Date:         Tue, 14 Dec 1999 18:51:13 -0600
Reply-To:     Joel Walker <jwalker@URONRAMP.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <jwalker@URONRAMP.NET>
Subject:      Re: vanagon Digest - 14 Dec 1999 - Special issue
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

> >The silliest thing of all is that the US still does not use metric.
> >
> Excusse meee....
> We do use metric...
>
> It fills up the other side of the ruler. It's on almost every package of
> anything sold in the US. We just don't rely upon it.
> At least our gallons are the correct size.

what i've never understood about all this is: it's all just names ...
quarts, liters, miles, kilometers. big deal.
so why not redo the names for the English side of things if people are so
uncomfortable with the metric stuff?
like a liter is just about a quart. so we rename a liter to be a "quart" and
now a gallon is 4 liters/quarts. simple. :)
only problem is, old recipes and documents and plans. :(

the way i'd do it is:
   Capacity
New Fluidounce (nFluidounce) = 50 milliliters (about twice as big as a
current sae fluidounce)
New Pint (nPint) = 10 nFluidounces = 0.5 liter (a tad bigger than a current
pint)
New Quart (nQuart) = 2 nPints = 1 liter. (just a tad bigger than a current
quart)
New Gallon (nGallon) = 4 nQuarts =  4 liters. (just a tad bigger than a
current gallon)
  or make it 5 liters. i'm not picky. ;)

    Weight
New Ounce (noz or nOunce) = 20 grams. (a tad smaller than a current ounce)
New Pound (nlb or nPound) =  100 noz = 2 kilograms.(a couple of tenths
smaller than a current pound)

    Length
New Inch (nInch) = 25 millimeters (0.4 shorter than a current inch)
New Foot (nFoot) = 10 New Inches = 250 millimeters
New Yard (nYard) = 40 New Inches = 4 New Feet = 1 meter
New Mile (nMile) = 8000 New Feet = 2000 New Yards = 2 kilometers

and so forth. this would put us on a metric basis, but with the old common
names for just about the same size/lengths. etc. if the UK can do it with
their money, why can't we do it with our rulers! :)

but it'll never happen. :) engineers and such love the sae system cause
there are so many factors that cancel out with all the 60's (in times) and
12's (in length) and so forth. hell, i'd like to have 20 hours a day (so any
2-digit time was in the "afternoon") with 100 minutes per hour and 100
seconds per minute. :)

but it's still all just definitions. like one fellow i knew who used to talk
about his car going "furlongs per fortnights". ;)

and then i'd want to work on getting all the countries driving on the same
side of the road, so all the car makers could just make one version of the
steering ...!!!

unca joel
(is it friday YET!??)