Quote:
Originally Posted by p38arover
Not true. Canada and Europe use it.
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I suspect that, as in Australia, while officially it is l/100km, many if not most people use km/l, the same as many here use mpg, but with even more tendency to continue the old way because no change of units is involved.
Interestingly, I am currently reading a book ("Measure of all things", Ken Alder) on the establishment of the metre by measurement of an arc of the meridian in 1789-96. It gives details of the adoption of the metric system. In France, it was introduced in 1795 (with a provisional metre), abolished in 1806 in favour of traditional Paris measures (as part of Napoleon's rapprochement with the Catholic Church prior to his Russian adventure), and reintroduced after the 1830 revolution. But according to the author, it did not replace the traditional measures in everyday practice until after the Great War (1914-18), when the metric system, used by the military, was indoctrinated into everyone who either served in the army or dealt with it - which meant just about everyone in France! It had been adopted earlier (1820s onward) as part of the unification efforts in the Netherlands and later in Germany and Italy for the same reason (And spread to their colonies).
John