Category: Consumer affairs

“How many what?!”

There is a new board game, about measurement, called “How Many What?!”. Or rather it is about describing the size of things without the benefit of a universal measurement system.

The game’s blurb says, “Some people will use anything but the metric system to measure things! How Many What?! is the ridiculous party game of absurd comparisons.”

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Lib Dems block ability of Minister to allow metric measures for draught beer

The Liberal Democrats have become the latest political party to join the populist “save the pint” bandwagon. However, on this occasion their action will not only preserve the use of the imperial pint as the only legal measurement unit for the dispensing of draught beer, but arguably it will also prevent government Ministers from allowing metric measures for draught beer in the future, even if only as an optional alternative to pints.

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The case for Mondopoint shoe sizes

Mondopoint is a footwear sizing system based on the foot length and linear width of the foot and is measured in millimetres. It is part of ISO standard 9407:2019, which describes the specification for Mondopoint system of sizing and marking. 1 It has the potential to replace various mutually incompatible shoe sizing systems used in different countries. Most of these systems use arbitrary numbers that do not relate to anything obvious. Even worse, different sizing systems are often used for men, women and children.

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Was the 1824 Weights and Measures Act a help or a hindrance for metrication?

The 1824 Weights and Measures Act introduced imperial standards based on physical objects with certain characteristics, such as the Imperial Standard Yard, and a single set of volume measures based on the new Imperial Gallon for dry and liquid measures to replace several that were in existence. To mark 200 years since the passing of the 1824 Weights and Measures Act, I look at the main features of the Act and ask whether it was a help or a hindrance on the path to metrication in the UK.

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Is that really one kilogram?

When a retailer weighs out his product in front of the customer, can the customer trust the scales? It is usually up to local government to certify the accuracy of such scales, though in recent years, certification of measuring devices within much of the world has been privatised with various countries’ national laboratories overseeing the certification process.

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The health benefits of switching to metric beer sizes

This week saw the publication of research into the effects of reducing the standard serving size of draught beer in the UK.

The University of Cambridge study was described by its leader as being “the first real-world study to look at this”. It shows that reducing the current standard beer glass size in bars, pubs and restaurants from the current pint (568 ml) size has the potential to reduce the total amount of alcohol consumed in the UK, and should be given consideration as part of the Government’s fight to reduce the effects of alcohol consumption on health.

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Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk

So far, Iceland seems to be the only major British supermarket that is selling own-brand milk and all other milk brands in litre-based sizes. Why haven’t any other major supermarkets followed suit by dropping pint-based milk sizes?

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