On 2009/03/15, at 5:56 AM, Victor Jockin wrote:
… The ill-fated
example of the DOT's attempt to enforce metric construction specs is
the
prime example (though that same department is principally
responsible for
the failure of US metrication because it declined to change road
signs when
it could have done so without further authorization).
Dear Victor,
Do you know if the DOTs attempted to go metric using centimetres?
This web page — http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/summer95/p95su14.htm —
indirectly suggests that the Federal Highway Administration intends to
use centimetres as they approach metrication. This is in their first
sentence. I suspect that the guillotine, being a precision instrument
of the 1790s would almost certainly been engineered to within a
millimetre — especially for the blade.
As you probably know, I have yet to see, or hear of, a successful
metrication transition using centimetres.
See http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/
centimetresORmillimetres.pdf for a long discussion of this issue.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
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
for more metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com
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