>>Americans still don't want to realise how small a part of the real, measure up, world they are in maybe? (Having a dig!)

Brian several industries still use imperial as a standard regardless of their location in relation to the US. I'm not arguing that metric is not easier to learn and apply system, I am however citing the fact as mentioned earlier that every cad package I know of can swap back and forth the units with a couple of clicks so it is really a moot point. As for the Mars lander they were probably off by more than a decimal place to say the least and an organization like NASA should have a strict QA program that requires all work done to certain standards and they managed to launch us another $125 million into debt......