Re: In Aus, officially it's cubic metres, but
Edward in Vancouver
>This is where it really gets interesting. As a baker/cook by trade, I insist on using metric, makes things a whole lot easier for costing,inventory calculations, and especially recipie conversions, but most of this is done with metric weights, not measurement.
When working with wood, I still find it much easier to use imperial. Virtually all the lumber here (at least in B.C.) is still in imperial, hardwood sold by the board foot, or, if dimensioned, by linear foot, and since most of my projects are made for our house that was made with imperial measurements (8'ceilings, studs on 16" centers, etc.), I am reluctant to go to metric. Now, that being said, it drives me absolutely nuts to work with fractions, won't use a rule that has anything smaller than 1/16" graduations, too confusing. So with measurements smaller than an 1/2" I'll cheat and use millimeters, far simpler.
The French and metric? Think it was Napolean who got the whole metric thingee rolling. Seems his quarter-masters were getting hosed on buying supplies for the army, one city/town/region used one system, the next another. Napleon put out a commision for a universal system, and a group of scientists and philosophers developed a system based on the largest common denominator in the world, water. (Napolean also put out a commision for preserving food, crafty old guy knew an army marches on it's stomache. It was Appert who preserved fresh dairy cream, got the commision, and paved the way for canning other foods) Metric system was "adopted" immediately, those who didn't "adopt" it got to check out first hand how good the edge on the guillotine was...
