I would imagine that all the cups in South Africa were in hard metric sizes.
As they might even be here in the US.
I suppose they just put up a couple of signs they got from the US to make it
look authentic, it was just me with my acute sensitivity to non metric units
that took exception to this sort of trash in a metric country.
By the way, I bought a South Africa Popular Mechanics which was totally SI,
including the use of kW for power, kJ for energy, it was a pleasure to read
compared to the US edition which is full of Wombat only.
Mike Payne
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Hooper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 15 January 2008 02:58
Subject: [USMA:40051] Re: Seattle Coffee
On 2008 Jan 9 , at 6:03 AM, Michael Payne wrote:
(In a coffee shop) Small, Medium and Large as 8, 12 & 16 oz ... I
asked the server how many milliliters? He had no idea.
Did you tell ("educate") him?
To be fairly exact, tell him the cups are 240 mL 360 mL and 480 mL, or
suggest that when great precision is not necessary, the smallest and
largest are 250 mL and 500 mL, or a quarter litre and a half litre,
respectively.
You might feign ignorance about why they middle size would be such an
awkward number (360 or, less precisely, 375) and that making good use
of the metric system would probably simplify that to something like
350 or 400 mL.
One could take it one step farther, of course, and suggest a really
simple set of sizes would by 300 mL, 400 mL and 500 mL. These are not
exactly equal to 8, 12 and 16 fl.oz. but are a reasonable and useful
alternative. They would have the public relations value that they are
ALL A BIT LARGER than the corresponding 8, 12 or 16 fl.oz. sizes.
When will some of these businesses take advantage of the metric system
to boost their sales instead of fighting it and losing money???
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Make It Simple; Make It Metric!
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