Magna Carta, signed on 15 June 1215, said, “Let there be one measure …”. This week, we illustrate the consequences of ignoring this principle by looking at some old measurement units whose meanings have now largely been forgotten.
Category: General
Was the metre invented by the Ancient Egyptians 4500 years ago?
One of our readers, John Frewen-Lord, speculates that the metre may be the modern version of a measure that was familiar to the Pharaohs.
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Panama catches up
Readers may have come across news stories concerning the conversion of petrol pumps in Panama from US gallons to litres. In this article, Metric Views aims to provide some background information.
DfT guilty of making unfounded claims
Yesterday, the National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the UK Department for Transport (DfT) for its unfounded claims about the benefits of the proposed high speed rail project HS2. In this article, Ronnie Cohen identifies another unfounded claim by the DfT – one that relates to the change to metric units on road signs.
A statement from UKIP
UKIP’s recent electoral successes have resulted, quite rightly, in increased scrutiny of its policies. Here, we take a look at a recent statement by the Party’s Trade spokesman on the subject of measurement units.
It’s trade or bust for Britain
This is the title of a recent article by Robert Peston, the BBC’s Business Editor. Clearly, successive UK governments over the years have failed to steer the country away from the latter and towards the former. We suggest a simple step that would help.
Familiar with imperial? Do you know that…?
Miles, yards, feet and inches, pints, pounds and stones. Yes, fifty years after the UK embarked on the metric transition, we still need to be familiar with some of those old units. In this article, Ronnie Cohen looks at some of the less well known and largely forgotten features of the imperial system.
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The Grand National’s unhelpful measurements
The race has been run. Pictures and commentary have been broadcast around the world, and millions will have formed an impression of Britain in 2013. Ronnie Cohen asks if more could have been made of this opportunity to publicise UK plc.
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Why is it important to weigh ourselves in kg?
The measurement mess in Britain is in itself reason enough for the discontinued use of stones and pounds for personal body mass (commonly weight), but is there a case for using kilograms that goes beyond this?
This article proposes that there are possible implications for those trying to lose or maintain weight from a poor choice of measurement units.
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The 1895 Select Committee on weights and measures
This article looks back to the findings and recommendations of the 1895 Parliamentary Select Committee on weights and measures.
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Metric Views 