Barry Kirkwood wrote:
> Really amazing to find that "Here be Dragons" signs light up when some North
> Americans are confronted with anything that is different from what they are
> used to. Sometimes this is quite crazy, like sticking with feet, inches,
> pounds, ounces etc (meanwhile happily building Japanese cars in American
> plants, where all the spanners etc must be metric.
>
Please note that "North America" includes Canada and Mexico (and many other
entities
on the DXCC list). We in VE/VA land have been officially metric for many years
now,
although the transition has been humourous in many instances. For example,
buying a
4 liter can of paint and finding that 4.54 liters will cover 8.759 square
meters!
While some of us geezers still find some units difficult to visualize, others
are
now second nature. If I hear a temperature in fahrenheit I have to convert to C
for it to make any sense. Also, I haven't a clue what a "gallon" of gasoline
costs. The price sounds much better in liters. And I agree that the British
system
of weights and measures seems quaint with its 23/64 inches, etc.
> The use of 220/230v mains vs 110volts (which most of the world thinks
> quaint) more than compensates for 60 vs 50hz. (Yes, we know that 220v is
> available in most US homes , with a bit of help from an electrician.).
>
I doubt if any homes in the U.S. or Canada are solely 115 volts. Invariably
large
items such as clothes dryers, air conditioners, electric stoves ("cookers" to
Brits?), QRO amplifiers, etc. are 230 volts. (This last example was to justify
this
somewhat off-topic post).
As to 50 vs 60 Hz, it seems to me that the choice of both was somewhat
arbitrary.
The only advantage I can see of one over the other is the lighter weight of
transformers and motors for 60 Hz. Back in the dark ages part of Southern
Ontario
was 25 Hz! The rationale was lower losses in very long transmission lines, which
turned out to not to be the case.
Bert, VE3QAA
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