Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I was living in Toronto when Canada went metric around 1986 and it really wasn't a big deal. For a while all the stores carried labels in both systems. I didn't bother learning to translate from the old system to the new...that way lies madness. I just learned what the new one meant. Simple. Instead of thinking: "Let's see, 10 C is how much F?" I just figured that if we'd been at -5 for a week, everyone would be wearing tshirts and if we'd been at 27 for a week, they'd be wearing sweaters. I mean, how much do you need to know?? Having lived in metric for something like twenty years now, I find the intrusion of the old imperial system annoying...like on my update of ForecastFox that just gives me the temps at the bottom of the browser in F.

When you learn another language, you can't spend all the time translating to and from the old because you never get anything heard or said. You have to just learn to communicate in a new language. Metric is the same. And when I go visit the US, I have no problem making the switch to the old system. It's still there in the back of the filing cabinet.? Sort of like spending a week in France and having my French kick in. For that matter, getting used to speaking to every one in English is weird enough.

Maryanne

On Aug 10, 2006, at 3:03 AM, Barbara McCrary wrote:

Our government tried to initiate the whole metric thing in the USA and some of us never caught on...that is, we couldn't translate.? I guess the government gave up.? We're still using our own bizarre method of describing distances and volume, etc.? Maybe metric makes more sense, but we're used to our methods and it's a lot of work to learn a new "language."? <g>

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Barbara

----- Original Message -----

From: Tracey Lomax

To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 10:45 AM

Subject: [RC] Other nations and endurance

Whilst we’re on the subject (and I’m probably going to be flamed anyway)…..WHEN are you guys gonna catch up with the rest of the world and go metric??

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Kilometers, anyone?

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Tracey

(it’s a public holiday here, I’ve had some wine, forgive me!)