[Leica] Metric system

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

The biggest missed opportunity in getting the U.S. to adopt the metric
system was the failure to establish 100 kph as the national speed limit
during the oil crisis of 1974. In the automotive world there are several
magic numbers. One of them is the 100 mark on speedometers. If all the road
signs had been changed to "Speed Limit 100 kph" no one would have realized
that it was only 7 mph faster than the almost pedestrian 55 mph actually
adopted. One hundred  kph sounds fast. Fifty five mph sounds slow.


There is another potential opportunity right now. Gasoline should be sold by
the liter rather than by the gallon. A $4 price for gas sounds like highway
robbery. A $1 price per liter sounds almost reasonable. That's much cheaper
than a Starbuck's Grande coffee.


By the way, anyone who does any mechanical work on automobiles already has
to have a full set of metric tools.


Larry Z