US going metric?

"Mark Hewitt" wrote in message
...
"Miguel Cruz" wrote in message
...
me wrote:
In European supermarkets, things are quite often priced per 100g - which
is
about a quarter pound. So you're not alone.

Pick'n'Mix sweets in the UK used to be priced per quarter, which is about
113g. Following the changeover they are now priced per 100g. However the
price didn't go down to compensate! They counted on people not actually
knowing that one quarter was 113g and actually put the price up!

It's amazing how many people can't just buy 100g of sweets tho. Even when
you explain to them, 1 quarter equals 113g so your getting 100g. They
dismiss it immediately and ask for a quarter!

That's part of the problem is that many are not even prepared to *try* to
understand. They say straight away "oh I don't understand all this metric
stuff", when if they just gave even 5 minutes of their life to find out how
it all works, things would be a lot easier.


It seems many people won't take the time to learn things that don't interest
them even if it saves them time and makes life easier in the long run. I
remember trying to explain to my Grandmother that she didn't need to put the
cordless phone back on the after each usage - that she could just turn it off
and keep it by her rocking chair until the next time it rang - that's why we
bought it for her. She didn't want to go to the trouble to learn to push the
ON/OFF button, but would rather walk back into the dining room and "hang it
up" because she understood that. KM
--
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Mark Hewitt wrote:
Well it certainly must be catching on in the UK. I know all about A4, A3
etc.. but I've never heard of a "US letter size".

Find any normal sheet of paper you've received by mail from the US or
brought back with you from a trip. Compare it to a sheet procured locally,
and you'll see that the US one is slightly shorter and fatter.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

Mark Hewitt wrote:
Countries with more extensive road systems, e.g. UK, Australia then a
changeover is all but impossible. In the UK for example so much work would
need to be done to so much of the road that we would probably need to shut
down the entire road network for a year and spend billions of pounds just to
get the job done. Not to mention the amount of people killed due to the
confusion.

In Sweden, interestingly, the road death rate went way down after the
switchover (and rose back to normal levels over the coming years). This was
attributed, sensibly enough I guess, to the extra care that everyone exerted
while they were unfamiliar with the new setup.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

"jj" wrote in message ...
I'm curious, has there ever been an attempt at going metric in the US? e.g.
using Celsius? How do people feel about it?

jj

YES, about 20 years ago there was a movement toward metric,
strongly advocated by mathematicians and scientists.
In some locations, in national parks, distance signs were
put up with both miles and kilometers, but Americans were
too dumb to figure it out.
Eventually it was abandoned.
There are a few metrics. Liquor and wine is usually
metric. Many other products have the metric equivalent
in small type for those who want it.
But the US is still bacisally English measurements.

(Gene Nygaard) wrote in message . com...
(me) wrote in message . com...
Mike@com (Mike Groves) wrote in message ...
What about paper sizes?

Are A4, A3 etc. catching on?

So much easier than US Letter size. A3 is half of A2, A4 is half of
A3, A5 is half of A4 etc., etc.

Mike

um, A sheet (letter) is half of B, two B's make a C etc.
An E sheet is 34 x 44, do the math.

You do the math.

That's only half the story, and it only works for those of you who use
plotters that can handle big sheets, not the things we use on our
normal home printers. Doesn't apply to 3x5 and 4x6 and 5x8 index
cards, for example.

But suppose you try to scale up from one of your A sheets to a B
sheet? What happens? Doesn't fit very well, does it.

Ratio of the sides for plotter paper

A sheet 11/8.5 1.294
B sheet 17/11 1.545
C sheet 22/17 1.294
etc.

Going all the way from A to C will work fine, but going from A to B
doesn't work so good.

However, for the metric A series (and for ISO B series, not that
goofball Japanese B series) you have the ratio between the sides as a
constant 1.414, or the square root of 2.

Or try to figure out how many sheets of D plotter paper will cover 200
square feet. Then figure out how many sheets of A1 paper will cover
20 square meters. I can do the latter in my head pretty easily.

