Powerful Reading:

http://www.metric4us.com/whynot.html

From that site:

"Which is more, 2 quarts, 5 pints or 36 fl oz?"

ERm, am I the only one thinking "thickos" here? Firstly, products usually stick to one measure eg. marked in ounces up to a few pints. Secondly, erm, the arithmetic is none too hard: 2qt = 4pt; 5pt = 5pt; 36floz = 2pt 4oz


"How many pints are in a gallon?"

Erm, anyone with an ounce of knowledge will know it is 8.


"How many pounds are 200 ounces?"

As with inches & feet, feet & yards, pounds & tons etc, you would naturally change FAR FAR beyond that, to pounds. Say, at around 3lb.


"Which drill is the larger - the 13/64, the 1/4 or the 5/32?"

Possibly there is a point here- I hav consitantly argued that working beyond 8ths or 16ths is far too confusing. My solution is to break the thing in a more natural and easily understood way ie. by dividing into qtrs, each qtr into thirds, each third in halves.. as it were, to create 1/24" This would make things easier.


"Two cities on a map are 10 inches apart - what is their real world distance?"

Depends on the map scale.


"Do you have to default on these questions? Then you have a problem..."

So, NO problem, then.


"First of all - the English system is not American - it's English! So on which cultural grounds are you claiming something English as American heritage while you reject something French as alien?"

Err, because the founders of the USA were English (well, British). Because your notions of liberty and freedom and justice are WHOLEY ***ENGLISH*** and NOT French. Because "English" is a catchment term for all the English folk, not just those ppl living in England. Because we have a shared history and language and culture etc etc



ETC

There is so much rubbish on that page it is almost untrue. I will not quote more from it now, but will respond to some more of its points:

America SHOULD be proud of its own culture

The system as used in America actually ***IS*** American (eg the entire capacity system, the entire higher weights system, multiple other units pioneered by Americans)

Err, mostly units died out and were replaced- for the most part, only standardisation happened in England etc. Never have we really forcibly forced all those other older enlgish units out of existance


"How about: America became the great country it is despite using the English system! And it could be an even greater country without it!"

Err, how can ditching a vital part of your language and nation, and in the process spending a hell of a lot of money, benefit your nation.



SEriosly, that website is not compelling, but complete and utter rubbish.

Bryan Parry wrote

<<
Because your notions of liberty and freedom and justice are WHOLEY ***ENGLISH*** and NOT French.
>>

I seem to recall reading the the cry of the French Revolution was Liberte, Equalite, Fraternite and it was on these notions that the Americans based their constitution. Furthermore, I seem to recall reading the the French donated the Statue of Liberty to the Americans in 1889 to celebrate the centenary of teh French Revolution.

Please learn a little more history. Thanks.

The Americans did not base their constitution on the French system. It was based on a combination of the English constitution, and the writings and philophophies of some of the revolutionaries (both English and American).

re: "...donated the Statue of Liberty to the American government to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution"

REPLY:

This was found on the internet, and I reproduce it because it is true:

"We have really chosen an excellent symbol for this nation, the Statue of Liberty. The seven horns on Lady Liberty's crown represent the seven continents and the seven seas.

The Statue of Liberty is not an original symbol. It goes all the way back to the mystery religions of Babylon, to the goddess Isis, queen of Babylon, to the goddess Libertos, goddess of Liberty, and the goddess of Reason.

America has the spirit of Egypt. The truth about the Statue of Liberty, the world's largest idol, needs to be told.

The Statue of Liberty's designer, French Freemason, Frederick August Bertoldi, once boasted that his creation would last as long as the Pyramids of the Nile.

The seven spikes of Liberty's crown represent the seven
continents and seven seas of the world.

This was a Freemason project, linked to the builders of the Pyramids.

Freemasons designed the dollar bill.

Freemasons planned the Washington monument and laid out the whole city of Washington in occult symbols.

Masonic symbols are what the Statue of Liberty is really all about".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The face of the Statue of Liberty was based on that of a well-known Parisian prostitute.

It must be remembered that the French Revolution led to one of the most bloodthirsty episodes in history, the killing of some 3 million or so aristocrats and others. The slogan: 'liberty, fraternity, equality' was very similar to the one adopted by the bolsheviks whose government in turn perpetrated an even greater slaughter - the murder of up to 30 million Soviet citizens under 'Uncle Jo' Stalin, which has no parallel in scale in human history.

The French Revolution was driven by those who wanted to tear up the old order - it was scarcely surprising that the soulless metric system arose out of it

>>>>>>> "The French Revolution was driven by those who wanted to tear up the old order - it was scarcely surprising that the soulless metric system arose out of it"


This is nothing more then bitter jealously because the French devised metric system has swept the globe. It is used by every race of man and in every country and it has REPLACED every former measurement system that ever existed. It is now eating away at the remnant of imperial.

The British Empire once circled the globe, now it is dead. The metric system, designed by Britain's French rivals will last an eternity.

Grow up little twerp and admit the truth. The metric system rules! Now and forever!

Please ban Euric- he is a provokative person.

The point of view regarding American history that is generally taught in history classes in the US is that the US Constitution was a mix of two fears: the fear of British-style monarchy and the fear of French-style mobocracy/anarchy. The framers did not want the government to have too much power, but they wanted to protect the government from the whims of the mob also. An example would be electing the president. He was not elected by the Congress nor by the people, but a halfway compromise was struck: he was to be elected by a special electoral college appointed by state governments. Of course, today, all states hold elections for president, but this wasn't the case in the beginning.

re (Euric): "The British Empire once circled the globe, now it is dead".

REPLY: Er, no. Wrong. The Britsh Empire evolved, mostly entirely peacefully, into the British Commonwealth, which as it happens, is having one of its regular get-togethers only this week.

Name me one other Empire in world history, which also evolved into a friendly association of nations rather than perishing ignominiously, and you can go back to the top of the class

<<
Grow up little twerp and admit the truth. The metric system rules! Now and forever!
>>

I am still pro metric, however Euric, stop calling people names like that and generalising so much. It does the metric argument no good at all.

No! Please do not ban "euric" - or his handler "Jason" - I beg - DO NOT do this.

The whole point in luring them over here was to identify that there is a nasty element regarding metric. Now before the moderates have a go at me - I am saying this in the same way as Irish Republic people might hate Sinn Fein even though they appaar to be on the same camp.

So - do not ban them - for 2 reasons:

1) It enacts EXACTLY what they seek to do to others
2) It's an awful advert for pro-m's that need the pro-m's to explain the difference of opinion they have have to the extremists.

So go ahead euric - keep up the insults - you have just one supporter here, that's all, just one!



P.S. :

<<<This is nothing more then bitter jealously because the French devised metric system has swept the globe>>>

I thought the metric argument was that it was international - not French!

;)