Re: Cool math clock Message #17 Posted by Dan Grelinger on 8 Apr 2013, 12:31 p.m., in response to message #14 by Xavier A. (Brazil)
Yes, you likely grew up outside the influence of the U.S. When I was in grade school (40 years ago) there was a failed attempt here to push the metric system into wide use. I remember a gasoline station near my home reset their pumps to dispense gasoline in liters instead of gallons. However, instead of pricing gasoline as the equivalent to the station selling in gallons next door, they priced it much higher, assuming that people would not be smart enough to know the difference. That lasted for about 6 months, but obviously people figured it out, and the station had to revert back to pricing in gallons at a competitive price. If only this station had priced their gasoline CHEAPER than competing stations selling in gallons, perhaps the SI conversion in the U.S. would have been successful.
The SI units have been proposed as the 'universal standard', but when a proposal is only adopted by some and not all, it perhaps is not yet truly universal. Not that it shouldn't be. It is just that old habits are hard to break.
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