"Ed Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
>
> "pat" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Pennyaline wrote:
>>>James Silverton wrote:
>>>>Well, I won't hold onto my hat since theMetric systemhas been *legal*
>>>>here for about a century. I'd also forgotten what was a "Chopine" :-)
>>>
>>>It may be legal, young fella, but it isn't American!
>>
>> There are US laws that forbid metrication. US Federal law (the FPLA,
>> for example) forbids metric-only labels on most prepackaged things you
>> see in the supermarket.
>
> Probably because too many people would not know how to easily do the
> conversion or think in metric terms. Bacon has always been a pound and
> thus will remain so, or something like that. 500 grams or a half kilo
> would make their brain hurt.
>
> The two reasons I've always run into is a large percentage just don't want
> to change and are afraid, another big group thinks the US system is
> superior, just because it is the US system. We are in a world economy,
> like it or not, and if we used metric, it would be easier for our country
> to deal wit the rest of the world. The Hubble telescope would not have
> been screwed up.
>
> I've been using metric at work for 20 years now. It is easy and sensible,
> and the choice of most everyone there now that they've used it.
>
The key obstacle is with interpolation, it's impossible for anyone to
interpolate acurately between different measuring systems. Once one has
been exposed to a particular measurement system from birth all others will
forever be foreign. You may use metric (we all do to a degree) but you use
it the same way say native Spanish speaking folks learn English as a second
language... metric will never become as second nature for you as English
measurement. If your car's speedometer wasn't marked side by side in MPH
and KPH there'd be no way you could come close to estimating your KPH, but
I'd bet you could tell even before looking that you're doing 60MPH in a
55MPH zone.. your toe would be easing off the gas even before you saw the
man in the big hat in your rear view mirror, and even though you realized he
wasn't gunning for anyone 5 miles over you'd be holding your breath till he
passed. Don't tell me you can go outdoors right now without looking at a
thermometer and guesstimate the temperature in Celsius, no friggin' way...
you'd be scratchin' your head screwin' up your eyes, and even though you can
come within 5º F you'd need to go look for a conversion table. Quick, how
many inches is a 27 mm wrench... I'm positive you'd have to look it up, or
at least calculate millimeters in your head. I happen to know that one
because I had to buy a 27 mm wrench for the bolt that holds on my big mower
blades... it's nearly 1 1/16" but not quite. I've used all kinds of metric
tools for more than 40 years but still need to double check... I can eyeball
a 1/4"-20 Allen screw at 20 feet but I will always need to measure metric
hardware. I can slice 1 pound of balogna +/- one slice just by heft in my
hand, but the closest I can interpolate a Kilo of balogna is to figure near
abouts the heft of a 36 C cup. LOL