Sensible Canadians and Thanks to Shannon

From: Bernuetz, Oliver: WPG <Bernuetz.Oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1998 10:02:00 -0400

Joerg being kind about Canadians adoption of the metric system, (thanks!)

>The Canadians have
>seen the light, and seem to be quite sensible otherwise as well, too,
so
>what's the deal?

Err, we sort of adopted the metric system. I'm part of the generation that
was first exposed to the metric system in school. Unfortunately the government pulled back from making the metric system completely mandatory (to avoid offending the old stick in the muds of the previous generations who were worried they'd never get it) so companies were allowed to use Imperial measures for a "while". Well 25 or so years later we're stuck with a mish mash of metric and Imperial measures.

We:

• tell the temperature using celsius.
• measure long distances in kilometers.
• sell stuff in cans and bottles in litres or grams
• sell meat using pounds and 100 gram units
• measure ourselves in pounds and feet (I can tell you how tall I am in metres (2) but I'd have to convert my weight into kilos to know what it is (~255 lbs) (Oh, yes I also have brown hair and blue eyes and I'm a Libra. I'll keep my pet peeves to myself though:->).
• use feet and yards or metres depending on our mood, what we're measuring and how old we are.

So we're kind of sensible but sometimes (usually) too damn keen to be accomodating.

Sorry about the non-Gloranthan content but I've run out of questions for the time being and I haven't seen HeroWars yet:-> Oh, I don't have any problems with using metric in the game either.

Oliver D. Bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca
www.geocities.com/timessquare/realm/5545

---