The US public is not interested in converting from a system that has been in place since before they were born. However, virtually every research laboratory uses equipment and measurements based on metric units, and papers published in peer-reviewed journals report things in metric units. Our cars have both on the speedometers - but that's probably more of a consequence of being cheaper for car manufacturers to print a dual dial for cars going to US and/or Canada. My vehicles and tools are a mix of units - cars and tools made in Asia or Europe verus those from US. Every hardware store stock nuts and bolts of both types. I'm a woodworker and a scientist, so I go back and forth all the time. I use what's most convenient or 'fits' the purpose. But, every house, all of our lumbers, etc. is in inches and feet, so metric often doesn't 'fit' - too much infra-structure already in place. And the average person doesn't use metric; they use what they grew up with. *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html