Except for that part of Europe called the UK, where car speedometers and road signs are still in miles, even though petrol is purchased in liters.
That is a great example, and I’m sure there are many others that I can’t think of right now.
But there are also many sayings which get distorted beyond recognition when the meanings of the words have been forgotten. Take these for example:
“Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” – The meaning of “wherefore” as “why” has been forgotten. Juliet was asking “Romeo, why are you a Montague, from the family that my family hates?” (or something like that, English Lit was a very long time ago). But people think she meant “Romeo, where are you? I can’t find you!”
“The exception that proves the rule” – Anyone wanna guess how often this has been discussed right on these boards, by people who don’t realize that it means “the exception that tests the rule”?
Eh, no. Cobalt-60 is what you get when you bombard Cobalt-59 with neutrons, and it is a radioactive isotope with a half-life of five years.
(How do I know that? It’s the basis for the cobalt bomb’s fallout potential.)
You’re thinking of Cesium-133. 9,192,631,770 transitions between two ultrafine states of Cs-133 is equal to one second.