Nobody seems to have the right conversion at their fingertips, and that's exactly why the US remained with feet and inches and gallons and acres.
So does anyone know why they made the liter such an odd size? I don't believe I ever saw a gas can that was 3.79 anything. I'd probably give it away if I had one, because where am I going to find a pump that dispenses in metric anyway? Would the can fit in a gas can holder? Can you imagine trying to figure out the mix ratio of two stroke gas when the oil is premeasured for 2 1/2 US gallons, the gas can is 3.79 liters, and the mix must be 50 to 1? Can you say smoke? This only gets MORE SERIOUS when you start measuring tiny things, like bearing clearances. thousandths and tens of thousandths seems like a straightforward system to me. I can see ten thousandths and I can grok it. What am I supposed to do with a micrometer that reads out .0098 mm? Lessee...at 2.5 centimeters per inch, and 2.2791 dollars to the pound sterling, how many millimeters..!!!!!!! I'll tell you what I do, I use it to clamp my road maps to my sun visor! LOL! really BIG metric micrometers make great ground !
clamps too. They have MOST inter
esting numbers on them!
The problem is not whether things should be measured in metrics or English or SAE, but that they are measured HOW PEOPLE THINK! I get so frustrated trying to remember newton meters and kilo-pascals and milliliters and cubic centimeters that I sometimes resort to gauging things with a stick and a rope. What's wrong with different countries using different systems anyway? If a plane built with SAE bolts, lands in Paris, does it fall apart because Paris uses metric bolts? Why should a US person think a French guy would understand cycles per second and that there are 16 ounces in BOTH a pound and a pint? Why should a US citizen understand megahertzes and francs? After all, He drinks wine in 946 ml bottles, and he speaks French, right? I drink Mountain Dew in 6 inch green bottles, and I speak English. (well, American anyway!) And I'd like to know how many centimeters there are in a French Economy Size box of detergent? Differences are cool sometimes. When there's nothing good on TV!
and I have watched all my tapes
, I like to get out my landrover manuals and read about "using a Whitworth 1/2" wrench, (which is big enough for a boat anchor, btw) snug the bonnet fixings until they stand proud of the joint washer.When the skirt comes back from the panel beaters, fit the fingers along the driver's side into the keeper slots in the boot.Twist anticlockwise.(hehe!) It's not necessary that I understand this. It's enough that's it's funny as a two headed goat. These great manuals are the only books in the world that are written in english but you can't read a damned word!
If metrics is so universally great, why isn't time figured in metrics too? Lessee...got a minute? 1 hr = 1000 milli-hours, 1 day = 24/8760th of a year, half passed six =....???? ooops! The speed of sound would be indecipherable to pilots, because the would go insane trying to remember how many meters in a megawatt, and all the landings would be late. Lincoln would have said "762120 something or other ago, our forefathers...". Sheesh! everyone would have walked away shaking there heads in confusion. Helen of Troy, whose face launched a thousand ships, would have then established a good system for rating the fair sex. But what will your girlfriend say when you tell her she rates 365 millihelens? You better have your P's and Q's together or you're gonna get smacked!! Of course, if we were all metric, there would be 100 letters in our alphabet too, right? Or would that be litres? Why does algebra work if there are only 26 letters, and "I" is reserved?
In closing, picture in your mind 6 inches....got it? Not hard, right? Or, here you go, pull on this wrench handle with 36 kilopascals per newton meter.(or is that 36 millipascals per kilometer?) Pour out .5461 liters into a what? How big is that?? ....see what I mean? Even the furreners can't do it! LOL!
Jack, who voted no for Esperanto too!
In a message dated Tue, 26 Jun 2001 8:56:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Hummer1234@aol.com writes:
<<
In a message dated 6/26/01 2:15:10 PM, tonygull@ozemail.com.au writes:
>That is the definitive answer, well 4.54609 to be exact.
NOPE!!!! It is 3.79 liters to the US gallon!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are 33.8 US ounces to the liter and 128 US ounces to the US gallon.
128/33.8 = 3.79 liters to the US gallon.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:38 PDT