Britain is currently adopting European codes for structural design and allowing British Standard codes to lapse. This raises the issue of the preferred decimal marker – should imperial or continental practice be followed?
Continue reading “Eurocodes for structural design, and that decimal marker”
The powers that be of the metric system are wrestling with the problem of defining the kilogram independently of an actual physical object (i.e. the very slowly degrading cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy kept at Sèvres, near Paris, known as “the international prototype of the kilogram”). Meanwhile, they are neglecting a longstanding question that urgently cries out for a solution. [Article contributed by Martin Clutterbuck].
One of our readers, John Frewen-Lord, has been housebound for four days by the recent heavy snow falls – about 60 cm deep in his area. This has prompted him to provide an illustration of the comparative simplicity of calculating snow loads in metric units.
It has been said that Britain is becoming a knowledge economy, and also that metal bashing can now be safely left to the low-wage economies of the Far East. If only it were that simple. Consider the railway industry …
Continue reading “Parts of the knowledge economy hit the buffers in South America”
For many in Britain, the metric system and decimal measures are the same. Sunday’s once-in-a-century date provides an opportunity to consider the link between the two.
The UK’s twelfth largest consultancy by turnover, Scott Wilson, has been bought by the US design firm URS for £218 million. URS is second in the ‘Engineering News Record’ list of top 500 design firms. Metric Views speculates that Scott Wilson’s metric know-how is crucial for URS in this acquisition.
Two questions from a reader have prompted thoughts about the impact on UK trade of the continued use of pound/inch units in the US, and about the future prospects for manufacturing industry. Continue reading “Measuring, trading and manufacturing”
One of the main advantages of SI – the metric system – is that it can be used for any measurement task (from the kitchen to the science lab) – thus avoiding the need to learn a plethora of specific units for specific purposes. However, is there a case for making certain exceptions to this rule? (Warning: this article is for the technically-minded).
Continue reading “Is there room for non-standard units within SI?”
A reader of Metric Views points out that confusion on the reporting of this disaster is not limited to the UK.
A recent exchange of e-mails between Ezra, a reader of MetricViews in the USA, and Tony, in the UK, suggests that recent years have seen changes for the better in weather reporting in the both the UK and Canada. Do other readers of MetricViews share Tony’s viewpoint? Continue reading “An improvement in the weather”
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