cubic gallons

[Wilson Gray]

To paraphrase the punchline of an anecdote: "This is the United
States, where the metric system has no rights."

-Wilson

On 9/22/05, Michael McKernan <mckernan at localnet.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Michael McKernan <mckernan at LOCALNET.COM>
> Subject:      Re: cubic gallons
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> >FWIW, back in the '70's, there was a company that sold liquid
> >hand-cleaner in containers whose content it referred to as "four
> >liters - one metric gallon." I thought that was pretty cool.
> >Unfortunately, Weights & Measures did not agree and the company had to
> >simplify the statement of content to the far more prosaic "four
> >liters." My feeling is that, if there can be metric tons, why not also
> >metric gallons? For the average Joe Blow working a job that requires
> >the use of a special hand-cleaner, "one metric gallon" probably makes
> >more sin... uh, sense than "four liters."
>
> A 'metric gallon' consisting of four liters (to approximate the English
> gallon), would be a departure from the basic ideology of the metric system,
> which AFAIK, is firmly committed to the 'decimal' system.  Thus, it already
> has a volume measure, the 'deciliter', (1/10 of a liter).  Apparently not
> in common use, the next-larger-than-liter metric unit would be a
> 'dekaliter' (or'decaliter'?), equal to 10 liters.
>
> Michael McKernan
>


--
-Wilson Gray