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My dear chaps: It's just a point or two!

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britinusa
Web Editor

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USA
5404 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/15/2006 : 22:07:10

Just a useless piece of trivia.
Celebrating Decimal Day here.

In 1971 England shifted to the decimal system.

Amazingly enough, the USA has resisted the trend to go decimal.
It has cost a few coins, the Mars lander that crashed because of a miscalculation in weight conversions from lbs to kgms cost millions.

Today, if the US went metric it would cost us millions each day for fuel alone!

At present the smallest amount of an increase in fuel costs is $0.0001 (We're paying about $2&49.99 cents per gallon here in SoFla.)
If we switched to Liters, then the minium cost increase would be .01 cents per liter! (there are 3.785Liters per US Gallon.)
In reality it would be a minimum change of 1 cent per Liter compared to 1 cent per gallon.

Now don't you wonder why the US Petroleum industry is not spearheading the adoption of metrics in the USA?

Another reason to own a sail boat!

Joint Decision. (Sold)
PO C250WB 2005 Sail # 841.

Moved up to C34 Eximius

Updated August 2015

Edited by - on

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5909 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2006 : 06:49:47

Happy Decimal Day!

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2006 : 10:07:18

Hey, it's too much fun dividing things by 12, 16, 3, 5280, 1760, 43560,.... And if everything were metric, we wouldn't have an excuse for two sets of every kind of wrench. ("Oops, that's a little too small... Damn, that's a little too big... Hmmm, maybe if I... Oh-oh... better get the other set!)

And given how much faster gas prices go UP on some trivial news, compared to how slowly they go back down when cheaper stuff actually gets into the tank (if at all), I'd think the oil companies would be pushing metrics like crazy!

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 02/16/2006 10:08:38

Derek Crawford
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3324 Posts

Response Posted - 02/16/2006 : 10:43:11

I was living in Canada when it began to go metric. Now miles/kilometers - no problem. Fahrenheit to Celcius - yucks! Nurse calls and says so & so has a temp of 40 degrees - I always had to ask what that was in real measurement

. But when the barometric pressure went from mm to kilopascals I gave up and moved to Texas!

(Who the heck knows what is a kilopascal!!)
At least in England you can still get a pint of beer...)

Derek

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.