dimensions in Potterverse

[Joe Bento]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Sandra Collins"
<sandra87b at y...> wrote:

> Sandra writes:

> Sandra (off for a cup of tea - the cup is not a unit of 
> measurement)

Oh?  I thought a cup was 8 ounces.  :-)

When I was in primary school in the 1970's, the United States was
really on the metric bandwagon.  Shell Oil (yes, I realize it's a
British company) even began selling their gasoline in litres.  Road
signs where I grew up in the Bay Area stated distance in both miles
and kilometres.    

This lasted a very short while.  The mistake was trying to get
Americans used to metric by having them convert measurements rather
than taking them for what they are.  After all, a litre isn't a litre
- it's .264 gallons (US Gallon, that is).

Actually, I'm surprised metric didn't catch on.  The national speed
limit was lowered to 55mph in the 70's.  After all, would you rather
drive 55mph or 88kmh?  And today, the legal speed limit is closer to
120kmh on rural interstates.

Ironically, nearly all tooling for American automobiles, and all
manufacturing for that matter is metric.  My career in electronics has
ALWAYS been metric.  It's only our everyday life that the conversion
hasn't taken place.

Joe