A recent report published in the US suggests that the UK Government’s plans to boost science and engineering may be undermined by its muddled policies on measurement units.
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Category: Science
Possible redefinition of the second
A few days ago, a news story appeared about the possible redefinition of the second. The BBC reported that scientists have invented a clock that loses just one second in 300 million years.
What did the royal baby really weigh?
One of the most infuriating practices of the British media is to translate the proper medical data recorded by the hospital (in kilograms, naturally) into the obsolete units that were once used by our grandparents or great-grandparents. Thus, our future head of state is described as weighing in at “8lbs 6oz”. So how much is that, and is it a lot or a little?
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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Joules – rare but minor progress for metrication
After many recent setbacks, it is pleasing to report a small but significant bit of progress in the long campaign to make the metric system (SI) the default system of measurement in the UK. This minor (but perhaps somewhat pyrrhic) victory concerns front-of-pack (FOP) labelling.
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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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1862 report from the Select Committee on weights and measures
The question of adopting metric measures in the UK is not a new proposition; in 1862 Parliament’s Select Committee on Weights and Measures considered the matter and came down firmly in favour of metrication. A century and a half later, we are still waiting for the government to finally complete the job. The full report can be read here. A summary follows:
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A UK metric time line from 1980
In June last year, we published a time line up to 1980 showing progress towards the adoption of a single, simple, logical and coherent measurement system in the British Isles. We now bring this story up to date.
A trip to the Imperial Scrapyard
When consulting a reference book from 1896, we came across an article about imperial measures which provides a timely reminder that, even in its heyday, this ‘system’ was not as straightforward as some would now have us believe.
Cabinet Office gets its kilowatts in a twist
Visitors to the Cabinet Office website will see that this branch of the Government is measuring its energy use in “kilowatt-hours per hour”. It is a sad reflection on the quality of civil service support given to this crucial part of the Government machine that such an incongruous and scientifically illiterate measure should be published.
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Metric Views 