Metric musings
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Sure, I bet Toyota, Nissan, Honda, etc. are... :-D :-D An expert is somebody who learns more and more about less and less, until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
Lots (All, perhaps?) of the bolts on my Saturn are metric
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I'm pretty sure European Ford (GM, DaimlerChrysler) models are designed and built with metric components too. I wonder if that's a factor in why the North America Focus is much less reliable than the European model it's derived from. It's probably just build and component quality. The UK model costs about 2x the US list price (I saw models advertised under $10,000 when I was there in September - the UK model starts at around £10,000). Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
That is just generally because motor dealers in the UK rip everyone off. Although it is getting better. About 5 years ago it was cheaper to fly out to the Netherlands or Spain and buy a car there and then drive it home.
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That is just generally because motor dealers in the UK rip everyone off. Although it is getting better. About 5 years ago it was cheaper to fly out to the Netherlands or Spain and buy a car there and then drive it home.
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Would you get some sort of penalty tax on the car for doing so? Or could you "import" a car as you describe without any grief from the UK gov't?
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I'm pretty sure European Ford (GM, DaimlerChrysler) models are designed and built with metric components too. I wonder if that's a factor in why the North America Focus is much less reliable than the European model it's derived from. It's probably just build and component quality. The UK model costs about 2x the US list price (I saw models advertised under $10,000 when I was there in September - the UK model starts at around £10,000). Stability. What an interesting concept. -- Chris Maunder
Mike Dimmick wrote: I'm pretty sure European Ford (GM, DaimlerChrysler) models are designed and built with metric components too. I have not seen/used anything but metric sockets and wrenches in the domestric cars I deal with. Even my mower and ATV are metric.
"Opinions are neither right nor wrong. I cannot change your opinion. I can, however, change what influences your opinion." - David Crow
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The reasons that every has come up with make a great deal of sense. So with those in mind, sounds like the US most likely will never convert over to metric. OK, I'll bite, I don't remember the conversion and I'm too lazy to google it. How many pounds to a stone? :-O blueSprite:rose:
1 Stone = 13.99 pounds (I also erred in pluralizing stone; it's never plural when used as weight.) Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke
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- If we wanted to use tenths of anything, it would be inches, feet, and miles. 2) Someone high up in the government decided it wouldcost too much to convert all of the rulers and street signs. 3) The French use metric, so we'll be damned if we're gonna do it. 4) Nobody's been able to come up with a viable metric alphabet. 5) All measurements in space are still meausered in miles (or light years). Where the hell do we get a metric light year from? 6) Metric measurements screwed up one of the Mars landers because the altitude on foreign bodies is measured in miles. We're not gonna loose any more landers because of some fairie measuring system ever again. :) ------- sig starts "I've heard some drivers saying, 'We're going too fast here...'. If you're not here to race, go the hell home - don't come here and grumble about going too fast. Why don't you tie a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt "...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: 5) All measurements in space are still meausered in miles (or light years). Where the hell do we get a metric light year from Try the AU - nope couldn't use that or the down unders will get uppity. Not to mention how hard it would be to get Bubba down at the garage to give up his 3/4 inch socket set:) Richard "Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer --Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
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>No one's height is ever given in centimeters Same here strangely. Everything is metric here except height. Even weight is metric (good god I get frustrated changing my weight from kilograms to lb for some imported systems). Canada sounds darned confusing though. regards, Paul Watson South Africa The Code Project Pope Pius II said "The only prescription is more cowbell. "
Paul Watson wrote: Even weight is metric (good god I get frustrated changing my weight from kilograms to lb for some imported systems). If you are into the puglistic arts try figuring out why the English still give a fighters weight in stones." And heres Jow Blow weighing in at 15 stone 7 and 1/3 lbs". Richard "Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer --Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)
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I was reading another post where temperatures were being discussed... some on degrees Fahrenheight, others in degrees Celsius... this started me wondering - whatever happened to the U.S. push towards the metric system? In the US while I was in grade school, I had been taught all about it, and about the conversions from the "other" systems to metric. (Gotta love the degree conversion formulae!) It was the "wave of the future," we kids were told. Years later, all I see that has been converted in the US is the soda bottle (two liters is the "regular" family sized bottle). Oh yes, we can't forget the b@st@rdized version of the metric system for bytes- who decided that 1024 was "close enough" to use metric terms for it? Just curious about the opinions of others throughout CP, through out the world... does everyone else use metric but the US? How about Great Britain? Anyone know why the US hasn't converted (please, no flamewar- this isn't a troll nor flamebait- honest curiosity here). Thanks, blueSprite:rose:
blueSprite wrote: Anyone know why the US hasn't converted? it got as far as the 2.54cm worm and halted because everyone got confused. :) I speak both, internally my applications are all metric because conversions/calculations are easy to remember, visually I have to adapt speed/acceleration/position to english for the user. :) _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Would you get some sort of penalty tax on the car for doing so? Or could you "import" a car as you describe without any grief from the UK gov't?