Gene Nygaard

Must be very useful for 0.1% of the population, 1% of the time they use paper.

It seems to me I heard somewhere that Miguel Cruz wrote in article
:

Mark Hewitt wrote:
Well it certainly must be catching on in the UK. I know all about A4, A3
etc.. but I've never heard of a "US letter size".

Find any normal sheet of paper you've received by mail from the US or
brought back with you from a trip. Compare it to a sheet procured locally,
and you'll see that the US one is slightly shorter and fatter.

Standard US size in business use is 8 1/2" x 11". Traditional "legal"
size is 8 1/2" x 14", though there's been some movement toward the
standard size. US government (at least military) paper is roughly 1/2"
smaller in both dimensions, or at least was when I was putting in my
years.
--
Don

Don Kirkman wrote:
Miguel Cruz wrote:
Find any normal sheet of paper you've received by mail from the US or
brought back with you from a trip. Compare it to a sheet procured
locally, and you'll see that the US one is slightly shorter and fatter.

Standard US size in business use is 8 1/2" x 11". Traditional "legal"
size is 8 1/2" x 14", though there's been some movement toward the
standard size. US government (at least military) paper is roughly 1/2"
smaller in both dimensions, or at least was when I was putting in my
years.

I've worked with but never directly for the military, but I've never seen
that smaller paper. Maybe they realized they could save a whole lot of money
by using the standard stuff, or maybe they just didn't let plebes such as
myself near the small sheets.

The civilian federal government uses normal paper, at least in the three
agencies I've worked for.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 06:46:01 GMT, (Miguel Cruz)
wrote:

Don Kirkman wrote:
Miguel Cruz wrote:
Find any normal sheet of paper you've received by mail from the US or
brought back with you from a trip. Compare it to a sheet procured
locally, and you'll see that the US one is slightly shorter and fatter.

Standard US size in business use is 8 1/2" x 11". Traditional "legal"
size is 8 1/2" x 14", though there's been some movement toward the
standard size. US government (at least military) paper is roughly 1/2"
smaller in both dimensions, or at least was when I was putting in my
years.

I've worked with but never directly for the military, but I've never seen
that smaller paper. Maybe they realized they could save a whole lot of money
by using the standard stuff, or maybe they just didn't let plebes such as
myself near the small sheets.

The civilian federal government uses normal paper, at least in the three
agencies I've worked for.

My orders releasing me from the Army in 1963, as well as my form
DD-214, were smaller than 8.5 x 11.


************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

It seems to me I heard somewhere that Hatunen wrote in article
:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 06:46:01 GMT, (Miguel Cruz)
wrote:

Don Kirkman wrote:
Miguel Cruz wrote:
Find any normal sheet of paper you've received by mail from the US or
brought back with you from a trip. Compare it to a sheet procured
locally, and you'll see that the US one is slightly shorter and fatter.

Standard US size in business use is 8 1/2" x 11". Traditional "legal"
size is 8 1/2" x 14", though there's been some movement toward the
standard size. US government (at least military) paper is roughly 1/2"
smaller in both dimensions, or at least was when I was putting in my
years.

I've worked with but never directly for the military, but I've never seen
that smaller paper. Maybe they realized they could save a whole lot of money
by using the standard stuff, or maybe they just didn't let plebes such as
myself near the small sheets.

The civilian federal government uses normal paper, at least in the three
agencies I've worked for.

My orders releasing me from the Army in 1963, as well as my form
DD-214, were smaller than 8.5 x 11.

You guys have driven me to dig out some of my own. My DD-214 from 1953
measures 8" x 10.5". I ended my service career as head clerk in an
office, so I was well acquainted with military standard as of that time.

My certificate of marriage (Foreign Service Form 87) from 1952 is just a
tad smaller than that, very nearly 20 x 26.5 cm--however, this is a
printed form and not standard office stationery.
--
Don

Chris the Liberal wrote:
In some locations, in national parks, distance signs were
put up with both miles and kilometers, but Americans were
too dumb to figure it out.

So Chris, are you maligning *all* Liberals, or just yourself? Nex