[PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: metric system

[David Buchner <buchner@wcta.net>]

I see that Ray has already asked for this debate to end, so I won't put in my comments on that whole thing -- but it does bring up a question that's on-topic.

If I bought a submarine built in the UK, would its instruments be calibrated in meters and, um, (would that be N/m^2 's?)?

That is, I see airplanes still measuring altitude in feet (and have been told that this is still an aviation standard all over the world... true?), I hear NASA using nautical miles during launches, and SCUBA divers still seem to use feet. Is that just in the US, or this another of those cases where distinct special-interest communities use their own traditional "standards" regardless of the official system of the country they're in?