are you offering that as a misconception, or as an all too unfortunately correct conception?

As kids in New York City, we naturally learned the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Shortly after my brother (2 years younger) learned it, he recited: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the country for Richard Stands..... Dad; who's Richard Stands?

This thread reminds me of "Act One: Small Thoughts in Big Brains." from This American Life #293: A Little Bit of Knowledge, particularly the story about somebody who asked, in all seriousness whether unicorns are endangered or extinct (about 8 and a half minutes into the episode).

Agreed. I'm only 19 and I love music that's been out way before I was even born.

Also, for misconceptions:

I, for a while, thought the lead singer of Muse was a girl. At least, when I listened to their song "Unintended". Then, I found out, it's actually a guy. This was like 7 years back.

Ahem: I think you mean convert from standard to quaint :D

And then there was the famed "Gimli Glider", a commercial flight that ran out of fuel because they had loaded liters, but thought they were gallons.

My favorite part of the story is the captain was suspended for six months after the incident, but subsequently given an award for his outstanding flying during the incident...

yeesh. so the lesson to be learned, kiddies, from this (and AIG), is that f@#king-up is a good thing, as long as you can make yourself look like a hero by keeping the problem you caused just short of being a complete disaster.

wunnerful.

My favourite bit was the fact that loss of both engines meant loss of instrumentation in the cockpit. Talk about salting the wound.

Wasn't really the pilot's fault - ground crew told him he had enough fuel to go to Vancouver (other end of the country for non-Canadians) and the (non-essential) fuel gauge wasn't working.

No commercial, heavy aircraft pilot has the time or qualifications to personally inspect the entire plane before a flight.

I was on a flight from England to Canada when the pilot announced that they were running late because the computer wasn't accepting the fuel load data. There aren't many places to land in the north Atlantic.....

Yeah, and honestly, if you look at the story, it was a long string of misunderstandings that lead to that difficulty. But to be honest, the Captain is the one in charge, so it always comes back to him. So, while I sympathize, I also think he should have looked over the whole equation (including the units used), especially since he knew the fuel gauge was out.

But the real problem was Canada's decision to adapt the International System of Units (MKS) in 1970. Makes sense from a global perspective but none at all with our nearest neighbor and major trading partner, the USA, holding out for its US Customary Unit system.

The result in Canada is that materials of all kinds still have US dimensions (standard paper sizes, plywood, structural timber, drywall, flooring, photographs, etc.) and most manufacturing firms have to use both; metric fasteners, for example, for products shipped off continent, US fasteners for those going south of the border. Engineering schools use the metric system and kids learn it in school, but then to read any US Engineering publication, they have to translate all the units, for which they have no feel. When we watch the news from the US, the dimensions, if any, are converted, so what were round-numbered estimates become strange distances, i.e. 75' becomes 22.86 meters.

The result: confusion.

Well, I think what the really real problem is, is that...uh (sorry, sentence got confusing ;).) Yeah, anyway, I really wish the US would switch to metric. I like the idea of 100cm in a m and 1000m in a km, rather than all this weird 36 inch in a yard and 5128...uh...5180...5280? Whatever! Feet in a mile (see, that's why I hate it!)

Honestly, this stupid pride for our stupid system is, well, stupid. So I hope we change, sooner rather than later.

You've hung in there for nearly 40 years now after the rest of the world (even Britain) has gone metric, so I don't see a change soon. I used to do some design and control work for a small company in Massachusetts. About half of their product went to Canada, Great Britain, France, Belgium, etc. Their approach was to design and build in US units, but use all metric fasteners for product shipped away.

One of the downsides of the popularity of foreign cars is that DIY types have to maintain two sets of tools. I have two complete sets of sockets, hex, and box end wrenches but all the sockets fit US standard ratchet handles.