<MSGID_1=3A387=2F22_52680035@fidonet.org>
From: alexander koryagin <koryagin@erec.ru>

Hi, Roy Witt!
I read your message from 23.10.2013 11:57

  RW>>> different systems, Metric and English measure. Who has the upper
  RW>>> hand, again?

  ak>> Suppose that some President can say to the Americans - we need to
  ak>> go the metric system because we have difficulties in selling our
  ak>> goods. Our spare parts are incompatible with ones from the metric
  ak>> world, even a puny screw. So, we have two possibilities: to close
  ak>> our car production and fire workers, or to accept the metric
  ak>> system and sell more goods in the metric world.

  RW> He'd be blowing hot air in the wind. We already manufacture in
  RW> metrics and most blueprints have dimensions in metric and SAE (not
  RW> just one, but two ways of measuring the same dimensions).

    I read some years ago that an American Martian probe crashed on its 
surface because the programmers mixed up miles and kilometers. It is 
difficult to sit on two chairs.

  RW> currency, which first appeared in the early 19th century is an
  RW> example of the forward thinking of our country's founders. One
  RW> dollar consists of 100 cents (. 01), or one dime (. 10 dollar), but
  RW> you can also have. 05 and. 25 of a dollar. Either way, the dollar
  RW> is an example of how our currency was devised way back when.

  RW> Whereas, the British method of pounds and shillings is still used
  RW> today, although it came from the dark ages when the King's nose
  RW> gave them inches and their currency composed of how many 'pounds'
  RW> the King weighed. All other countries in Europe were built on the
  RW> same idea, until miraculously, someone came up with a decimal
  RW> system equivelant of the dollar and called it a Euro!

    Pounds and shillings are used in the UK, but they were decimalised.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling
-----Beginning of the citation-----
Since decimalisation in 1971 (see Decimal Day), the pound has been
divided into 100 pence (until 1981 described on the coinage as "new
pence".
...
Prior to decimalisation, the pound was divided into 20 shillings and
each shilling into 12 pence, making 240 pence to the pound.
-----The end of the citation-----

  ak>> BTW, a funny story happened in the USSR in 1930s. The famous
  ak>> aircraft designer Tupolev (do you remember his TU-104, TU-144?)
  ak>> was given a lot of money and sent to the US to buy full licenses
  ak>> to produce some American aircrafts in the USSR. He indeed had
  ak>> bought some crafts with the complete documentation, but it had
  ak>> appeared that the USSR cannot produce them -- everything was
  ak>> different! We had plants to produce alluminum sheets, bars etc,
  ak>> but we could do it in the metric system only. It meant, that the
  ak>> crafts should have been completely redesigned, or they would have
  ak>> been out of balance. It cost so much, that Tupolev was declared a
  ak>> saboteur and put in prison. It was one of the first victims of the
  ak>> American system in the USSR. ;=)
  RW> LOL! All Tupolev had to do was mulitiply any inch dimension by 25.4
  RW> and he'd have the equivalant dimension in metric.

    As I can explain it, an aircraft is made from the materials produced 
by the local industry. The USSR industry had different metric standards. 
For instance, a standard aluminum sheet (to make an aircraft body) had 
another thickness, size and weight. The same was for metal bars and 
another details.

  RW> make himself a chart of conversion and would have been a hero
  RW> instead of a saboteur. As it was, he was a victim of his own
  RW> ignorance and should have had that all worked out before he left
  RW> America, where he could have had some help in doing the
  RW> conversions. I was taught the difference in the 1940s as a child,
  RW> so those conversions aren't rocket science.

    Probably, he thought that getting aircrafts and documentation was 
enough to learn how it works. As an aircraft designer he was right. But 
it was impossible to start making those crafts. Every craft consisted of 
thousands of details and hardware. Even screws were different. It was 
not enough to change sizes, they needed to make tons of new 
documentation, taking in mind the USSR's standards; they had to be sure 
that, for instance, an aircraft rear had such a weight that didn't spoil 
the overall balance during the flight.

Bye, Roy!
Alexander Koryagin
fido7.english-tutor 2013
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