Sorry for the "no subject". I failed to copy the article title into the subject line. The author has revised the article to correct the yards mistake, but he still confuses long and metric tons. It's still true that continued conversion is too complicated, and the errors in the article strengthen the point rather than weaken it.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: John M. Steele <[email protected]> To: USMA <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, June 19, 2011 8:19:47 PM Subject: This story is a bit of mess. His heart is in the right place and his basic message is correct: Conversions in Customary are extremely challenging and we should switch to metric. However, conversions in Customary are so challenging that many of his examples are wrong. (I would prefer to get my gold star for 2640 yd, but switching to metric would be better yet) http://www.themorningsun.com/articles/2011/06/19/opinion/doc4dfd778792579945914786.txt ## ED FISHER: How many yards in a mile? As grade school kids, we had to memorize that there are 5,280 in a mile and that a yard consists of three feet. It should be easy to use those simple ideas. So tell me, how many yards are in a mile and a half? Those who answered 23,760 will get a gold star at the end of the column. Those who used any kind of computer or cell phone app will only get a silver star. . . . ##
