Matronics Email Lists :: View topic

Matronics Email Lists
Web Forum Interface to the Matronics Email Lists

Get Email Distribution Too! FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register

Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in

Units puzzle

Matronics Email Lists Forum Index -> AeroElectric-List

View previous topic :: View next topic

Author Message

trigo(at)mail.telepac.pt
Guest

Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:37 am Post subject: Units puzzle

 	  Quote: 	
		   

 <kellym(at)aviating.com>



 Yeah, sure, the metric system is terrific, except, they screwed up a lot 

 of units. Temperature..too big, so that everything has to be expressed as 

 a decimal instead of integers. Pressure, same thing, at least for tires. 

 Torque, ditto. Distance..ditto. Centimeters are too small, meters are too 

 big. Oh, and the real big deal....all land in the US is titled in English 

 units that require hard conversion of every legal title document at 

 horrendous billions of dollars. The transportation industry tried to 

 convert. Because of the real estate involved, two sets of plans had to be 

 done for every project at a huge waste of money, with subsequent high 

 likelihood of mistakes, that could and did happen. FHWA and many states 

 came to their senses and abandoned the effort.  Then you have the 

 bastardized METAR system, that winds up using English, nautical and metric 

 units all in the same weather sequence. What a load of crap! Remember that 

 90% of all flights in the world occur within the US border.........so why 

 in the world should they be done to foreign standards? You gonna pay to 

 replace every altimeter, VSI airspeed and temperature gauges with metric? 

 Not me.

 Machining and hardware manufacture is just a small piece of the 

 puzzle...but you already knew that.


	


I don't want to contribute to an "USA versus the rest of the World" 

discussion, neither I have anything against you Kelly (whom I don't know), 

but the text you wrote is an excellent example of expression of a typical 

"Yankee-Uncle Sam" position which makes the USA to be hated by the rest of 

the world. And normally, history tell us that, that's the beginning of the 

"End of an Empire".

Let me add that I love your country, your people, most of your system of 

life (democracy, justice, economy), but when somebody says something like 

"... 90% of all flights in the world occur within the US

 	  Quote: 	
		   border.........so why in the world should they be done to foreign 

 standards?", which demonstrates what has been called as "American 

 Egocentrism", you begin to loose your reason.

My opinion about this System of Units discussion is that America should 
	


evaluate precisely the economic impact of such a change, which will have 

costs and benefices, and decide what to do rationally, leaving emotional 

issues apart.

It is obvious that we no longer trade horses for cereals, when the English 

system was invented, and that a decimal system of units is far superior, but 

since "there ain't such a thing like a free lunch", the decision must be 

made based on economic grounds



Carlos

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List

nuckollsr(at)cox.net
Guest

Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:02 am Post subject: Units puzzle

At 12:31 PM 11/18/2006 +0000, you wrote:



 	  Quote: 	
		  

<trigo(at)mail.telepac.pt>



I don't want to contribute to an "USA versus the rest of the World" 

discussion, neither I have anything against you Kelly (whom I don't know), 

but the text you wrote is an excellent example of expression of a typical 

"Yankee-Uncle Sam" position which makes the USA to be hated by the rest of 

the world. And normally, history tell us that, that's the beginning of the 

"End of an Empire".

Let me add that I love your country, your people, most of your system of 

life (democracy, justice, economy), but when somebody says something like 

"... 90% of all flights in the world occur within the US

>border.........so why in the world should they be done to foreign 

>standards?", which demonstrates what has been called as "American 

>Egocentrism", you begin to loose your reason.


	


 	  Quote: 	
		  My opinion about this System of Units discussion is that America should 

evaluate precisely the economic impact of such a change, which will have 

costs and benefices, and decide what to do rationally, leaving emotional 

issues apart.

It is obvious that we no longer trade horses for cereals, when the English 

system was invented, and that a decimal system of units is far superior, 

but since "there ain't such a thing like a free lunch", the decision must 

be made based on economic grounds.


	




    Absolutely . . . and as long as there is no intent to

    defraud or to deprive anyone of liberty, each supplier

    of services is free to make what ever deal they wish

    with prospective consumers of those services. If one

    wishes NOT to own a product crafted under their favorite

    dogma, they're free to not buy it. And certainly, anyone is

    free to express whatever opinions they might have on

    the matter.



    But the fundamental question remains: What value is added

    to this or any other venue by the exchange of personal

    judgements couched in hyperbolic and pejorative ideas

    and words?



    It's a certainty that we're not going to solve (or even

    exert a favorable influence upon) the matter here. Suppose

    we leave weighty discussions  on world order to others.

    It's a certainty that they'll produce no more influence

    on the direction and outcome than we. I'll

    suggest we get back to the business of refining the

    best we know how to do

    Bob . . .

- The Matronics AeroElectric-List Email Forum -

Use the List Feature Navigator to browse the many List utilities available such as the Email Subscriptions page, Archive Search & Download, 7-Day Browse, Chat, FAQ, Photoshare, and much more:

http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?AeroElectric-List

Display posts from previous:

	Matronics Email Lists Forum Index -> AeroElectric-List	All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1

Jump to:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum