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I agree with 92mercmadman that its sometimes a little quiet. So I have a question that may spark a little interest. I'm a Cănadian and we made the switch to the metric system back in the 70's. We now have an unfortunatehybrid system that incorporates both systems (lumber is stillpurchased by the inch / foot and gasis purchased by the litre). My question to the forum is: why do Amercian car manufacturessize engines by the metric system (4.6 litre) instead of the old cubic inch displacement method when they never adapted the metric system? To further this, they rate engineoutput by horsepower and not by KW thereby combining two distinct measurement systems to rate a single engine. I can understand with trade requirements mandating the metricfor cars going to Canada but not for U.S. domestic use where they should still be rated by CID. I never gave this much thought until reading postings (by Americans) and found them mentioning engine size by the litre. Any thoughts?
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Actually, car manufacturers do go primary by metric, secondary by the imperial system. Reason for that is that in manufacturing, calculation, etc. etc. the metric system is logic, where as the imperial one is historical.

Here's a bit of education: The metric system is based on the elements of the earth, and equals itself in many matters of conversions.

The basics are: 1 liter of water weights exactly 1 kilogram, and takes up exactly 1 cubicmeter. Everything goes in multiples of 1, 10, 100, 1000 and so on.

Reason the US still uses the imperial system is simply because people are not familiar with the metric system. In the early 80's, the US implemented metric measurements in traffic, by posting them in addition to the standard signs (you can still see them when you i.e. go up north, west of Detroit).

But people are not willing to convert. Same thing with horsepower and kilowatt. Kilowatt is a mathematic reference to what is truly calculate-able and measurable, where as horsepower isn't.

Many countries in Europe switched to Kilowatt around 25 years ago. Event today, the measurement for power still lists horsepowers right behind it in brackets.

Some things never die!

Greetings!

 

&lt; src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" =text/&gt; </>The basics are: 1 liter of water weights exactly 1 kilogram, and takes up exactly 1 cubicmeter. Everything goes in multiples of 1, 10, 100, 1000 and so on.



Actually (as I am sure you meant) a liter of water takes up 1/1000 of a cubic meter.





In Alabama they fooled around with Km markers on the interstates. So theyput up the Km markers and left the old mile markers up to allow time to convert. That created a real mess as you could not distinguish the two unless you slowed to 20 mph and pulled out binoculers to read the tiny "Km". The dummies made them the exact same size, shape and color !!


That was bad enough but soon it got deadly.....litterally. People were phoning in accidents and quoting mile markers when they were reading Km markers. Ambulances were going to the wrong places.....and the lawsuits began.


THAT was the end of the Km system on Alabama highways, they pulled them all out in a week.....LOL&lt; =text/&gt; _uacct = "UA-939292-45"; urchinTracker(); </>&lt; src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" =text/&gt; </>&lt; =text/&gt; _uacct = "UA-939292-45"; urchinTracker(); </>&lt; src="http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js" =text/&gt; </>&lt; =text/&gt; _uacct = "UA-939292-45"; urchinTracker(); </>
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You're right, 1 cubic meter, we all would be living on boats LOL

Greetings!

 

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Thanks for the response guys. I wish Ontario followed Alabama's lead on implimenting the metric system. The nice thing is that Mercury has taken care of us once again with their digital dash - instant conversion!
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