[time-nuts] time-nuts Digest, Vol 89, Issue 51

[Dan Kemppainen]

On 12/14/2011 3:59 PM, time-nuts-request at febo.com wrote:
> It's not like metric is totally absent.  We drink 2 liter cokes and defend
> ourselves with 9mm pistols.   Our cars use mostly metric parts.  Even ham
> radio operators, arguably the most jingoistic and set in the past bunch
> around, get on the 80, 40, and 20 METER bands.

I agree with you, and funnily enough the rest of the NATO world uses 
7.62mm and 5.56mm rifles. (Both were originally based on standard inch 
sized rifle cartridges designed in the US)

The problem in converting to metric would require replacing a lot of 
tools. For example Mills, lathes, and other machining tools and 
measurement devices are expensive, and last for decades. I doubt many 
of the small tool shops around here could afford it.It's a great idea 
to standardize in theory, but in practice it becomes difficult. Maybe 
the whole world should standardize our language. We could all switch 
to Spanish or Latin or Chinese to speak with so we could all talk with 
each other. That would probably be more helpful to me on a daily 
basis, than having to switch measurement systems.

While we're on the subject, let me throw time back into the mix. We 
use months and days for scheduling projects. Meanwhile some of our 
counterparts use calendar weeks. This is much more difficult to 
convert between than inch and mm. When is CW 36???

There I threw some wood on the fire too!

Dan