Looking foolish! Curses to the metric system!

thalaw2 · July 08, 2008, 06:50:01 PM

So I had a meeting to make posters for a new course at the school. One guy suggested that we should make the posters on A3 or A4 paper.....I had no clue what he was talking about. So when he asked my opinion allz I could say wuz "sounds good to me". So we went to find a place that would make A3 or A4 paper posters, since our copy machine went south. I felt like a fool asking about A4 paper when I had no clue what I was talking about.

Anywayz, to make a long story short when the posters were made on A4 paper and shown to me I couldn't help but think it looks like regular sized paper to me. I've been living in China nearly 4 years and I never thought to think about paper sizes and the fact that they use the metric system to measure it.

Is there anything else I might be missing out on?

BWPS · July 08, 2008, 07:43:40 PM

I don't see why some countries still use such a primitive system.

GogglesPizanno · July 08, 2008, 08:00:25 PM

Seriously, join the 19th century and be done with that "logical" base 10 metric malarchy...
All the cool kids are using standard...

lugaru · July 08, 2008, 08:06:30 PM

Quote from: BWPS on July 08, 2008, 07:43:40 PM
I don't see why some countries still use such a primitive system.

Honestly I dont think there's anything more primitive than the biblically inspired system still used north of arizona. Miles, yards, feet, gallons... it's all arbitrary and incompatible with each other. I loved a letter that they recieved in Wired as to "how can we consider ourselves a leading scientific nation if we dont adopot the metric system?"

Not that people really care given the state of education...

captainspud · July 08, 2008, 08:27:10 PM

A4 paper is slightly narrower and around an inch longer than "regular" letter paper.

A3 is two of them side to side, so again, similar to 11x17 paper.

GogglesPizanno · July 08, 2008, 08:35:59 PM

QuoteA4 paper is slightly narrower and around an inch longer than "regular" letter paper.

A3 is two of them side to side, so again, similar to 11x17 paper.

Curse you and your.... "INFORMATION"
Bah.

captainspud · July 08, 2008, 08:44:33 PM

catwhowalksbyhimself · July 08, 2008, 09:14:26 PM

QuoteHonestly I dont think there's anything more primitive than the biblically inspired system still used north of arizona.

Just for the record, the English system is completely different from any and all systems of measurements used in the Bible and is far more advanced and logical. There are some commonalities as far as all systems of measurements started out the same way before the metric system came along, but that is all.

Lunarman · July 08, 2008, 11:09:00 PM

Hmm, in England we always use A4, A5 and A3 nothing else at all. Actual sizes are less important, A4 is 21x14 cm if you're interested. In england, the A4 paper size is standard for letters and other documents.

Just to let you know ;)

thalaw2 · July 09, 2008, 01:05:36 AM

Quote from: captainspud on July 08, 2008, 08:27:10 PM
A4 paper is slightly narrower and around an inch longer than "regular" letter paper.

Looks like 8.5in by 11in. to the naked eye. So that means I should take a piece of this A4 paper home with me to compare it to "regular" paper in the states? Yeeeesh!

EDIT: if this is really true then imagine then no wonder the rain forests are disappearing so fast....what is to be done with the extra inch that's cut off to make 8.5 by 11.... :P :D