Following on from last week’s informative article about the UK’s introduction of decimal currency, we look at some of the features contributing to that success and draw comparisons with the changeover to metric measures.
Continue reading “Decimal changeover lessons”Tag: metrication
Progress on metrication of the British rail network
Ronnie Cohen passes on an update on this topic that he has recently received from the UK Department for Transport.
Continue reading “Progress on metrication of the British rail network”Early parliamentary debates on metrication
Hansard provides many insights about the ideals of and the prevailing attitudes to metrication. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see where the actual course of events has fallen short of those ideals and the mistakes that got us into the current measurement muddle.
Continue reading “Early parliamentary debates on metrication”Not a blunder
We take a look at the changeover to decimal currency which occurred almost 50 years ago, and ask if there are any lessons to be learned that will help resolve the UK’s current measurement muddle.
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Think metric – don’t convert
The editor remembers this slogan from his time in the UK construction industry in the early 1970’s. Almost half a century later, Ronnie Cohen gives real-world examples of metric quantities that may help those who are not as familiar with metric units as they might wish.
Read it before?
Ronnie Cohen, one of our regular contributors, compliments the UK Department for Transport (DfT) on its policy for dealing with enquiries relating to the oft-postponed metric changeover.
Liberia joins the club
We comment on reports that Liberia intends to adopt the metric system.
Deficits, the global measurement system and global trade
In this article, Ronnie Cohen looks at the deficits of some major economies and asks if apparent reluctance to use the global measurement system is a symptom of a wider problem – adapting to a changed world.
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Olympics – metric in Winter too
The Department for Transport has always maintained that the measurement system used on road traffic signs can be considered in isolation from the UK, European and global economies. The Winter Olympics in Korea, now drawing to a close, provide us with yet another reminder, should one be needed, that this might not be so.
A wrong turning that led British Leyland to a dead end
We reprint an article that was first published ten years ago and illustrates the risks of using a mix of metric and Imperial measures.
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Metric Views 