Conversion to metric can be ridiculous

Re: They Came, They Climbed, They Conquered, Aug. 21

The pathological aversion to imperial units of measurement in the Canadian media, even when reproducing U.S. news articles, is so silly it seems designed to avert a lawsuit from the federal government.

Not only that, the arithmetical absurdities in their efforts to calculate metric equivalents are often an embarrassment. For example, this article about Yosemite National Park states that “every time you drive about 30 metres, you go up or down about 4,265 metres.”

Apart from the fact that nobody talks about distance estimates in terms of single digits of metres, a highway that gains or loses some 4,000 metres of elevation in 30 metres will have a slope of nearly 90 degrees.

No 4WD vehicle can do it, not even my intrepid but now junked 1988 Toyota Tercel wagon. According to the article, a person falling off a cliff is said to hit the ground at 55,000 km/ h. That is simply ridiculous. In the about 1,000 metres from the top of El Capitan to the valley, an unlucky victim would reach a velocity of less than 500 km/ h. Sadly, many climbers have proven this fact, including during the past summer.

The Postmedia version of this Washington Post article states that from the top of Lambert Dome to the valley is 26 kilometres, more than 85,000 feet. How ridiculous is that?

Brian Pratt, Saskatoon