I have similar problem in the UK - I paid €2.50 for my last all-metric tape (illustrated at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FourMetricInstruments.JPG ). BTW, we do not use euros in the UK - I bought it in a supermarket in Belgium)
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: 26 April 2013 23:04 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:52706] Re: Why the Inconsistency? When my wife (Michele) and I visited Canada a couple summers ago, I tried to purchase a metric-only tape measure in a store, but they only had tape measures cluttered with dreaded inches. We only visited a few places in British Columbia, which may not be representative of everywhere in Canada. David Pearl MetricPioneer.com 503-428-4917 ----- Message from [email protected] --------- Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:48:18 -0700 (PDT) From: [email protected] Reply-To: Martin Morrison <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:52705] Why the Inconsistency? To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> > The Science Channel, which is a part of the Discovery complex, ran a > "How It's Made Program" last night. From the credits at the end, at > least this episode was produced in Canada. I was curious to see how > it would run in the United States. > > The program, in the segment on the mining of silver ore, always used > kilograms instead of pounds. There was a close-up of a scale, which > displayed a reading in "mg". But a distance was given in inches. > > These persistent inconsistences (as Canada certainly uses millimetres > or centimetres) are quite perplexing. I could understand an > all-metric program or an all non-metric program, dumbed down for the > United States. Another program, on astronomy, talked about > astronomical distances in miles (where it hardly mattered for the > common perception), but shorter distances (such as for the size of a > meteor) in metres. > > It has always perplexed me why these programs are so inconsisent. > In a curious way, it confirms my approach that the United States is > *not* a non-metric country. It is a country stuck in the middle of > conversion, not unlike England and even Canada. > > Martin Morrison > Training and SI Columnist, "Metric Today" > > ----- End message from [email protected] -----
