To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
I've often wondered if some of the standard measurements would eventually port over to metric. I can see metric gallons, and I'm told there is a metric mile (1500 meters).
104 posted on
05/15/2006 11:56:30 AM PDT by
Junior
(Identical fecal matter, alternate diurnal period)
To: Junior
The traditional or Imperial units were all based on practical applications -- metric tries to force everything into powers of ten. When Canada converted to metric, we had "soft" conversions for many things -- e.g. a pound of butter became 454 grams (close enough). Now, we buy butter in 500 gram packages -- in effect a "metric pound", although no one calls it that. A kilogram would be too big, a hectogram (100 grams) too small. Similarly, a gallon was a good size for a jug of milk -- 10 litres would be way too big. The metric system has had to adapt to the way people actually do things.
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