The selection of preferred metric values for design and construction

A comprehensive examination of considerations involved in the selection of preferred metric values during the change to Sl in the U.S. construction community is presented. The adoption of preferred metric values and the concomitant rationalization of the technical data base will be one of the main benefits of the change to metric (Sl) units. The principal aim is to encourage the choice of simple, convenient, or preferred metric values and ranges of rational values, rather than exact or marginally rounded soft conversions of existing values which will generally require a second change to more workable numbers at a later stage.