Well said, my thoughts too. Lets concentrate on conversion issues that can make sense to the general public. Telling them they have to go metric and on top of that now have to plan trips in meters per second vs. something more akin to what they are used to would be more of a disaster than a help. Golf and football in the US will still be in yards no matter how metric we are. --
"Go for a Metric America" Howard Ressel Project Design Engineer, Region 4 (585) 272-3372 >>> On 7/15/2009 at 9:29 AM, in message <70909.56827...@web82401.mail.mud.yahoo.com>, "John M. Steele" <jmsteele9...@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > I believe the reverse is true. I believe the SI Brochure has embraced the > idea that certain commercial situations and everyday life are so committed to > some special units that it is senseless to attempt change. These include the > liter, metric ton, hectare, minute, hour, and day (they did kiss the stere > goodbye). > > We should not change for change's sake, we should change to solve problems. > So, before we can discuss change, can we define the "problem" of people using > km/h in everyday life? It seems like it is . . . ., Well, what is it? I > don't know. > > Engineers need to know they need pure base units for calculation, but they > already know this. In everyday life, few people do such calculations. > Mostly, they want an estimate of how long it will take to get somewhere. > While they could probably convert the kilometers to meters, they frankly > don't want the answer in seconds (except possibly in a race). > > Cars haven't been around the whole time, but in over 200 years, metric > countries seem to have gravitated universally towards kilometers per hour for > boats, trains, cars, planes, and no country sets m/s speed limits or marks > speedometers thusly. In countries not already metric, such a proposal would > simply add to any existing "the metric system is inconvenient" sentiment. I > don't think it would be well-received in metric countries either. Why rock > the boat? > > --- On Tue, 7/14/09, Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> wrote: > > > From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com> > Subject: [USMA:45365] Speed in metres per second > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> > Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 8:47 PM > > > > > > > > > > > > I wonder if we will ever be ready to embrace the idea of using the SI unit, > metres per second, for speed in everyday conversations.
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