wrote in message
...
On Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:47:10 GMT, "William R Thompson"
wrote:

I could go on, but I won't. I am the only person in the world
completly happy with both systems, and who thinks they are both
equally screwed up.

Henry H.



We all understand the difficulty of migrating from one system to another.

Australia's change to metrics started on the 14th Feb '66 with the change to
decimal currency - dollars and cents. All Aussies over 45 can still
remember the TV jingle. A currency based on multiples of 10 makes more
sense than one based on 12s (unless your family tree doesn't branch)
Once that was achieved, switching to Celsius from Farneheit in the mid '70s
wasn't such of a chore.

At one point, for a couple of years in the early '80s, as I recall, it was
illegal to posess for sale rulers with imperial units on them. It was
a ridiculous and draconian measure - but effective in getting some of the
older farts to consider using metric units.

Road signs and speeds followed next, closely followed by weights and
measures in general. All up, the conversion for the general public
was completed by the mid '80s, I'd imagine it was completed a lot faster in
specialist industries.


One thing that I find quirky with the US metric experience is your parochial
spelling of metric units. Whereas the rest of the world has adopted
the original spelling of Litre, Metre etc, why does the US prefer to use
the 'er spelling ?




--

Cheers

Dave Kearton