> > While not knowing Wes' opinion, I'd like to state that I indeed do believe this. However, I also believe that some time in the future, even british isolationists will wake up to the fact that they must speak with people from the continent. And those people will be using metric units. So, if the british government were to encourage use of (and education in) both systems, I'm willing to bet that the use of metric would eventually spread, so that, at some point, the majority would be more comfortable with metric units.
>
> Agreed. However, the British government has been putting a great deal of effort into encouraging people to use the metric system for the last 20 years. In many areas of daily life, this had had no effect whatsoever.
>


My reasoning may be flawed, but I take that to mean that they either haven't placed enough emphasis on education or haven't tried for long enough. Also, note that the one and only reason I see for the british public to choose metric over imperial is for communication with people who use metric: If this need is not felt strong enough, there is no incentive for them to make this choice. So there is an element of "the right time" in it too.


>
> Oh certainly. It's the enforced use of the metric system that I am opposed to.
>


That was what I thought. I'm not sure it's a tribute to our communication skills that it's taken us this long to confirm our agreement on this pivotal point :-)


> But on the other hand, any calculations along these lines is not going to be a part of daily life for the majority of people.
>


Imagine, if you will, a truck driver transporting, say, cheese from, say, Scotland to, say, Switzerland. He knows that his load is 456 pounds of cheddar. He knows that there are 673 miles to Dover, where the ferry will take him to Calais. He knows that there is 2023 kilometres to Switzerland. He knows that the swiss will pay him 2.45 swiss franc per kilogram of cheddar. His truck normally averages 1.5 miles per gallon of diesel fuel. He knows this. In Scotland, truck diesel is 1.5 (scottish) pounds per gallon. In Calais, truck diesel is 2 (french) franc per litre.
Can the cheese pay for the diesel? Would it be cheaper to fill his fuel tank (he must fill up once during the trip) before or after the ferry? Aren't there a lot of people/companies/organizations in similar situations?


> I certainly accept that the metric system is best where such conversions need to happen on a regular basis, but what advantage is there to giving the distance between two cities in kilometres rather than miles? Or the weight of a sack of potatoes in pounds rather than kilos?
>

Viewed in the above, isolated fashion, there aren't any.


> What conversions are neccessary here to justify a system of measurement designed to make conversion easy?
>


That is a case a large-scale conversion performed once versus many small-scale conversions.


jul"notice how I sneaked in an argument for common currency in the truck driver story"ian