Quote:
Originally Posted by Piwoslaw
We all know that the transition from imperial to metric units will not be easy nor cheap. ...if we wait another 30 or 50 years, will the change be still easier and cheaper then?
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The most economical time to change is now. If we recognize that the change is inevitable, then we are fools to delay it because every year that goes by wastes resources that are lost due to needing 2 different tool sets, time wasted learning a soon-to-be irrelevant measurement system, and catastrophe caused by conversion errors (
see Mars Climate Orbiter).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Tele man
Some how, they just DON'T have that magic marketing jingle:
"...a 1/3-meter..." long hot dog.
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I ate a yard of Subway in 25 minutes once. I'm sure I could have managed a meter of Subway.
I'm rather looking forward to the kilo-burger.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
I'm used to our goofy system of measure, just as all of us Uhmericans are more or less (from the looks of it, mostly less) used to that craziest, most irrational and arbitrary of languages, English.
Speaking (PUN!) of which, since the world is deciding on the most rational system of weights and measures, why would the world also decide on the most irrational language?  |
I'm far from being a language expert, so tell me, how is English much more irrational than other widely spoken languages? All languages have exceptions to their own rules. What language do you have in mind as possessing superior efficiency in conveying precise meanings?
On the topic of irrational standards, the US date format drives me nuts. Of all the ways you can arrange year, month, and day, we choose the most arbitrary (mm/dd/yy). The rational way would be yy/mm/dd going most significant on the left, to least significant on the right. Our decimal number system works this way, why not our dates? It would make sorting files on a computer easier since they would be arranged by year automatically. For example, why would I want to group photo by the day I took them? It would be absurd to sort all photos taken on the 20th day of any month into a group, but very logical to sort them by a particular year.