The good ol' hectare could be quite useful in the UK; just tell people
it is an area equivalent to a square about 5 cricket pitches on each
side.
Gustaf Sjöberg wrote:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Re: metric and huge numbers of tiny meaningless quantities
> Date: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 19:07:38 +0100
> From: Gustaf Sjöberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> References: <v01510100b6c960ad9354@[154.20.74.46]>
>
> > >Dear Joe,
> > >
> > >People are, and have always been comfortable with mountain heights - up to
> > >29,012 feet, flight details that includes heights such as 35,000 feet, and
> > >ocean depths such as 20,000 Leagues.
> > >
> > >To say that they are now uncomfortable with large numbers (because they are
> > >associated with SI) is an obvious, ill-considered untruth, and should be
> > >treated as such.
>
> This is a human nature thing.
> 35000 feet Is a long distance, and so is 20000 leagues.
> Those big numbers feel natural and logic. That's why they have been accepted.
> 200 mL is not a big volume and 200 mm is not a long distance. 200 g is not a
> heavy weight either.
> That is one of the reasons to make it 20 cL and 20 cm. It better falls in line
> with the nature of human mind.
> Why do you think people always use percents instead of promilles?
> Following strict SI you should say that american industry is about 400 promille
> metricated...
