Pat, If not being metric would really cost the US $1.28 trillion every year then the US would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.
Maybe the US GAO could do a study to find out if not being metric is costing the US immensely or not. Jerry ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 5:03:45 PM Subject: [USMA:42634] Re: Copper Pipe Sizes On 2009/01/31, at 7:46 AM, Michael Payne wrote: Reference the ASTM B88 Copper Tubes which sound like what I have. Why would they have Nominal and Actual sizes for all pipe/tube? I'm using the word interchangeably. Is it because it was originally metric and it's been changed to all inches or is there another reason? It just seems plain dumb to be calling something one size when it's actually a different size. I notice in the specifications everything is in inches only, If I have time I'll see what they all are in millimeters. It's very frustrating as a homeowner who can do some of this work themselves, drives down to the hardware store with measurement in hand only to find there is no correlation. I've found the only way to get anything that fits is to take the old one to the store for comparison. Buying wood falls has the same problem, Newer wood products made in the last 20 years are smaller but called by the same name (measurement). I hate to think of the time and fuel wasted annually in just the United States on this sort of thing. Mike Payne Dear Mike and All, I have emphasised the last sentence of your email to ask what others think about the cost to the USA of being non-metric. As you know, I had a try at estimating this in the 8-page article, Cost of non-metrication in the USA (http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/CostOfNonMetrication.pdf ), but I have never been happy with my estimate (guesstimate) for the annual cost of non-metrication of the USA — I keep thinking that 1.28 trillion dollars per year is way too small. Whenever, I hear of examples from specific industries, such as the mess in pipe sizes and the costs that everyone in the manufacturing, marketing, purchasing, and fitting processes has to bear to do something that could be, and should be, insanely simple, I cringe in frustration. It's like that YouTube movie where the guys are trying to subtract the design and build dimensions of 140 millimetres from 180 millimetres (http://www..youtube.com/watch?v=Omh8Ito-05M ). It's hard to believe that when a job that can be done in less than 10 seconds for an individual (180 – 140 = 40 mm) can take 4 engineers more that 2 1/2 minutes — and you know that this is going to happen over and over again — that this cost can be limited to my estimate of 9 % of GDP. Hence my thinking that my estimate of the cost of non-metrication in the USA, at 1.28 trillion dollars per year, is far too low. Cheers, Pat Naughtin PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
