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).
Continue reading “What’s wrong with two systems?”
Britain’s new Highway Code. Updated but outdated – a victim of the measurement muddle
The new Highway Code is an example of the consequences of the Britain’s measurement system muddle. Its mixture of units from the imperial and metric systems brings confusion, when clarity should be a foremost requirement. The UK Metric Association (UKMA) has looked forward to the completion of the metric changeover, and produced a simplified, metric version of the Highway Code to illustrate the clarity that one system makes possible. (Press release issued on 27 September 2007.) Continue reading “Britain’s new Highway Code. Updated but outdated – a victim of the measurement muddle”
The Four Thirds system
In response to a misconception voiced in another article, https://metricviews.uk/2007/08/28/photo-paper-sizes/#comment-312, it may surprise some readers to learn that the image sensors in Four Thirds digital cameras do not have a diagonal size of four thirds of an inch.
[Article by Martin Ward]
The naming of the Four Thirds camera system is a good example of a practice that is often used when a manufacturer wants to hide the true size of a product from the consumer. Namely, an obscure or deceptive imperial measuring convention is used instead of the original metric design size. The image sensors in Four Thirds cameras are actually 18 mm x 13.5 mm (22.5 mm diagonal), with an imaging area of 17.3 mm x 13.0 mm (21.6 mm diagonal) – quite a lot smaller than a diagonal size of four-thirds of an inch (33.9 mm), and significantly smaller than the 22.5 x 15.0 mm and 23.6 mm x 15.8 mm sensors used in the equivalent cameras of competitors Canon and Nikon.
The practice of describing image sensors in this deceptive manner continues from the days when all image sensors consisted of vacuum tubes and were described by the physical diameter of the glass tube, which was always larger than the “diameter” of the image sensor inside. Thus the imaging area of a Four Thirds camera sensor (17.3 mm x 13 mm) is the same as the imaging area of a hypothetical vacuum image-sensing tube of 4/3 inch diameter.
As with LCD and plasma TVs, technology has changed beyond the point where it makes any sense to continue using the old measuring conventions. It would be far more useful to modern consumers to describe the sizes of TV screens and camera image sensors in terms of width x height in standard metric units, than in terms of the diameters of hypothetical vacuum tubes, especially when these products now come in different aspect ratios. But, as is often the case, the needs of consumers do not always coincide with those of the marketing departments of manufacturers.
Further information on the Four Thirds system can be found at https://www.four-thirds.org/en/
Metric and the decline of UK manufacturing industry
Metric Views’ attention has been drawn to an article recently posted on the “Weekly Gripe”. This links the decline in the 1980’s of the UK’s engineering and manufacturing industries to their failure to embrace metrication in the decade before.
Continue reading “Metric and the decline of UK manufacturing industry”
No return to pounds and ounces
Today’s announcement by the European Commission that it is to propose that “supplementary indications” (such as lbs and oz) should be allowed indefinitely does NOT mean that traders can go back to weighing and pricing in imperial measures – so says the UK Metric Association (UKMA). [Press release issued on 11 September.]
Why are photo paper sizes imperial?
A correspondent recently complained that a university quoted photographic paper sizes to him in imperial units. This reminded me of an unpleasant discovery I made some years ago. Continue reading “Why are photo paper sizes imperial?”
Canada shows how it can be done.
John Frewen-Lord has passed on a link which illustrates the UK’s increasing isolation from other Commonwealth countries in the matter of measurement. And if Toronto, facing New York State across Lake Ontario, can nevertheless escape US influence, then why can’t we?
Pounds and ounces baffle top students
In last night’s “University Challenge” (BBC2) between St Cross College, Oxford and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, the following question came up …
“Imperial measures. How many ounces in two and a half pounds?”
Symbols understood by everyone, everywhere (unlike abbreviations)
Do British road signs have symbols on them or abbreviations? (Martin Vlietstra asks a rhetorical question).
Continue reading “Symbols understood by everyone, everywhere (unlike abbreviations)”
Tesco – trying hard but must try harder
On Saturday 21 July 2007, I visited a Tesco store in the West Midlands. On many of the fruit and vegetable displays there were signs showing the inkorrect symbol ‘Kg’. (Article contributed by Philip Bladon, author of ‘A Dictionary of International Units’)
Metric Views 