blueSprite wrote: Would you get some sort of penalty tax on the car for doing so? Or could you "import" a car as you describe without any grief from the UK gov't? You fill in some special documents that means that you don't pay tax in the country you are buying the car from, instead you pay VAT in the UK at 17.5% (Spain has IVA at 16%). To me that is wrong because for other items you pay the tax at the point of sale - When I was flying in and out of Spain a lot I would buy Scotch Whisky and reimport it back into the UK because it was cheaper to buy it in Spain than in a shop just down the road from the distillary.
Do you want to know more? WDevs.com - Member's Software Directories, Blogs, FTP, Mail and Forums
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I was reading another post where temperatures were being discussed... some on degrees Fahrenheight, others in degrees Celsius... this started me wondering - whatever happened to the U.S. push towards the metric system? In the US while I was in grade school, I had been taught all about it, and about the conversions from the "other" systems to metric. (Gotta love the degree conversion formulae!) It was the "wave of the future," we kids were told. Years later, all I see that has been converted in the US is the soda bottle (two liters is the "regular" family sized bottle). Oh yes, we can't forget the b@st@rdized version of the metric system for bytes- who decided that 1024 was "close enough" to use metric terms for it? Just curious about the opinions of others throughout CP, through out the world... does everyone else use metric but the US? How about Great Britain? Anyone know why the US hasn't converted (please, no flamewar- this isn't a troll nor flamebait- honest curiosity here). Thanks, blueSprite:rose:
We're metric here in australia, except for a few things... Tyres for instance, are particularly strange. My car takes tyres in the following size: 205/45-16 Which is 205 millimetres wide, 45% aspect ratio on a 16 inch wheel. A nice mix of metric and 'imperial'
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I was reading another post where temperatures were being discussed... some on degrees Fahrenheight, others in degrees Celsius... this started me wondering - whatever happened to the U.S. push towards the metric system? In the US while I was in grade school, I had been taught all about it, and about the conversions from the "other" systems to metric. (Gotta love the degree conversion formulae!) It was the "wave of the future," we kids were told. Years later, all I see that has been converted in the US is the soda bottle (two liters is the "regular" family sized bottle). Oh yes, we can't forget the b@st@rdized version of the metric system for bytes- who decided that 1024 was "close enough" to use metric terms for it? Just curious about the opinions of others throughout CP, through out the world... does everyone else use metric but the US? How about Great Britain? Anyone know why the US hasn't converted (please, no flamewar- this isn't a troll nor flamebait- honest curiosity here). Thanks, blueSprite:rose:
A world standard for measurement would be nice, but metric is the wrong one. It works fine for science, but for most real world applications it is a bad standard. Metric was designed to look pretty, not be useful. The various (and conflicting) imperial standards were built over years of experience based on what works. The first thing that metirc should do is switch to a base-12 system so they can do the common fractions you encounter in the real world (1/2, 1/3, 1/4). Base-60 would perhaps be better. Even then it wouldn't solve all problems. Take bolts. There are fine and coarse thread standards for a reason: different materials work best with different standards. Metric threads look nice on paper, but to get that they compromise holding ability! The main stated advantage of metric is ability to covert units. I'll grant that it is easier. However I won't grant the point. In the real world humans make mistakes often enough that even in metric you are best off not converting units if you have a choice. Most people in the US can understand either system. It isn't difficult. Most people in europe look down on us in the US because we don't speak two languages, while limiting themsleves to just one measurement system.
