What exactly is this guy's problem with the metric system? He seems to know it
so it can't be unfamiliarity.
Did he work for a company that switched to metric and he opposed and they fired
him and now he is taking it out on the whole system?
Jerry
________________________________
From: Carleton MacDonald <carlet...@comcast.net>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 12:54:05 AM
Subject: [USMA:43256] Mistaken blather from a correspondent on another list
On a passenger railroad-oriented list to which I also belong, an article was
quoted which included mention of “kph”. I pointed this out, and received this
reply from another list member who in the past has espoused very conservative
opinions.
Fire away, all.
Carleton
From: all_abo...@yahoogroups.com OnBehalf Of abyler
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 22:47
To: all_abo...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [A_A] Full steam ahead for California bullet train
--- In all_abo...@yahoogroups.com,"Carleton MacDonald" wrote:
>
> Also, the speed is expressed incorrectly - it should be "350 km/h" -there
> is no such thing as a "kph"..
[his answer:]
Sure there is.
Its not like km/h is a normal SI measurement. The silly and useless
SI Metric system would insist on us using m/s.
kph is the colloquial Anglosphere abbreviation for kilmoeters per
hour.
Kilometers per hour is just a bastardized bending of metric system
rules to accomodate something like a traditional customary speed
measurement most people can relate to and actually use, just like the
metric "pound" (= 1/2kg); "livre" in France, "pfund" in
Germany, "pond" in the Netherlands and Flanders, "libra" in Iberia
and Italy, "jin" in China; and the metric "ton" (=1000 kg); the
metric cup (=250 mL); the metric teaspoon (=5 mL); the metric
horsepower (750 kgf-m/s).
See, that's the problem with the SI metric system compared to English
customary units which is based on normal and practical human
experience instead of esoteric physics. People cannot relate to the
true SI metric units for most applications, so they don't use them.
Just one more reason so many railways systems (and international
aviation and shipping and meterology) have stuck with English units
or older versions of metric where the units make more sense for
engineering purposes and practical thinking by human beings.
