Newbie question :) be kind...

When all else fails, drag in politics.

-- Ray

That's exactly right. The standard is still in place in the US and allows for legal use of the units in manufacture. Many cars are now being manufactured using the cubic centimeter as the displacement descriptor and motorcycles have done it for decades. Model airplane engines adopted it quite easily often giving both displacements.

The lack of use is probably down to consumer reluctance or outright resistance. It's certainly not down to the US government stopping it as has been suggested by some here in this very discussion.

-- Ray

Good evening Ray;

Aye, no argument there.

Cheers, John

The only thing different in the US is that it allowed for DUAL standards to exist which meant that unarmed resistance by the masses could and did drive it to the background. The metric standard is still there allowing for its legal use in trading and manufacture. Thus, your statement was incorrect and I merely pointed that out to you. What resulted is a typical revolution and revision of facts from you. Sadly, all you had to do was sort of state that you weren't aware of that and let it go. But that's not the Procter way.

-- Ray

What has that to do with the fact that the standard is there?

-- Ray

That was my point, the nit-picking doesn't mean anything in the real world. {;^)

LOL!

I know what you mean, a 2X4 is a 2X4 no matter what the measurements are in Metric.

It's simple, David. The general public in both your country and mine do not consider the Metric System to be of any value to us the consumers.

Just because "the standard is there", doesn't mean that people will use it any time soon.

Yet that wasn't the issue at all. The issue was that the US had not adapted the metric standard. It has. Either standard is legal for sale or trading. Has been for more than 30 years.

Gold is also a trading medium. Legally. Yet nobody I know of has the ability to use it in exchange on a daily level except for gold brokers and jewelers. That doesn't mean it's nonexistent.

-- Ray

On 1/19/2008 1:16 PM Wolf K. spake thus:

Excellent post, Wolf, that says a lot of what I'd wanted to say very well.

Just to add that, as you point out, standard sizes are the crucial thing here. Using Greg's travails with milling machines as a good example, it really doesn't matter what system of measurement is used: what would be nice would be to have a standard set (or sets) of fasteners, for instance bolts, to eliminate the hodgepodge of existing, non-compatible "standards". To me, it wouldn't matter at all whether such bolts were measured in inches, millimeters or mill-rods: I'd be happy to select from 8mm, 9mm, 10mm, etc., fasteners, so long as I knew that they'd mate with the standard nuts available. (The same principle applies to things such as optical disc formats, electronic communication protocols, etc.)

Like they say, though, the nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.

Thanks, good idea! Black for normal metric. Red for US doesn't feel right, at an emotional level.

Ok, that's probably me. ;-)

Presuming one's beer will cost the same per volume, it doesn't matter whether a standard glass is imperial or metric. Our old 44 gallon drums held the same as your 55 gallon drums. Our new metric ones are exactly the same size.

That one I have to agree on - it's a good thing we have a twelve base counting system!

Of course someone is stopping them - the potential customers.

If it's such an all-fired superior system, then why hasn't

If I answered that I'd be accused of "American Bashing". ;-)

That 5% of the world hasn't adopted SI??? How much of a majority do you need?

I truly wish that the Metric System hadn't been forced down our throats in Canada by Pierre Trudeau in the seventies.

Valid point.

That lets the US imperial system out.

I spend a lot of my time converting between units:- Tonnes, Tons, US Tons, Hundredweights, Stones, Kilograms, Pounds, Ounces, US Ounces, grams... Nautical Miles, Miles, Kilometres, Chains, Metres, Feet, Inches, Centimetres, Millimetres, 1/4"s, 1/8"s, 1/16"s, 32"s, 1/64"s, Thous, # drills, wire gauges, ... etc.

Agreed.

Who tells you these silly stories? The design came from P&O in the UK. The ISO committee accepted the P&O standard.

Actually it does. The height of a standard container has increased from 8' to 8'6" to 9' over the years. The length has increased from 20', 30' and 40' with US shipping companies using all sorts of extended lengths.

The standards make them interchangable world-wide. US non-standard measurements make US products damned arkward outside the US. See how that works?

My milling machine is a "fixed" item - it doesn't change to suit my needs.

I'm way ahead of you Ray.

It's a good story!

Wiser in what way?

They adopted it because it was a common system.

For we human beings an original Metre and a present day metre is the same thing, ditto kilograms etc etc.

No, it's a US joke, with the rest of the world laughing at the US - you need a sense of proportion.

US measurements are next to unworkable.

Greg.P.

You obviously don't fly yourself or go boating.

I do the same.

The teaching of imperial measurements was discontinued back in the 1960s

- I was _never_ taught US measurements. (pounds just happen to be the same as UK pounds)

Somewhere between sad and pathetic! (no insult intended)

Regards, Greg.P.

Go carefully there - I began building a model of a French loco from an early book and found it to be in French feet, about the time I was adding the superstructure to the underframe. It never did get completed.

Here in New Zealand signing (deaf and dumb language) is one of our legal (ie standard) languages, as is braille. Don't expect to find our road signs in braille or sign language on cornflake packets! When you get down to the nitty gritty, english is the standard language of communication here.

Regards, Greg.P.