This special sentiment has been fanned in countless 'funny' and serious
anti-metric articles etc. throughout the years, not just in the USA, but
also in the UK and with success. Lloyd George in the beginning of the 20th
century in the House of commons: "Do you expect a British working man to go
into his pub and ask for 0.568 litres of beer?" There was also some of that
notion when The Netherlands went metric. In one 19th century arithmetic book
for advanced learners I studied the author wrote that conversion to and from
the old units would be needed forever! Thus the book devoted a lot of space
to the 'noble art' of conversion.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nat Hager III
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Wednesday, 2008, July 30 21:09
Subject: [USMA:41517] RE: what many Americans think "metric conversion"
means
Couldn't resist...
<g>
Nat
------------
Ghost Dog wrote:
We tried this back in the 60's or 70's and the citizens of the US were not
accommodating to the change. Convert a 36" door to mm, you get 91.84 mm!
That is hard to measure, down to the 1/100's of a mm! Try measuring liquids
in grams vs. ounces, that gets more complicated, 1 oz. comes to 28.375
grams! Ain't gonna happen!
What is an "oz."?? And why do you choose such a strange size for an "oz" -
28.375 g? If you need to use this "oz." thing, why don't you just make it a
nice round 25 g or 30 g??
God Imperial is complicated!!!!
NEH
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Paul Trusten
Sent: Wednesday, 2008 July 30 13:08
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41516] what many Americans think "metric conversion" means
WOW! The posts to the Citizen-Times article were revealing
(http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880726054). I
think I have found a common misconception that we may have
overlooked---that, for many Americans, "converting to the metric system"
means continuing to use inch-pound, but somehow having to continually make
soft conversions to metric, and use those soft metric equivalents of the
hard inch-pound values. They have not been informed, or have otherwise not
understood, that metrication means changing the measurement standard
itself, i.e., going all-metric, and not using the USC standards any more.
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
