Paul, I would go further and say if any prices are >$1.00, most restaurants usually show all prices as decimal fractions (also gasoline prices). The cents symbol (¢) really doesn't get much use and is a special symbol on American keyboard layouts. The British seem more prone to avoiding decimals and using pence-pricing. On metric engineering drawings around the world, naked millimeters are the norm, generally to 99 999 mm, and more in some cases. It is even mentioned in section 7.9 of NIST SP811 (and I believe in ANSI SI10). The drawing should contain a note that numbers without units are millimeters. Every drawing I ever saw in the auto industry followed this practice.
--- On Tue, 11/27/12, Paul Trusten <[email protected]> wrote: From: Paul Trusten <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:52007] Re: Fwd: Non-metric America To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 9:21 AM Restaurant menus here in the U.S. sometimes state prices less than a dollar as decimal fractions instead of cents, i. e., "$0.75." I can't recall there being a problem with such an expression, and is likely that next to no one would stop to read it as "point seven five dollars." My expectation is that the metric system will work with similar ease. In Australia, many blueprints and diagrams are written with all dimensions assumed to be in millimeters, so "8890" can become,mentally,about 9 m. I think Tom is quite right to urge us Anericans to sell a better tool for productive use at home, rather than impose a command from afar. Paul Trusten, Reg. Pharmacist Vice President U.S. Metric Association, Inc. Midland, Texas USA www.metric.org +1(432)528-7724 [email protected]
