A change to the metric system in the US would now be painful mainly in the machine tool industry and other high-precision mechanical industries geared to the English system of threads and other standards. However, as these industries change to computer-aided design and to computerized products (as has already happened with weighing scales, for example), the technical problem and its cost will become trivial
¾ a fraction of a pennyworth of programming per product. The metric system will probably not be forced on Americans by the government, but by the competition for export markets. The inch smells no sweeter to Greeks than the millimeter now does to Americans.There is, however, one more aspect that should be mentioned before we leave the subject. The use of an inconvenient system of units, like the belief in UFOs or fear of microwave ovens is self-punishing, and therefore far less important than such issues as fear of nuclear power.
You believe in UFOS? Good luck to you, Leo, Scorpio, or whoever you are, have fun. You are afraid of microwave ovens? Roast your hamburger on a spit over a fire. You don't like square kilometers? Take 15/16 of a score of acres and express the remainder in square rods. Such pastimes do not hurt anybody but the sportsman engaging in them.
Phobic fear of radiation and antinuclear propaganda is in a very different category: it shortens other people's life expectancies (also the fearmongers' own, but not enough) by forcing less safe power sources on everybody. Which is why we pass on to more pressing matters.
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Vol. 11, No. 2
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 11, No. 2 Date: November 29, 2004 11:08 AM (For actual publication date see newsletter.) Title: Surprised?
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
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