How can you tell a hard-boiled egg from a fresh egg? The answer is simple – you spin them. The fresh egg will come to rest a lot quicker than the hard-boiled egg. The reason? When spinning a fresh egg, the friction between the yolk and the shell causes a loss of rotational energy within the egg thus slowing it down. In the same way, friction between the earth’s core and the earth’s mantle and the friction between the tides and the seabed causes the earth to slow down, albeit slowly.
Continue reading “Changes to the Definition of the Time of Day”UK is an outlier on imperial road signs and much more
The UK is unique among European countries for its continued use of imperial units on road signs. Its road signs are almost exclusively imperial. The use of miles, yards, feet and inches dominates UK road signs whereas the rest of Europe, excluding the crown dependencies in the British Isles, uses metres and kilometres on road signs.
This is the not the only area where the UK is an outlier compared to the rest of Europe. Many other areas of British life are exceptional or highly unusual compared to the rest of Europe. These areas are described in this article.
Continue reading “UK is an outlier on imperial road signs and much more”Inflated Costs and Political Evasion: How Westminster Manufactures “Unaffordable” Policies
Across multiple policy domains, Westminster has developed a reliable method for avoiding action: publish an inflated, implausible cost estimate and use it to declare reform unaffordable and shut down debate. The tactic is so entrenched that it now shapes debates on infrastructure, utilities, education, climate adaptation, and even measurement policy. The Department for Transport’s wildly exaggerated claims about the cost of converting road signs to metric were later dismantled by FOI evidence showing real‑world conversions were far cheaper. Today, the same pattern is visible in the £100bn headline figure used to deter discussion of water‑industry nationalisation. How are these inflated numbers produced and why do they persist? Where else are they used to avoid necessary action?
Continue reading “Inflated Costs and Political Evasion: How Westminster Manufactures “Unaffordable” Policies”UKMA Patron Jim Al-Khalili to give series of lectures about time
UKMA patron Professor Jim Al-Khalili will tackle the science of time, investigating a series of questions in this year’s CHRISTMAS LECTURES® from the Royal Institution, it was announced yesterday. He will explore what time actually is and reveal why it remains one of science’s most tantalising and mysterious topics.
The second, a unit of time, is one of the base units of the metric system. All the other base units except the mole are based on formulas that contain the second. Time is fundamental in some metric measurements such as speed (e.g. km/h, m/s), and acceleration (e.g. m/s2). The second is also used in some SI derived units such as the newton, the joule, the watt and the hertz.
Continue reading “UKMA Patron Jim Al-Khalili to give series of lectures about time”Metrication: The Perfect Example of Westminster’s Pattern of Creating a Mess and Never Cleaning It Up
Ever since the court cases of the so-called Metric Martyrs about a quarter of a century ago, the UK’s metrication programme has been stalled. It has been in limbo ever since: officially ongoing, practically stalled, politically untouchable. It is not just a story about units of measurement. It is a case study in how Westminster creates long‑running policy messes, performs the rituals of action, avoids responsibility, and ultimately moves on without ever resolving the underlying problem.
Metrication is the perfect example of Westminster’s “Create a Mess, Go Through the Motions, Make Excuses, Move On” pattern. In recent years, this pattern has occurred across multiple domains—from higher education to HS2, from austerity to water regulation. Metrication is a clear example of a deeper Westminster habit: botched policy reform without structural completion. This article maps that pattern and shows how metrication illustrates it perfectly.
Continue reading “Metrication: The Perfect Example of Westminster’s Pattern of Creating a Mess and Never Cleaning It Up”Copilot advice to British government on road signs
I asked Copilot “What are the arguments for and against switching road signs to metric? And given the arguments for and against the metrication of road signs, what would be the logical course of action for the British government to take?” The questions were unbiased and used neutral wording to ask Copilot to evaluate the arguments on both sides of the debate and make some recommendations to the British government based on all the arguments. Below are Copilot’s exact words – unedited. What advice does Copilot have for the British government on road signs? Read on to find out.
Continue reading “Copilot advice to British government on road signs”Roads, Signs and the Slow March to Metrication: What the 1968–1970 Council Correspondence Reveals
Between 1968 and 1970, Britain’s transition toward the metric system generated a remarkable volume of correspondence between county surveyors, borough engineers, police constabularies, education advisers and the Ministry of Transport. These letters—practical, candid, sometimes frustrated—capture a moment when local authorities were grappling with the implications of metrication for road signs, speed limits, education and engineering standards.
What emerges is a vivid administrative snapshot: uncertainty about timelines, concerns over cost, debates about sign placement and the recurring question of how to prepare for a metric future while still operating in an imperial present. This article brings together these voices, showing how the metrication debate unfolded on the ground.
Continue reading “Roads, Signs and the Slow March to Metrication: What the 1968–1970 Council Correspondence Reveals”Britain’s Metric Turning Point: Inside BSI’s 1968 Push for a Modern Measurement System
In August 1968, the British Standards Institution (BSI) published one of its most consequential issues of BSI News: a comprehensive, sector‑by‑sector roadmap for Britain’s transition to the metric system. At a time when engineering, manufacturing, construction and public administration were still deeply rooted in imperial units, BSI’s programme represented a decisive shift toward international alignment, industrial efficiency and long‑term economic competitiveness.
The original pages from that 1968 issue offer a rare, detailed snapshot of the UK’s metrication strategy at the moment it was being built. This article synthesises those pages into a coherent narrative, showing how BSI planned the transition, how industry responded and how the government positioned metrication as a national priority.
Continue reading “Britain’s Metric Turning Point: Inside BSI’s 1968 Push for a Modern Measurement System”Changing to the Metric System: Background, Progress and Lessons for Today
In late 1968, the Ministry of Technology published Changing to the Metric System: Background and Progress, a comprehensive explanation of why the United Kingdom needed to adopt the metric system and how the transition should unfold. More than half a century later, the document reads like a snapshot of a moment when Britain was poised to modernise its measurement system in line with global practice.
This report revisits that publication, summarises its key arguments and reflects on its relevance to today’s stalled metrication programme.
Continue reading “Changing to the Metric System: Background, Progress and Lessons for Today”The Bridge Strike Problem
The signposting of the clearance of bridges and other overhead obstructions in the United Kingdom is a mess. Clearances on service station canopies, access to buildings and car parks, motorway construction sites and airside at airports are given in metric units while until 2002 imperial units were used exclusively on road signs. In 2002, the use of metric units alongside imperial units was permitted on height, width and length restriction signs and in 2016 it became mandatory to use both metric and imperial units. It appears that the 2016 requirement to use both units is not properly enforced, possibly to placate voters who are opposed to metrication.
Continue reading “The Bridge Strike Problem”
