At 09:03 AM 3 March 2002 -0800, Ma Be wrote: >Jim Elwell wrote: > > Good or bad, foreigners have very little effect on US metrication > policy, and don't > > vote in US elections. Nor was I addressing that issue in my comments -- > John, > > at least, is not a foreigner. > >Perhaps sadly so. And this is the kind of attitude that IMHO does not >help America in the end, at least as far as getting their agenda followed >or even respected by the world community.
I was not analyzing the effect, nor claiming it was good or bad. I was simply stating what I believe to be the fact. We'll debate its effect some other time. >I think that what John meant was that if you do not take a stand in favor >of metrication you're actually being against it because the status quo >continues!!! Who or how can anyone argue otherwise? This is exactly the point I think is so wrong, and so detrimental to our efforts. And I find it hard to believe you would adopt this logic, Marcus. Apply it to any of a jillion other questions: if someone has never heard of the Christian gospel, and therefore does not actively proselytize it, is he anti-Christian? Or, as my other email stated: if someone does not speak French, is he automatically anti-French? >...If despite your company being fully metric you don't see more >individuals coming forth in defense of the SI system, then I'm afraid >something must be majorly wrong somewhere. And on this, please forgive me >for saying, it seems very difficult to justify it in any other way than >that there may be some innate or natural averseness against the SI system >among your citizenry! I honestly cannot believe that people can really >NOT speak in favor of the SI system once they learn and use it unless >they're naturally biased! Sorry, Marcus, but I'm going to play a "John" here and accuse you of living in an ivory tower. Do you have any idea how few people anywhere (not just in the USA) give much thought to the measurement system they use? It simply is not that big of deal to most people anywhere in the world! To think that **anything** will get most people active in metrication (or anti-metrication, for that matter) is just plain naive. Most people are far more worried about paying their bills, cleaning their house, taking a vacation, getting laid (sorry!), putting braces on their kid, and a million other normal life activities. Measurement is just NOT a big part of most people's lives, and anyone who thinks that will ever change is in for a huge disappointment. And, as noted above, I apply this to the anti-metricationists as well: if they think they can get a large percentage of the American population rising up in arms over metrication, they are going to be sorely disappointed. It ain't going to happen! >What I mean is, if they're exposed *professionally* to the system, i.e. >they must use it at their place of work, how can they NOT see the benefits >of its use??? You said that they are: either scared of it or wonder if >there is real benefit (reason) for learning it.... >Honestly, scared of WHAT??? Marcus, do you never deal with people who have limited education? People to whom the word "math" sends them into spasms of fear? People with little or no self-confidence in their own abilities? Well, there are a lot of those people in the world, and they hold jobs such as janitor, assembler, warehouse stock clerk, etc. And the metric system scares a lot of them, because they think it is hard and it will make them look stupid. It is a problem I have learned how to deal with to some degree, but it will not go away as long as it is something they have to learn as adults. >How can ANYONE (for that matter) not see a reason for learning it >specially considering the undeniable fact that it is used everywhere else >in the world??? Gee, am I missing something here, Jim? Please, help me >understand this. Same as above, Marcus: a large part of the population (everywhere in the world, not just the USA) spends their lives earning a paycheck so they can go fishing or camping, or buy that new hot rod, or whatever. They are not much concerned with what happens in the world if it does not affect them. Metrication is only slowly affecting most of these types of people in America. For example, most everyone is comfortable with the 2 liter bottle, because it has been around for lots of years. But are they going to rise up in arms because metric is so much more sensible, or because people in other countries use it? No. >Perhaps you could help fix this by being more "proactive" in your training >and use sections. People in the US MUST be made to REALLY **understand >and experience** in practical terms the benefits of the SI system, >otherwise, why bother? I am as proactive as the circumstances call for. I KNOW I cannot get most people to become active metricationists. If I can get them over their fear, and get them comfortable with using metric when it appears in their life, then I will have succeeded. The portion of society that can really get excited are the engineers, scientists, academics maybe some in the medical profession (doctors, nurses, technicians). Do not ever expect proselytizing from the masses -- it is not in the cards. But that does not have to be discouraging either: metrication will happen because the people who do not care about it also are not the movers and shakers who can make things happen. Those who "make things happen" (a far, far smaller number) are the only ones we need to convert to active pro-metricationists. >Secondly, I'd be really curious to learn about such 'progress' you talk >about in the electronic industry. Why? Well, most units of measurements >in electrical/electronic industries *already* are in metric! What else, >besides dimensions of chips and whatnot what there be to >metricate? Besides, I've heard somewhere that actually the industry has >apparently gone back to the stupid 0.1" cell crap when dimensioning boards! Most electrical measurements have always been metric, but the mechanical aspects of electronics certainly have not until recently. Anyone who goes back to 0.1" spacing on PC boards is loony. Essentially all new component packages are hard metric. Most new connectors are hard metric. Pin spacings are now in 1.0 or 0.8 or 0.5 mm. Same goes for ball grid arrays. Component drawings we get from essentially all non-American companies, and a number of American companies, no longer have any colloquial equivalents on them. This is all different from just 10 years ago. When we designed our largest selling product in 1990 (still in production), we had to work hard to find an appropriate 6-pin metric connector. We selected an import-only 2 mm connector. Now, 2 mm is very common, and finer pin spacings are almost exclusively metric. Also, 10 years ago most foreign companies provided colloquial equivalents on their component drawings -- as noted above, that is no longer the case. This is not to say that there have been no regressions in this field. I am sure there have, although none come to mind. Overall, though, it is clear that electronics manufacturing is metricating. Jim Elwell
