I did a bit of surfing today and looked at some of the issues facing Puerto Rico. Of particular interest, there is a substantial lobby who would like the island to become the 51st state. At the same time it appears that their land measure is entirely metric (the hectare having been introduced by the Spanish), road distances are in kilometres, but speed linits are in mph.
Any comments about Puerto Rico's use of metric units and their implication on statehood from our American posters? [BTW, I have tried to be neutral about other issues regarding statehood as this is not the place to discuss them] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Elwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 11:43 PM Subject: [USMA:37143] metric road signs > Just returned from a 4500 km road trip. Found a number of road signs > with metric equivalents where I did not expect to see them: > > steamboat.jpg -- all the speed signs in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, > had metric equivalents. Nice conversions too (all to rounded 5 km/h). > > rapid.jpg -- some distance and speed signs in Rapid City, South > Dakota. I thought I took a picture of a speed sign there, but > apparently I deleted it. Not all signs had metric equivalents, but some did. > > buffalo.jpg -- Buffalo Gap national grassland, east of Rapid City. As > above, not all signs had metric equivalents, but some did. > > BTW -- if you ever get to Bozeman, Montana, stop in and see the > American Computer Museum. I was expecting some pretty rinky-dink > stuff, given the location, but it is very impressive. Apparently some > wealthy guy likes living up there, and so that's where he made his > museum. Includes original books and leafs from books hundreds of > years old, such as Newton's Principia, 13th Century bible, etc. Web > site has some of the items on display, as well as why it is in Montana. > > www.compustory.com > > Jim > > > Jim Elwell, CAMS > Electrical Engineer > Industrial manufacturing manager > Salt Lake City, Utah, USA > www.qsicorp.com >
