Higgs Boson wrote:
On Saturday, November 16, 2013 5:59:10 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott
wrote:
Gus Overton wrote:

On Saturday, November 16, 2013 6:04:08 PM UTC-5, David Hare-Scott



I wonder if you two are talking about degrees C, degrees F or one
of

each.......





Only use US American degrees where I live.



There is no such scale and this is not where you live but an
international

forum. It is peculiar to the USA that so many citizens think what
they do

is normal, even universal, but in fact it is not so. Just as we
need to

allow for differences in gardening custom ( eg, naming plants such as

pumpkins) I think being explicit about measurements is useful for
good

communications.


Many years ago the US made a half-assed attempt to join the metric
world. Road signs were po$ted with mile$ and kilometer$. Of course
people took the easy way out and the experiment faded away.


Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or traditional
measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money available for
conversion and education costs so nothing is done.

OZ did the right thing; went cold turkey overnight. The adults seem
to have managed to survive with metric, and the kids never knew
anything else.


Correct. It wasn't really such a big deal.

D

On Sunday, November 17, 2013 3:30:50 PM UTC-5, mlcwa wrote:
Gus Overton writes:

... And is that Earth years? Usenet gets to other
planets, doesn't it?


Usenet may get there, but it doesn't come back.
Even if it seems like it does at times.
--

Lurkers...

"Gus Overton" wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 17, 2013 11:21:10 AM UTC-5, Higgs Boson wrote:

Many years ago the US made a half-assed attempt to join the metric world.
Road signs were po$ted with mile$ and kilometer$. Of course people took
the easy way out and the experiment faded away.

OZ did the right thing; went cold turkey overnight. The adults seem to
have managed to survive with metric, and the kids never knew anything
else.

I have always understood that the US pays a trade penalty with the rest
of the (metric) world for labeling in English.

Maybe this has been remedied. Anybody know?
HB


mechanics have to have two sets of tools. (snip)

Well, 'He who plays with old British Sports Cars' and to whom I've been
married for more than 4 decades, mutters on about a larger range of tools
than just Metric and Imperial.

IIRC those tools names include Whitworth, BSF, Imperial, Metric and also I
think I recall BA???

I have no idea what most of those mean. I just mutter 'Yes Dear' when he
goes on about them just as I do now when he talks of 'preselector gear
boxes'. The sad thing is that I do know what a preselector gearbox does and
how to use one.

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...
Higgs Boson wrote:
On Saturday, November 16, 2013 5:59:10 PM UTC-8, David Hare-Scott
wrote:
Gus Overton wrote:

On Saturday, November 16, 2013 6:04:08 PM UTC-5, David Hare-Scott



I wonder if you two are talking about degrees C, degrees F or one
of

each.......





Only use US American degrees where I live.



There is no such scale and this is not where you live but an
international

forum. It is peculiar to the USA that so many citizens think what
they do

is normal, even universal, but in fact it is not so. Just as we
need to

allow for differences in gardening custom ( eg, naming plants such as

pumpkins) I think being explicit about measurements is useful for
good

communications.


Many years ago the US made a half-assed attempt to join the metric
world. Road signs were po$ted with mile$ and kilometer$. Of course
people took the easy way out and the experiment faded away.


Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or
traditional measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money
available for conversion and education costs so nothing is done.

OZ did the right thing; went cold turkey overnight. The adults seem
to have managed to survive with metric, and the kids never knew
anything else.


Correct. It wasn't really such a big deal.

Nope. I now do conversions form Imperial to metric very easily. Perhaps
that is due to having made furniture for a hobby for a while.

David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or traditional
measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money available for
conversion and education costs so nothing is done.

it is taught in the schools and it appears on all
packages that i've seen in recent years along with
the other measurements.


songbird

On Sunday, November 17, 2013 4:58:21 PM UTC-8, songbird wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote:

...

Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or traditional

measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money available for

conversion and education costs so nothing is done.



it is taught in the schools and it appears on all

packages that i've seen in recent years along with

the other measurements.


Y'see, Songie, that's eggzactly what I was on about -- the two sets of measurements. I cited the awful, expensive, humiliating debacle of the Mars shot as an example of potential -- in the case of the Mars weather shot -- ACTUAL damage when 2 sets of measurements try to exist side by side.

Always on the search for a conspiracy g I thought of the wonderful Latin saying -- one of the half-dozen I remember -- "cui bono" = who profits?
Who DOES profit by retaining the anachronistic English measurement (a yard is the distance from King John's nose to his outstretched hand) ?

HB


songbird

Higgs Boson wrote:
On Sunday, November 17, 2013 4:58:21 PM UTC-8, songbird wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote:

...

Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or
traditional

measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money
available for

conversion and education costs so nothing is done.



it is taught in the schools and it appears on all

packages that i've seen in recent years along with

the other measurements.


Y'see, Songie, that's eggzactly what I was on about -- the two sets
of measurements. I cited the awful, expensive, humiliating debacle
of the Mars shot as an example of potential -- in the case of the
Mars weather shot -- ACTUAL damage when 2 sets of measurements try to
exist side by side.

Always on the search for a conspiracy g I thought of the wonderful
Latin saying -- one of the half-dozen I remember -- "cui bono" = who
profits?
Who DOES profit by retaining the anachronistic English measurement (a
yard is the distance from King John's nose to his outstretched hand)
?

USA traditional measure is not even the same as English, your volume
measures are not the same as Imperial. But all measures are to some extent
arbitrary, the yard may have been the distance from nose to finger but the
metre was the distance between two lines scratched on a platinum bar that
were supposed to be a fraction of the distance from Paris to the north pole
but wasn't. Neither are specified that way today. It isn't the old
standards that are the problem, the key difference is that the divisions and
multiples in traditional measure are neither consistent nor decimal.

I doubt that anybody profits directly but there are political
considerations. The issue is whether the national government will spend
politial capital making it happen. Clearly no recent President or Congress
has thought it worth their while in the context of a citizenry who distrust
their leaders and in some cases do not want an effective central government
at all.

I can see the Tea Party rousing the Right to resist such an unwarranted
incursion upon personal freedom... "how dare they try to tell us how to
measure stuff by some weird European way.....". The fact that traditional
measures are the weird ones and that other than one or two small backwaters
the USA is the only country to resist metrification has escaped their
notice.

D

Hench said:

I use the Cecilius system. Maybe the OP is using the F system. I don't
know anything about that system. Is 25 in the F system hot?


25 F is below the freezing point of water (=32 deg F).

For the USA-ans:
0 C = freezing point of water
10 C = chilly
20 C = pleasant room temperature
30 C = on the warm side
40 C = too damn hot ("normal" body temperature is ~37 C)
50 C = hellishly hot (I've only experienced it in an environmental chamber)
100 C = boiling point of water

I remember reading a story once where the a boy visiting the US from
France (?) was sure he was going to die soon when the family he was
staying with measured his temperature as 99 degrees. (They were
speaking F and he was thinking C.)

I thought 25 Cecilius was good for snap dragons.

Yes, pretty good.

As half-hardy perennials, they will struggle on through some pretty cold
weather before giving up the ghost. In my area some *might* survive a
much warmer than average winter. (Same goes for one of my favorite
bedding plants, Salvia farinacea 'Victoria')

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"Yes, swooping is bad."

email valid but not regularly monitored

Gus Overton wrote:
It was 25 degrees couple days ago, but plants are still green and 5 flowers on a couple. Tomato plants have given up the ghost, but snap dragons are still hanging tough. Is that normal?

btw, my sister showed me why they have that name. Asked 3 or 4 other relatives, and none of them knew either till she showed them.



Snapdragons can take quite a bit of freezing weather. 25°F is probably
pushing it, but maybe not if it doesn't stay there too long.

I was surprised how long the petunias lasted this year; they still
looked good after getting frosted a half dozen times. (gone now)

Bob

"Higgs Boson" wrote in message
...
On Sunday, November 17, 2013 4:58:21 PM UTC-8, songbird wrote:
David Hare-Scott wrote:

...

Apparently in the USA metric is approved but not compulsory (or
traditional

measures are not forbidden) consequently there is no money available for

conversion and education costs so nothing is done.



it is taught in the schools and it appears on all

packages that i've seen in recent years along with

the other measurements.


Y'see, Songie, that's eggzactly what I was on about -- the two sets of
measurements. I cited the awful, expensive, humiliating debacle of the Mars
shot as an example of potential -- in the case of the Mars weather shot --
ACTUAL damage when 2 sets of measurements try to exist side by side.

Always on the search for a conspiracy g I thought of the wonderful Latin
saying -- one of the half-dozen I remember -- "cui bono" = who profits?
Who DOES profit by retaining the anachronistic English measurement (a yard
is the distance from King John's nose to his outstretched hand) ?
------------------------------------------
But Higgs, the US doesn't even stick consistently to 'English' (which is
really called 'Imperial') meausres.

It does stick with those measures for ft and inches (but then why would
anyone have changed that? mewonders) but not with fluids.

US pints are short by 4 ounces because an Imperial Pint is 20 ounces. I
once had an argument with an American woman online who kept insisting that
'a pints a pint the world around'. For some reason she would neither
believe me when I stated that 20 ounces was more the norm for a pint outside
the US and nor would the silly woman use google. That's usenet
though........