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.
Continue reading “Is that really one kilogram?”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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Why are inches used in legislation and guidance on offensive weapons?
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 is a Statutory Instrument that was made on 30 April 2024 to tackle knife crime. Parts 1 and 3 of it came into force on 26 June 2024, Part 4 came into force on 26 August 2024 and Part 2 will come into force on 24 September 2024. Part 2 contains two references to measurement. One refers to the length of a weapon’s blade and the other refers to the distance of the serrated cutting edge from a blade’s handle. And they are both in inches.
Continue reading “Why are inches used in legislation and guidance on offensive weapons?”Which non-SI units are accepted for use with the SI?
SPOILER ALERT:
The official UK and USA metrology websites are INACCURATE
Since the inception of the International System of Units (SI) in 1960, it has always been recognised that some non-SI units, such as the litre, minute and hour, are “widely used and are expected to continue to be used for many years”.
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Early Metrication on Southern African Railways
During the last decade of the nineteenth century, events in Southern Africa were dominated by the gold rush as adventurers scrambled to exploit the newly discovered in the Johannesburg area. This and the egos of and animosity between the financier and Cape Colony prime minister Cecil John Rhodes and the aging and dour president of the Transvaal Republic Paul Kruger resulted in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.
Continue reading “Early Metrication on Southern African Railways”Non-metric units in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
If like me, you are a fan of the Olympic Games, over the last 16 days you have probably enjoyed seeing the metric system used almost exclusively in TV coverage of the Games. It seems that the tendency, all too common in the 1970s, for British TV commentators to convert heights jumped, and distances thrown, into feet and inches, is definitely a thing of the past.
However, whilst most of the events, such as athletics, swimming and cycling, could be said to be exclusively metric, a few events still made use of non-metric measurement units.
Now that the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have come to a close, we take a look at some of the last hold-outs of non-metric units.
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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?
Continue reading “Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk”DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public
Did you know that there are purely metric signs (without any imperial conversions) on major roads at one hundred metre intervals? If you know this, you are one of the few who do. I am referring to marker posts and driver location signs. These signs are used by the emergency services to help them to locate stranded drivers and are incompatible with the official traffic signs for the general public, which are almost exclusively imperial.
Continue reading “DfT hides metric nature of location signs from general public”British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph
A British driver in France has been stripped of his driver licence after misreading a 125 km/h speed limit sign for 125 mph. This is not the first time that miles and kilometres have been confused when reading speed limits. Back in January 2021, Metric Views reported a similar case of a high-profile foreign Premier League footballer who confused km/h and mph when driving in the UK. And it is unlikely to be the last time it happens.
Continue reading “British driver caught speeding in France after misreading km/h for mph”Legal ambiguity of dual unit restriction signs
Dual units have been mandatory on restriction signs since TSRGD 2016. For height restrictions, the imperial and metric units normally appear on a single sign though they can appear on separate adjacent signs. Most height restriction traffic signs for bridges now show dual units. If your vehicle complies with both values, you can drive under the bridge. If your vehicle does not comply with either value, you cannot drive under the bridge. But what if your vehicle complies with only one of the values? Can you drive under the bridge in this case?
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Metric Views 