Whenever I do a new installation of Google Earth (in a new OS) it
defaults to imperial, although changing this to metric is easy enough.
But I wish it was metric by default, as a lot of people would be too
lazy to change it, and thus just use whatever the default is.
David King
/Metric is British and best! Speak in English, Measure in Metric
Email hosted by 1&1 Internet Ltd. <http://www.1and1.co.uk/?k_id=3899401>/
James Frysinger wrote:
I will second Paul's recommendation, having used Google Earth since
its debut. Importantly, one can easily use metric units in this
program. The ruler, for example, can be used to measure the length of
a straight or segmented line (estimating a path) in kilometers,
meters, etc. Elevations can be set to read out in meters; those are
shown at the bottom of the screen for the position of the mouse cursor.
I am a member of CoCoRaHS, which collects rainfall and snowfall data
from volunteers across the country. I now get monthly Google Earth
files that show the totals for each station reporting in Tennessee.
Alas, the CoCoRaHS folks launched their program to use inches, rather
than millimeters or centimeters. The latter are normally used for rain
and snow, respectively, outside the U.S.
For those who are interested, the entrance to my driveway and farm
lane is located at 35.788269, -85.510325. I am building in the
"southwest" corner of that field. We own roughly 100 ha of land here.
Jim
Paul Trusten wrote:
Imagine being about nine years old right now, and growing up with the
/Google Earth/ application on your computer! This has to be the
ultimate geographic encyclopedia.
/Google Earth/ is a program that allows you to zoom in on any
location on our planet and get a satellite view of every detail
below, or at any level you wish to click to. In addition, this
cyber-terrain is linked to Wikipedia and a wealth of ground-level
photographs of important sites. It was suggested to me by Kevin
Wilks, former secretary of the Australian Metric Conversion Board,
before my visit to his country last year. The free version may be
downloaded at http://earth.google.com/. I dare you to spend less
than one hour exploring with it the first time you use it. I spent a
whole day just touring the world as if I had an unlimited global
boarding pass! For those of us who are pursuing a universal standard
of measurement, the idea of having the whole world in your hands is
quite appealing.
The zoom effect is what is most dramatic. I zoomed in on my parents'
house of 44 years in Woburn, Massachusetts. Then, I typed in
"Ouagadougou" and found myself catapulted to the downtown of the
capital city of Burkina Faso, in Africa, faster than an orbiting
spacecraft!
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
Public Relations Director
U.S. Metric Association, Inc.
www.metric.org <http://www.metric.org> 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872 US
+1(432)528-7724
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
