[Rq-rules] Conversions and origins

[Paul Cardwell]

Actually I said it, not Fred.  You are quite right
about the old obstacle to metric cars, but it was
aimed primarily at the VW beetle as there were few
Japanese cars imported at that time.

The car is a good example of how metrication will come
to the US.  Now all US cars are metric, there just
wasn't any fanfare to get the jingoists upset, they
just changed over.  Likewise, the standard large soda
pop is two litres, not a half gallon.  The "five
quart" ice cream bucket is made from obsolete imperial
gallow molds from Canada.  Etc.

Paul Cardwell


--- Styopa <styopa1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sven:
> "Their steps were a lot shorter than ours, with them
> being what, about 5'
> typically? "
> Actually, I meant them=the Romans themselves, not
> their steps.  :)
> 
> Fred:
> I would only add to Fred's comments that, as he
> said, the US *IS* officially
> metric, it's just that "officially" means a lot less
> in the US than it does
> in the old world - I think non-US readers forget
> that.  The US gov't has
> neither the means, the authority, nor the
> inclination to force people to
> metrify.  So people go with what they are
> comfortable with which here,
> traditionally, is the imperial system(s).
> The states could do it individually (and in fact I'm
> a little surprised
> California hasn't), but the hue & cry from their
> merchants would be so
> deafening that the value would be lost.
> I remember that was one of the largest barriers to
> the penetration of
> (superior) Japanese cars into the US market through
> the 70's & 80's...if I
> break down in West Nowhere, Idaho, where do I find
> metric tools/parts?  I
> bet that slowed sales here for 10+ years.
> 
> When people see the utility, they'll switch.  But
> trying to tell them that
> ordering a kilo of meat from the butcher is somehow
> intrinsically 'better'
> than ordering 2 lbs?  Well...that's as conceited as
> trying to tell them whom
> they should vote for in a Presidential election. 
> Naturally contrarian
> Americans are likely as not just to do the opposite
> of what's suggested, in
> pure reaction against the audacity of the suggestion
> in the first place.
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> 



       
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