On Sunday 30 April 2006 3:46 pm, Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Sunday 2006-04-30 at 12:17 -0400, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
The failure of the US and Britain to convert to the obviously more
metric system isn't just a matter of stupidity or stubbornness. If nothing else, look at the investment people have in socket wrenches calibrated in fractions of an inch, and in the hardware that they fit onto. Or all
sensible those
machine components that are measured in inches and have to fit together. Metric conversion is a terrifyingly expensive proposition.
You wouldn't need to change overnight. It could be done over years.
Like changing from driving on the left to driving on the right, as they did in Sweden a while back? A few cities at a time, perhaps? Actually, nuts and bolts in general are the most obvious manifestation of the problem. You can get around some incompatibilities by having two sets of wrenches, but that doesn't help if you need to attach a metric nut to an English bolt. Paul