[Wikipedia-l] Metric v. English
Magnus Manske
magnus.manske at epost.de
Fri Jan 3 14:01:35 UTC 2003
Jimmy Wales wrote:
>One side note is that Tarquin changed 9,000,000 square miles to
>23,000,000 square kilometers. This move was apparently
>uncontroversial.
>
>Is that right? As an American, I frankly confess that the metric
>system is a curiosity to me. 9,000,000 square miles, I can grasp,
>because I know how long a mile is intuitively. The kilometer, on the
>other hand, is non-intuitive, just an arbitrary length from a
>textbook.
>
>
As a Eurpoean, I never touched miles, yards, etc. until I worked in the
US for a few month. Always missed these highway exits ;-)
As a scientist, I have to insist that the metric system is to be the
main system used on Wikipedia! (Of course, feel free to mention
miles&co. somewhere too;-)
Magnus
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