I was there over Christmas last winter and someone my age (in their 50's) stated some height in feet & inches, whereupon their teenager with a look of incomprehension asked how high that was? With the obvious example they knew nothing of feet or inches and only knew metric as the question was not phrased to include "how many centimeters", just how high is that? I remember talking to another teenager and asking if they'd heard of miles, feet, etc. They had, but had no idea of either. When I told them there were 5280 ft in a mile their reply was why such an odd number?
Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin Vlietstra To: 'Michael Payne' ; 'U.S. Metric Association' Sent: Monday, 21 July 2008 05:17 Subject: RE: [USMA:41457] RE: Imperial hold-outs after metrication It is now seven years since I list visited South Africa so that might well be changing - aided of course by the recent awareness of BMI. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Payne Sent: 21 July 2008 00:12 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:41457] RE: Imperial hold-outs after metrication I've visited south Arica a number of times in the last 20 years and the use of feet and inches for height appears generational with the younger generation knowing only centimeter heights. It may also have to do with the large number of people from the UK living or emigrating to South Africa, something encouraged by the white Apartheid government. Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin Vlietstra To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 20 July 2008 20:08 Subject: [USMA:41454] RE: Imperial hold-outs after metrication I believe that the use of feet and inches for people's heights is "street usage". I left South Africa in 1978 and have only been back to visit family. I believe that every other aspect of life was fully metricated both officially and on the street before the Metrication Board was wound up (job done) and its functions passed over to the South African Bureau of Standards. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ezra Steinberg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 20 July 2008 20:59 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Imperial hold-outs after metrication Martin, Thank you for the link to your fine article. I was curious about the one Imperial hold-out in SA after the completion of metrication: expressing people's heights in feet and inches. Is this reflected in any of the official documents used in SA? Or is this just "street" usage? If so, any thoughts (from anyone) on why this would be the case and how to move people from that usage to metric? Ezra ----- Original Message ----- From: Martin Vlietstra To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 10:59 AM Subject: [USMA:41452] RE: Use of kW I notice that this advertisement has a South African website address. I lived in South Africa when they introduced the metric system. My observations on the South African change-over were published on the UKMA website - http://www.ukma.org.uk/whatis/sa.htm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Payne Sent: 19 July 2008 04:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:41451] Use of kW http://www.acmotorhomes.co.za/VWT5.htm Good SI usage. Michael Payne 1 Thorton Court Potomac Falls VA 20165 USA
