It is interesting to note the orders Boeing (inch-pound design) is losing to Airbus (metric design). Even from such stalwarts as Japan Air Lines, which just made a huge A350 order. I wonder how many of the Boeing 787 problems are due to forcing the foreign suppliers to manufacture in inchpound, and how many are just because of engineering incompetence.
Carleton From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [mailto:owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf Of j...@frewston.plus.com Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 14:45 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:53325] RE: Presenting the metric system to the innumerate One of the things that should be a worry to Americans (and indeed even to us in the UK, even though we are far more metricated than the US) is the fact that, unlike as little as 20 years ago, what were once called third world nations are catching up – fast. Ecommerce, the internet, and new centres of excellence in places like Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and even Manila mean that the trading world no longer needs to rely on the US, the UK or even Europe for much of its technical knowhow. Certainly some things will always remain very advanced in the ‘old world’ – civil and military aircraft for one, where the expertise and knowledge built up by Airbus and Boeing will be hard to catch up to (as even China and Japan are finding out, as evidenced by the delays in rolling out their own regional jet programs intended to take on the Airbus A320neo and the Boeing 737Max). But for most of everything else, the playing field is becoming ever more level, and we in the old world had better watch out. All this new way of working in the world will be conducted in the metric system. If you are not there with them, expect to get left behind. John F-L From: Kilopascal <mailto:kilopas...@cox.net> Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 6:43 PM To: U.S. Metric Association <mailto:usma@colostate.edu> Subject: [USMA:53324] RE: Presenting the metric system to the innumerate Yet, I’m sure even a realistic example like this would not be enough to convince anyone of those people to learn and use the metric system. Am I right? It is far easier for them to act dumb or find someone else to figure it out then to learn to do it themselves. And we all wonder in awe why Americans, both children and adults, end up on the bottom of the list of people from around the world when it comes to solving simple problems like this. It is understandable in third-world despot nations where education is a privilege of the rich, but not in a country where everyone is supposedly required to go to school. What good is an education where nothing of value is learned? America’s mistakes are catching up to it and sooner than everyone thinks the good life will come to an end in the blink of an eye. Life is a survival of the smartest, not those who want to hold tight to the past. <http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=subject:%22%5BUSMA%3A53324%5D+RE%3A+Presenting+the+metric+system+to+the+innumerate%22> [USMA:53324] RE: Presenting the metric system to the innumerate <http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=from:%22Carleton+MacDonald%22> Carleton MacDonald Sun, 13 Oct 2013 10:20:12 -0700 <http://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=usma@colostate.edu&q=date:20131013> I’ve told this story before, but for those new on the list: Many years ago the company for which I work bought some ticket printers from IER, a French company. The tickets are thermally sensitive (no ink), and the thermal print head was a long-term consumable. The specifications said it was good for 100 km of tickets. This befuddled those working on the project, because to them a km was something only used to measure road distance, and then “not here” in the good old United States. Since they knew even then that I only work in metric, they came to me and asked me how many boxes of tickets that was. I said, “Give me a ruler. A real ruler, one with millimeters on it. And give me a ticket.” They did (both). I measured the ticket. It was, for all practical purposes, 200 mm. (OK, it was probably eight of what they called “inches”, but close enough for this purpose.) I thought for about 10 seconds, then said, “500 boxes.” “How did you get that?” “Simple. 200 mm per ticket, five to a meter. There are 1000 tickets in the box, so that’s 200 m of tickets per box. Five boxes is one km. 500 boxes is 100 km. Now, do that in your head using your favorite units of inches and miles: eight inches and a bit over 62 miles.” Silence. No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com> Version: 2014.0.4158 / Virus Database: 3614/6743 - Release Date: 10/11/13
