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From: jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: =?UTF-8?Q?Re=3A_=E2=80=9CDid_nobody_stop_to_think_what_might_happen?=
 =?UTF-8?Q?_in_an_emergency_in_space=3F=E2=80=9D?=
Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2024 01:37:12 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Public Access Networks Corp.
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In article <vaj9g1$74g$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:
>Gary R. Schmidt <grschmidt@acm.org> wrote:
>>On 26/08/2024 06:08, Paul S Person wrote:
>>[SNIP]
>>> great fan of metric, but the French are certainly not going to agree
>>> to use anything else in /their/ components, and at least using metric
>>> will make the entire mission doesn't just die on reaching its
>>> destination.
>>> 
>>Are you aware just how few countries choose to not use the metric system?
>>
>>I'll help you, it's three: Liberia, Myanmar, and the USA.
>>
>>I wouldn't like being lumped in with Myanmar...
>
>I was surprised when in Scotland for Worldcon that all of the speed limit
>signs were in miles per hour, especially when the ones in England are all
>metric.  I mentioned this to my host who shrugged and said that Scotland
>is different.
>
>And when we were visiting a cognac distillery a couple years back I was
>surprised to see distillation temperatures in Rheaumur....

Canada switched to metric in the 1970s because the US was going to
and we didn't want the fuss of having a different measuring system
from our largest trading partner. In any case, what unit of measurement
gets used is context dependent. Could be Imperial--not quite the same
as US--metric, some archaic unit, time used to measure distance, and
so on. 
-- 
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