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We are unable to convince citizens in the USA to convert from imperial to metric measurements, despite the numerous benefits including easier conversion, scalability, etc. If you cannot convince a populace that it's easier to divide by 10 than 12, then there is little hope you can convince them to switch languages so they can avoid using irregular verbs.

For anyone that doesn't live in one of the three countries in the world that persists with imperial units, 10lbs is about 4.5kg.

Didn't you notice the inch in the article? Well, you live in a country where people know the little difference between kilo (k), mega (M), giga (G), tera (T) and peta (P). You probably also know that life is much easier with only one metric unit per physical quantity instead of the chaos people love to deal with in the US. The good news is that you belong to the 95% of the people in the world who understand this matter. Sigh.

please ASAP.

Actually, yvesdandoy used the right units (SI), he just got the wrong number from a table with the wrong units. ;-) Let's face it: only 5% of the population on Earth still has a problem with the metric system. It seems ignorance cannot be cured.

The article posted here at /. refers to "mph". I see too often that students use such nonsense. Of course, they have no concept for units. If someone had told them at school to write "km/h" instead, then the students may realize one day that this means distance divided by time. They would prefer a system where each physical quantity requires only one (1) unit or a product of other units (one unit for time, only one for distance, one for mass etc.). They would know that G, M, k, m, etc. are only factors with a radix of 10. They would find that formulas and units used in formulas have to match on both sides of an equation. They would be able to verify this relationship for every equation and benefit from this simple test. Students would appreciate the concept of having the same radix for units and our number system (only 10 - not 6, 12, 14 and 16 combined). I see too often kids leaving high school with absolutely no concept for units. No offense, but something goes very wrong. It is not just in Kansas.

I am sure the next /. "mph" article will show up shortly.

http://www.metric4us.com/

BTW the cross section of neutrinos interacting with hadrons and leptons is so small that most neutrinos penetrate earth without interaction. Our probes are just not made out of neutrinos.

The author of the cited article did indeed have a problem with units and their interpretation (understanding). For example "km/second" should be km/s (at least there is no "kph"), or "tons/cm2" should be t/cm^2. Anyway, the author also neglected to mention the thickness of the material. A km thick layer of paper will stop a bullet, too.

http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/
http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/200/202/metrsty3.htm
http://www.metric4us.com/

I find all players with memory sticks, memory cards and harddisks way too expensive. The good old portable 12cm CD players are much more affordable. They start at $30 including shipping (see for example pricewatch). CD-R's at a price of $11/100 disks incl. shipping are almost for free. I would also not like to constantly upload music onto the memory or harddisk every time I am in the mood for something else. But, over time I got a bit tired of the bulky disks. So I decided to go for 8cm instead of 12cm. The 8cm disks are handy, the player is not much larger, both fit into a pocket and they occupy almost no space on the desk. There are cute little wallets for the mini CD available, too. The only thing that bothers me a bit is the limited capacity of 8cm CD's. 200+ MB (units) is barely enough for two albums compressed as MP3's with variable bit rate (EAC+Lame). For a long, good concerto the capacity is sometimes only sufficient for one Audio-CD. So, what I really like to see is a tiny MP3-player for 8cm DVD's. Those little 8cm DVD's have a capacity of about 1.5 GB and their price beats any memory stick and harddisk. Unfortunately most regular (12cm) DVD players would not play MP3 files from an ISO 9660/UDF formatted hybrid, thus I expect this could be a problem for the little players, too. But, I think a little bit of good will and better firmware can make all the difference. If someone knows about such a portable 8cm DVD MP3-player, then please let us know. IMHO that would be a great alternative to all those hundred+ dollar gadgets. Anything is fine with me, except SONY. Otherwise I think that would be a great new product for the market and hope someone picks up the idea, wouldn't it?

They count their customers' feet. And the good old 'stone' is the unit to weigh the goods at Wall-Mart. 95% of the world uses the metric system. We are just a 'little bit' behind. 598-600-602-oops-603-605-...

Sounds like they found the blueprint of a Roman windmill at an archeological excavation. Try http://www.metric4us.com/ 95% of the people on earth find the Ancient Imperial units just funny.

Besides this rather geeky calculation, people who use and defend the use of the imperial system don't know how to use it! I was talking to someone about DSL, and I said something like, "even if you're 15000 feet from the CO, and you're much farther, performance would suck." and she had no idea how far that is in miles (it's a little less than 3, for our metrified friends).

That's exactly what I'm talking about. I live in the US, and I couldn't for the life of me do that conversion without the aid of a reference and a calculator. With metric, it would be so easy that I could just say it in meters or kilometers without missing a beat.