Having sorted out the Universal Measurement Problem, I am now left with the Universal Switch Problem...
Up for on, or down for on?
After a day of switching toggle switches, etc, on my various Aircraft, up for on, I find that I am going around my house wondering why my Kettle is not boiling, and why my Hoover is not hoovering, and why I keep switching my lights off!
You see, in my part of the world we switch switches DOWN for on, in a similar way that we drive on the left-hand side of the road, and unwind our Toilet Paper from the outside of the roll.
It takes quite a while to re-educate my brain in this confusing switching application.
I can look at a switch for ages, wondering what I should do to operate the toggle to electrify, or de-electrify, a particular piece of household electrical apparatus before me....!
Therein lies my daily problem!
This is a bit late but here's my theory on the switches in aircraft cockpits. It all started with magneto switches which are earthed (grounded for our US cousins) to switch them OFF. This meant that to switch them ON (breaking the circuit) they were moved in the opposite direction from conventional household switches.
Early aircraft mag switches were ordinary household light switches like this.
For many years they were the only electrical switches in aircraft cockpits so when others were introduced they followed the same convention - UP for ON.
Why Americans always seem to do things the opposite way round from us has always been a mystery to me. :-/ I suspect it might have been deliberate to demonstrate their independence from the Old Country.
...!
