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From: jwbirdsa@picarefy.picarefy.com (James W. Birdsall)
Subject: Re: degrees Celsius
Message-ID: <1997Jan15.022540.9278@picarefy.picarefy.com>
Organization: Green Tiger Software
References: <32DB10A6.5751@cs.purdue.edu> <ricmor-1401971327020001@ts36-10.homenet.ohio-state.edu> <32DBF6C4.751@hal-pc.org>
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 02:25:40 GMT
Lines: 27
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.std.internat:6557 sci.lang:68112

In article <32DBF6C4.751@hal-pc.org> rmjones@hal-pc.org writes:
>The "C system" is neither "base 100" nor "simpler" to use.  The thing
>that is important is that the rest of the world uses it.

   Remember that, for most of the US, "the rest of the world" is a long way
off -- several hours by air, one or more days by car, just to reach the
*nearest* border. Most US citizens live and die without ever leaving the
country. This may be almost incomprehensible to European readers, many of
whom could visit several countries in a day, but that's the way it is.

   Also, the US is a big enough market that manufacturers are willing to
make items calibrated in our measurement system.

   The result is that there is no significant impetus for us to change in
our day-to-day lives. Science and engineering have largely converted, both in
practice and education, because there is a strong impetus there: science
does have strong international connections, and in both fields the metric
system greatly simplifies calculations. But when you have 250 million
people who know what "70 degrees" feels like but have no experience
relating Celsius temperatures to conditions, they aren't going to change
without a pressing reason to do so.

-- 
James W. Birdsall    http://www.picarefy.com/~jwbirdsa/   jwbirdsa@picarefy.com
          "For it is the doom of men that they forget." -- Merlin
   Get the Sun Hardware Reference from ftp.picarefy.com:/pub/Sun-Hardware-Ref
         Sun Hardware Reference Web Page: http://sun-www.picarefy.com/
