Pat, I am relieved to hear that centimeters are "good enough for sheep stools." :)
Rest assured the primary data is in millimeters, and the other units are only to simplify area and volume calculations. ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010 11:37:10 PM Subject: [USMA:47684] Re: Metric motors in the USA Dear John, And this is my last response to you – for today. On 2010/06/11, at 11:48 , John M. Steele wrote: > >Cars are designed in millimeters, Pat, and engineering drawings are in >millimeters. We converted 35+ years ago. It is hard to delay the past. I am aware of that. In Geelong, we are a Ford manufacturing centre. I well recall the metrication of the car industry in the 1970s as part of what was then described as 'the world car' concept where parts could be sourced from any country for construction in any other country because they were all metric designs and metric parts. However, as a "conversion trick," it is handy to convert to decimeters. When you cube them, you get liters. >>Anyway, the use of a prefix does not make a new unit, it is just an alternate >>form of of scientific notation. >>You may of course, cube millimeters, but then you have to divide by 10^6 to >>get liters. There are advantages to shifting to a prefix that when cubed >>results in the volume units you want, you are usually dealing with smaller, >>more manageable numbers, especially if not using a calculator. I use this technique too. For example when I am in a pub in the UK and I order a beer it often arrives in a 'pint' glass that is only a pint if filled to the brim of the glass. For my own amusement I measure how far short of a pint is the actual content of the beer. For this I estimate the diameter of the glass in centimetres to calculate the area of the top of the glass (say 8 cm hence 8 x8 x 0.8 = 51.2 cm^2 ~ 50 cm^2), then estimate the depth of the head of froth (say 15 mm - 1.5 cm), which works out to be about 75 cubic centimetres that I then convert to 75 millilitres. And this is the amount that I have been short changed by the pub. By the way, following this calculation I then rapidly take a large swallow of the beer to wash the taste of centimetres out of my mouth! Actually, I have used centimetres for three purposes in the last 40 years: 1Beer estimates, as above. 2Calculating the water in a small aquarium. 3Estimating the size of sheep faecal stools when I was working in wool research – the method is much the same as the one used for beer. I chose that form to demonstrate that it comes from the linear conversion (applied three times) and is exact if you carry the math far enough. >>You can of course say 0.016 387 L/in³ and wonder where to round. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe. From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> >To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> >Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010 9:19:29 PM >Subject: [USMA:47666] Re: Metric motors in the USA > > >On 2010/06/10, at 20:11 , John M. Steele wrote: >> >>He doesn't get much sympathy in the comments. >>> >>>One "fact" he has wrong. The auto industry wasn't targetted. The Big Three >>>CHOSE to go metric in the early 70's, mostly because of their foreign >>>operations. We drove our suppliers including the steel industry. The steel >>>industry claimed to Congress that the cost of conversion would be >>>astronomical. When GM said they were buying metric sizes, the industry said >>>"what sizes would you like, sir." The rest of us followed in their wake. >>>No other industry supplying us put up much of a fight. >>> >>>However, I will freely admit that if it really sold more cars, we would be >>>glad to divide the engine displacement by (0.254 dm/in)³. I'm not sure why >>>we prefer liters and the European industry prefers cubic centimeters. >>> >>>I hope the author doesn't think engine displacement is the only thing metric >>>on the car. :) > > >Dear John, > > >I have a few responses for you today – this is the first. > > >Let me first of all assure you – based on our experience in Australia – that >your support (promotion) of the decimetre will delay metrication in your work >group, your company, your industry, and your nation dramatically. I know that >it is a legitimate part of the SI and that it has some advantages with respect >to aspects of accuracy and precision, but from our actual factory and workshop >experience it slows down the social processes that are so important to >metrication. > > >I suspect that the reason Europeans prefer centimetre based units is because >they have had the time necessary to adjust to them – typically between 100 and >200 years from my observations. I am pointing this out (not because I wish to >encourage a raft of diatribes about centimetres with conjectures about what >good things they are?) but because I really don't think that it is your goal >yo slow the process of metrication as much as you can. > > >With respect to the anonymous author, I doubt that he or she has any idea of >how many parts go into designing and making a car (say 10 000) and and how >many all metric measurements are involved in making these parts (about 100 >000). > > >Cheers, > >Pat Naughtin >Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders >Guide, seehttp://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html >Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY >PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, >Geelong, Australia >Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 > > >Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped >thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric >system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands >each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat >provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and >professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in >Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, >Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the >USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe. > >From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> >>To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu> >>Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010 2:58:54 AM >>Subject: [USMA:47631] Metric motors in the USA >> >>Dear All, >> >> >>This item from USAToday might interst >>you: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/06/metric-madness-how-automakers-refuse-to-give-it-up/1 >> >> >>Cheers, >> >>Pat Naughtin >>Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders >>Guide, seehttp://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html >>Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY >>PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, >>Geelong, Australia >>Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 >> >> >>Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped >>thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric >>system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands >>each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat >>provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and >>professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in >>Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian >>Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the >>UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe. >> >> > >
