to L, mi./gal. to mi./L, mi. to km, mi./L to km/L. Another example would be cooking times based on oven temperature and amount of food. We have charts or directions in Fahrenheit and pounds; we will need to get to Celsius and kilograms. Do we make TWO changes, first from Fahrenheit+pounds to Celsius+pounds and later a second change from Celsius+pounds to Celsius+kilograms? How foolish when we can do it in one change if we convert all things simultaneously. There are other relationships that cause would cause problems, too. We know (actually I had to look up this first one) that there are 231 in^3 in a gallon and 1000 cm^3 in a litre. If we convert volumes from gallons to litres before we convert inches to centimetres, then in the interim (when we are using litres and inches), do we need to know how many cubic inches there are in a litre? (The answer is 61.023 7441, by the way.) Again, MORE conversions are needed when changes are made in several steps instead of all at once. Regards, Bill Hooper Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA ========================== SImplification Begins With SI. ==========================
-- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"
