From: Marco Cimarosti (marco.cimarosti@essetre.it)
Date: Tue Aug 19 2003 - 10:52:15 EDT
Pim Blokland wrote:
> > It must be a reeeeeally urgent need if one cares about those 3.28
> metres...
>
> 4.28 actually.
Ooops.
> But are you serious about lengthening the yard to be the same size
> as the meter?
I was just joking...
> Ha! Fat chance! You might as well suggest we abolish the yard
> altogether!
... What I really meant was this, in fact.
Everybody understands that "50 yards" on a sign for a toilet, or "1000
yards" on a sign for a filling station are just rough approximation
(especially since they cannot know in advance which closet or hose I will
use). They just mean "The toilet is quite close, resist!" and "Start slowing
down and prepare to turn".
It would be just as fine writing "50 m" or "1000 m". Of course, this is if
you *want* to abolish the imperial system and adopt the metre; but this *is*
what UK and Ireland have decided to do.
_ Marco
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