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Thread ID: 121113 2011-10-12 03:33:00 National Sillimeter Month - Hah! SurferJoe46 (51) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1236986 2011-10-13 01:27:00 SJ as I recall, in the mid 70's Congress legislated a move to enable metrication. It was achievable then at a reasonable cost, but there was no way fortress America was going to buy into it. As you say, the short term cost seems too prohibitive.

But long term it may have to be a question of, when do you start?
WalOne (4202)
1236987 2011-10-13 01:46:00 Roscoe - changeover to metric in the US would be so costly and prohibitively more so in this bad economy, that it isn't even debatable.

Not sure about that Joe ... just as an example ... got a funny feeling that with much of the military and civilian aircraft / scientific equipment that is made today using "parts" sourced internationally, metric is used more often than you think. Can't see European / Asian countries which contribute "parts" to the space station switching to imperial measurements. You Yanks would be stuck up there for a hell of a long time if Europe, including Russia, had to convert all the docking systems to imperial measurements.

All medical and scientific equipment made in the US has to comply with ISO standards which means everything must be measured in metric ... your Viagra for example ... do you take a 40mg tablet, or still taking a 0.00008818342 or so of a pound ... :D

But then again ... like the Queens English, the US have their own quirky way of screwing it up measurements like the Gallon ... The difference between the Imperial gallon and the smaller US Gallon might be explained by the fact that, in the post medieval past, the whiskey filled barrels leaving the shores of UK didn't have the same content when arriving in the new world ... probably coz SJ was taste testing during the long journey and NOT because of evaporation as suggested in Wiki

Read more: wiki.answers.com and_a_us_gallon#ixzz1accwaJG6

... it's just not cricket old chap (Google for clarification if required)
SP8's (9836)
1236988 2011-10-13 01:55:00 The UK officially went metric in 71 and yet if you go to buy nails or screws they are still sold in imperial sizes. Canada went metric overnight, sure it probably caused a few problems but it's damned hard to do imperial calculations with a calculator as nothing is uniform as in 12 inches to a foot but 3 feet to a yard where as metric it is all by the 100 gary67 (56)
1236989 2011-10-13 01:59:00 I really don't care that the US wants to stick with imperial measurements (although there is a certain irony in the name of the units considering the past history of US/UK relations). I only get annoyed when software and like stuff only quotes imperial and totally ignores metric. And don't get me started on mm/dd/yy vs dd/mm/yy! So what date is 3/4/2011? If only everyone would always use the dd mmm (or mmm dd) form, then we would all know it was 3 April 2011 or April 3 2011. [/RANT] Tony (4941)
1236990 2011-10-13 02:01:00 All the US manufacturers and packagers and builders and installer have done very well on The King's Nose so why change it now?
One good reason would be so that you were in sinc with the rest of the world. But that isn't one of your strong points.:stare:
mikebartnz (21)
1236991 2011-10-13 02:42:00 If only everyone would always use the dd mmm (or mmm dd) form, then we would all know it was 3 April 2011 or April 3 2011. [/RANT]
I really can not understand why the yanks ever decided on m/d/y as there is absolutely no logic to it.
mikebartnz (21)
1236992 2011-10-13 02:47:00 One good reason would be so that you were in sinc with the rest of the world. But that isn't one of your strong points.:stare:

And another: being in sync with the rest. :D
WalOne (4202)
1236993 2011-10-13 02:47:00 I think everyone should use Y/M/D. Makes it easier for sorting in my view. Snorkbox (15764)
1236994 2011-10-13 02:49:00 I think everyone should use Y/M/D. Makes it easier for sorting in my view.

Agreed, with the rest of the date/time group added on: hours/minutes/seconds. I think it's some agreed standard already.
WalOne (4202)
1236995 2011-10-13 03:32:00 I think everyone should use Y/M/D. Makes it easier for sorting in my view.Score one for the Japanese! Tony (4941)
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