"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
...
Don Stauffer wrote:
Mungo Bulge wrote:


Now I know this off-hand comment was made in good humour, so I make my
comment in the same atmosphere of good humour and without malice of
intent. It always amuses me when our good neighbours to the south
(yes, I too live in the land of metric) make an off hand comment about
the metric system, especially if they imply the "States" has no use
for it. The reason I find it amusing is that they will frequently
malign us for having recently (40 years) accepted the metric system
of measure.

Little known US history fact:

Standard of Length: -- In 1866, the United States, by act of Congress,
passed a law making the meter, the only measure of length that has
been legalized by the United States Government.

Keeping this in the metalworking topic- I am a retired physicist, and
did all my professional work in metric (most of it anyway). So I am
bilinqual- metric or Imperial.

I find the metric system slowly but surely
creeping into the electronics industry as
well. Many components are hard metric and
all the printed circuit board layout programs
can switch back and forth from imperial to
metric on the fly. Pity the fool that takes
a 100 pin hard metric part does a quick
conversion to inches of the pin-to-pin spacing
and uses that to layout the part.

I was absolutely shocked at the ease at which I converted to metric when I
refined precious metals. Not having previously worked at length with
volumes (very unlike linear measurements, where I'd spent my entire adult
life), I quickly adapted to liters. I can't help but think it's a far
better and easier system, providing you don't already have programming.
It's hard to abandon old ways, and gets even harder as we age. Or should I
be speaking for only myself? g

Harold