Don't get me wrong - I'm not typical Brit in my embracing the metric system. It just makes so much more sense to me. But you'll find all trade suppliers and DIY stores, etc, do it in metric. I was brought up on imperial but it's like 5 minutes' work to convert! The one way we'll probably never change, though, is in giving people's heights: a six-footer gives me a greater snse of size than 185 centimeterer :-) Hence, a woman, say, of 5'7" I can picture her. But if I were measuring her for a dress, then cm/mm. Measuring for a bra though, I'd use the equestrian measure of "hands" <bg>

>People get used to certain ways. Personally, I have strong 'metric background', but I got used to miles/pounds so backward conversion causes me some inconvenience, though I still dislike 5'7"-like sizes.
>Customers should feel some benefits, even imaginative, to switch eagerly. I remember as 5 years ago when stock market went from british to metrics it was supported/adopted by retail customers because it promised real benefits.
>
>>Aye but: you want some blinds; you measure your window, using the other side of the tape (with the cm/mm); you record how many units; you go to the store and compare your number with the dimensions (in cm/mm) on the blinds in stock; you pick the set closest to your numbers. It couldn't be simpler. Doesn't matter if it's in Alpha-Centuri Prime Yagblarks, so long as it's simple, and the divisions are small enough.
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>>>At some point metric system will get complete control, but not sooner than US customers stop to be the biggest spenders so other world rushes catering to them. I mean it's not a question of traditions only.
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>>>>And haven't there been problems with the Shuttle, some contractors producing metric componenets and some (idiot) contractors doing it in feet and inches, for Godssakes? It makes me cringe when I see film/TV of Americans measuring, say a length of wood, and calling out "Yea, that's 3 feet 6 and 5/16 inches" or some such, when they could just read off "x point y centimeters", or "x-ty-y mm". What does it matter whether or not you're used to the units - it's just marks on a tape, to be read/recorded.
>>>>
>>>>>This reminds me of the Mars Orbiter fubar, where imperial measurements were used when metric units were expected... in the software that computed the orbit of the craft. Didnt work out that well.
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