The metric folks don't have so much room to laugh.  I owned a bicycle shop
for most of the 1970s.  We worked with American, English, German, French,
Italian, and Japanese parts commonly.  Guess what?  The French, Italian, and
Japanese metric fasteners were all incompatible.  The diameter and # threads
per centimeter could be the same, and they still didn't fit properly because
the thread pitch -- the angle on the threads -- was different.  I don't know
if that is still the case, but it was then.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: "Austin" <austins@IX.NETCOM.COM>
>
> >American drill sizes half-inch and under include 1/16-1/2 by 64ths, then
> >numbers 0 (a bit under 1/4) to 80 (a bit under 0.02), then letters A
(close
> >to 1/4) to Z (close to 1/2).
> >
> >The metric folks tend to fall on the floor in hysterics when they think
> >about this... <g>