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America Has Two Feet. It’s About to Lose One of Them 1

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We should lose both of them, but that's a whole 'nuther discussion.

============
"Is it the only lesson of history that mankind is unteachable?"
--Winston S. Churchill
 
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America is much more than two feet, it is a centipede.
 
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Actually the 'National Institute of Standards and Technology' units used in this country includes only the 'yard' and the 'pound'. All other units for lengths and mass are derived from these TWO STANDARDS. And since 1893, as a result of the 'Mendenhall Order' these standards are defined using SI or Metric units. The yard was defined as being equal to 3600⁄3937 meter, and the pound was defined as 0.4535924277 kilogram. This was later revised in 1959 to where the yard was now defined as 0.9144 meter, and the pound as 0.45359237 kilogram. Part of the problem in the US is that we really have TWO different standards for the foot, which is what led to this issue being discussed here now. We have the normal everyday 'foot' and then we have the 'survey foot'. That's the issue which is being reconciled.

That being said, very few people are aware that the United States officially adopted the Metric System in 1866. It's just that the 'Metric Act of 1866', while it officially put the US on the Metric System, it did NOT require that anyone actually use the Metric units for industry or commerce. And while it did not require the use of Metric units, the biggest thing that it did accomplish was that it protected companies from being held liable if they did decide to use Metric rather then Imperial or 'traditional' units of measure. Therefore the act merely made it LEGAL to use Metric units, but it did not make them mandatory.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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Feet and pounds and inchies are still a sign of English colonization. By the way you still drive like in England?

regards

luis
 
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Interesting that in the article, the point is made that the foot/inch/etc are defined in terms of the metre, as the US was one of the original signatories to the metric system.
 
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0707 said:
Feet and pounds and inchies are still a sign of English colonization. By the way you still drive like in England?
Click to expand...

They drive like they are in Canada.

--
JHG
 
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Sometimes when "we" drive we shoot each other and run each other off the road (we don't care which side).
 
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That is right monkeydog! but that situation is universal (we don't care which side) since we didn´t jump too far and, we will keep alive, being in condition to sign the friendly assurance car book...

luis
 
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Where I live, New Brunswick Canada we (not me, obviously) drove on the left, until 1921 or so, when it was changed due to the proximity of the US and the tourists coming in, it was felt it made more sense.
 
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I can remember when Sweden switched to right-hand drive. I wasn't there I just remember reading about it. They picked a Sunday figuring that there would be the least amount of traffic, but the problem was that everyone showed-up so as to experience that first day and it created a real mess. Sort of like in China when you drive from Hong Kong into China proper. Hong Kong is Left-hand drive and China is Right-hand drive, so you have to switch at the border, after passing through customs and immigration. While I've never had to do that as a driver, I have been a front-seat passenger in cars that did make that transition, and it's feels very weird when you're where the car's set=up doesn't match where you're driving. Now, I've driven in Left-hand drive countries, but always with a car designed for that situation.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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Its like coming off the cross channel ferry into the UK .
Signs for the first 3 miles saying "Drive on the left", in three different languages. And signs giving distances in miles, with kilometers in parentheses underneath.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.
 
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JohnRBaker said:
Now, I've driven in Left-hand drive countries, but always with a car designed for that situation.
Click to expand...

I've done a bit of all four permutations (including all in the space of 24 hours once - but at least that time, one of the vehicles was big enough that what side of the road I was driving on was everybody else's problem). Psychologically, it's not actually as difficult as you might expect. The bit I don't like though is how much harder it is to see what's happening up ahead on the other side of the road.

A.
 
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While I've never done it, I've concluded that it might harder to drive a motorcycle in a country where the drive-lane is the opposite of what you're used to. At least in a car, you're constantly aware that things are the other way round, but on a bike, there would be no clues other than the driving environment itself, which on regular two-lane roads, could prove problematic. And for the record, I've owned three motorcycles, although it's been years since I driven one.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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