[CanuckJim]

Dmun,

This topic has surfaced several times. Never responded until now. I've given it serious thought and by no means want to appear denigrating, just inquisitive.

I live in one of those uncertain, uncommited societies that is officially metric and has been for a long time. We drive in kilometres, buy meat by the gram (or pound, depending) and gas by the litre but lumber and brick in Imperial.

I can't remotely agree that the rest of the world would like to stick to Imperial measurements. Why would it? I'd really like to hear a defence of that. How many sixty-fourths is that anyway? It's a very imprecise system. In woodworking, metric is far superior for division in building, let's say, a picket fence or a side table. No machinist or tool and die maker that I know would willingly work in Imperial. Tens work, sixteenths are a serious pain in the neck and lead to errors; too much iffy division, conversion (thirty-secondths to eighths to quarters, etc.) too much variation in sizes. Sloppy. Metric measurement simply does not have that problem: ten is ten. I'd like to suggest that anybody put a metric measure on a so-called 2x4; the reason, I suspect, is they are the size they are for export, not because the mills are being cheap. You're right, there is no across the board worldwide standard (2x4s [actually metric in section here] are still 8 ft or 10ft long, though plywood is still 3/4 inch thick, but 3/8ths ain't), but it is accurate to say that the US is the only nation in the world that still clings to an 18th century English measurement system that should have gone the way of the gill, the dram and the butt a long time ago. Even the English don't do that, and they're notoriously xenophopic about such things, much like the French in small. Remember the uproar when they changed from pence, shillings and pounds to a metric division? "We're being taken over by Europeans; END of EMPIRE," if I remember the headlines when I lived there. There's another problem: the English or Imperial gallon and the US gallon. Why, then, if the Imperial system is the correct one, are there 100 cents to the US dollar? This is not a straigtforward issue and has little or nothing to do with national identity. There are global realities out there that need to be addressed.

In baking, gram/kilogram measurements are far more precise than ounces and pounds, simply because the gram division is constant and small. Years ago, I worked on English motorcyles that had an enormous variation in wrench systems and thread pitches. A 1970 Triumph Bonneville had, in order of confusion, British Standard, Whitworth, metric and Imperial bolt and thread pitch systems all at work on a single bike. You can imagine the contents of my tool box. Enter Honda; metric to the bone. Is there a reason that Caputo flour comes in 55 lb bags as opposed to 50 lbs?

In a global economy, standardization, like ISO standards, is the norm; trade rules. This cannot be stopped and should be embraced. True, there is no accepted worldwide normalization--yet--but for sure it won't be in inches/pounds/miles. Resistance, as the man said, is futile. Metric works; the Imperial system is seriously outmoded, imprecise and error prone. Is it possible that this is a Colonial period leftover? That's a serious question, not being snarky. Don't forget, I don't live in your country. I'm puzzled and would like to know why.

Bit of a rant, apologies, but I can't see the triumph (sic) of the Imperial system until the next Ice Age. Euros anyone?

Jim