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From: Timothy Covell <timothy.covell@ashavan.org>
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To: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Changing KB, MB, and GB to KiB, MiB, and GiB =?iso-8859-1?q?in	Configure=2Ehelp=2E?=
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 22:49:34 -0600
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On Friday 21 December 2001 22:32, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Followup to:  <200112220152.fBM1qJSr022347@svr3.applink.net>
> By author:    Timothy Covell <timothy.covell@ashavan.org>
> In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
>
> > No, the US never went metric.  That's why $200M Mars probes crash on
> > entry due to some idiot using English units as opposed to the NASA
> > standard of Metrics.  The funny thing is that Thomas Jefferson, an
> > American President, suggested the Metric system to the French while he
> > was ambassador there.
>
> Ewhat?!
>
> 	-hpa

I'm assuming that you're questioning Jefferson's role.   Here are a couple of
quotations which show that Jefferson's idea predated the official 
implemenation.    I can do more digging if need be.

1791 - "Jefferson Report." Thomas Jefferson described England's weight and 
measures standards to Congress "on the supposition that the present measures 
are to be retained," and also outlined a decimal system of weights and 
measures of Jefferson's conception.

And:

As the scientists were experimenting in their laboratories, practical 
tradesmen were making themselves permanent standards. In 1793, during 
Napoleon's time, the French government adopted a new system of standards 
called the metric system, based on what they called the metre.


-- 
timothy.covell@ashavan.org.
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