Philip Bladon of Redditch puts this question. He also asks which local authority is most supportive of metrication. The editors of Metric Views, however, have doubts about whether this would be a useful line of enquiry, and invite comment from readers.
Category: General
An expatriate’s perspective on metrication
This letter from an expatriate Brit in Switzerland may be of interest. It illustrates very well the frustration felt by many people (not only expatriates) at the insularity and ignorance of so many of our compatriots.
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How big is a hectare?
One of the least known metric units – and one which journalists and estate agents seem to struggle with – is the hectare (ha). So perhaps it will help to relate this very useful measure to the sizes of sports fields. Article (including diagrams) by Martin Vlietstra.
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Are imperial units natural? (and some useful rules of thumb)
One of the claims sometimes made by defenders of imperial weights and measures is that they are “natural”. The metric system (they may say) is all very well for science and technical matters, but for everyday life imperial units like the foot conform to the human scale and are more “natural”, unlike the arbitrary metric unit, the metre. We examine this argument.
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What’s wrong with two systems?
Defenders of imperial units sometimes claim that using units from different systems simply contributes to the richness of our language and culture. People use whichever units are appropriate to the context (they argue).
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