United Kingdom To Regress To Imperial Weights and Measures (independent.co.uk) 558
New submitter Generic User Account writes: Under plans unveiled by ministers today, it will once again become legal for market stalls, shops, and supermarkets to sell their goods using only Britain's traditional weighing system. "A document titled 'Brexit opportunities: regulatory reforms' includes plans to permit the voluntary printing of the crown stamp on pint glasses and review the EU ban on markings and sales in pounds and ounces, with legislation set to come 'in due course,'" reports The Independent. Weights and measures inspector Pippa Musgrave tweeted: "The UK agreed, when it signed the OIML [International Organization of Legal Metrology] in 1856 to move to a single system of measurement. Metric measures have been lawful in the UK since 1875. Are you proposing the UK leaves the OIML treaty?"
Well.... (Score:2)
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Informative)
The headline is silly. The UK is not abandoning metric.
The only change is that traditional units will be allowed in shops on a voluntary basis.
Re: Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just to add confusion. Standardization is a good thing. Rolling back is awfull, especially after you standardized on what the rest of the world is using
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The "rest of the world" except for places you don't like, and in fact, most of their own people when at home.
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Works just fine here in Canada. A lot of fresh food and meat is still sold by the pound here. No real confusion. Price tag says so many $ a pound. I don't see the problem.
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Works just fine here in Canada. A lot of fresh food and meat is still sold by the pound here. No real confusion. Price tag says so many $ a pound. I don't see the problem.
People who can only use metric might be intellectually challenged?
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And when you are in a market, the only thing that matters is that the guy over there sells "a pound of beef" for $5 and the other guy over there sells it for $5.5 - no one has a problem with judging what is cheaper. Now: quality might be a bit different :P
That only works as long as everybody uses the same system of measurements. But the proposed law would allow shop 1 to only use imperial units while shop 2 continues to use metric and the customer looses out as he cannot easily compare prices.
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Informative)
When I was in school, we had some boxing classes, and in the first one, the teacher told us the weight of the boxing glove (eight or ten ounces), and we got into a debate, how much grams an ounce actually is. The teacher then told me, that as a homework, I had to find out how much an ounce actually is. As this was pre-Wikipedia (in the 1980ies), I was lucky to have had a lexicon of measurements, coins and weight units, and until the next class, I had a whole sheet of paper of ounces, weighing between 22.1 grams (Dutch trade ounce) up to 26.400 grams (antique Greek copper ounce).
There is a reason, why in the 18th century, scientists throw out any traditional measurement units completely and started from scratch.
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Only older people can do both easily. The majority of younger people have no clue how to use the imperial system. I've hit that roadblock a bunch of times.
Then again if the imperial system is not used anywhere, why should they need to know? Though it should be noted US imperial measurements aren’t quite the same all the British ones, making things all the more confusing
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dealing with building materials and tools is especially frustrating. I'm still flabbergasted as to why use 1/16 of an inch when a millimetre is perfectly reasonable:
"Oh, you need a 3 and 5/32 inch wide board?"
"No, I need board 80 mm wide thank you"
Or a drill bit 3/32 of whatever, the next larger one is 5/something. If at least those were decimal fractions of an inch I'd understand.
Some time ago I was trying to buy a rug, and I've seen the following units across different stores:
- square inches
- square feet
- square yard
I ended up buying one at Ikea, which was METRIC.
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Re: Well.... (Score:4, Informative)
We have unit pricing in Australia too - and I really miss it when shopping in foreign countries.
It is so much easier when you can look at two similar products in the supermarket and see a comparable unit price - eg. $7/100g for product A vs $8/100g for product B instead of $25.20 for 360g of product A compared to $20 for 250g of product B.
The products are still sold and priced in whatever size they want, but the price per unit also has to be displayed in a consistent set of units - either by 100g or by kg, etc.
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Fuck me. Straight in with Hitler. You don't hang about.
The rest of it is paranoid fantasy, but what a beginning.
(Totalitarian libertarian fascists, I like that one too. Meaningless but sounds big and scary. I kept expecting to find sheeple in there somewhere but you did so well I'm not complaining)
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and the metric system will still be official
Well of course, considering that the imperial units are now defined in terms of metric units. They can't get rid of the latter.
Re: Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
What y'all apparently don't like is someone having the voluntary option. Maybe you can get the EU to mandate only Windows computers. Standardization is good!
Putting imperial weights and measures on products is already allowed. Just alongside metric weights and measures.
Under the proposed change shop 1 might only use imperial weights and measures while shop 2 only uses metric with the result being that consumers have a harder time comparing prices.
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
They already had the voluntary option to include old imperial units.
What they now will have, is the option to leave out metric. Which is license to obfuscate, dumb and anti-consumer. There's a reason weights and measures have been regulated for hundreds of years.
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why does the metric crowd get confused so darned easily?
Because:
a. for most of them, imperial measure haven't been taught since before they were born and,
b. they make no fucking sense! How many pints in a gallon? How many yards in a mile? How many ounces in a pound, and how many pounds in a stone?
Seriously - I make metric and imperial parts all the time - and it's so easy that there must be some reason you aren't capable of handling both.
Since you say "parts" I think it's a fair guess you deal in inches and thousandths thereof. Thousandths... sound familiar?
And since the metric crowd gets so triggered if someone mentions imperial, I think they are kind of developing an inferiority complex for some reason.
No, they're just pushing back at a pointless and jingoistic move by the Little England crowd, which is patently being made to appease them and distract the rest of us from the fact that Boris is incapable of anything other than empty gestures. Maybe he should concentrate on getting the shelves filled with produce again rather than fannying about with what measures are used to sell them.
Speaking of, selling using imperial measures has never been illegal. What these loudmouth arseholes usually forget (probably intentionally) is that they had to put metric on the label; they were quite free to use hogsheads or whatever their measure of choice was so long as they used metric as well.
Call me when metric is more precise and that metric parts are more accurate than imperial - I like when things are more precise. Metric isn't more precise - it's just different and just as arbitrary.
Arbitrary? Bullshit.
A metre has 1000 millimetres, a kilometre has 1000 metres.
A kilogramme has 1000 grammes and a tonne has 1000 grammes.
That's about as far from arbitrary as it's possible to get, compared to the divisions used in imperial measures. The only arbitrary thing about the metric system is whether you spell it gram or gramme, litre or liter.
Whoever came up with this bright idea isn't about to undo decimalisation, are they?
Re: Well.... (Score:3)
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Because you don't have a free market if customers are confused about how much they're getting and for what price. There can only be healthy competition if all market participants are well-informed.
It's not authoritarian to require you to provide standard measurements in addition to whatever it is you want to use. In fact, it's less authoritarian than requiring you to accept the national currency.
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I live how they're also allowing pubs to put "crown marks" on beer glasses as well.
The crown mark used to be a legal requirement, it's a white line on the glass to mark "one pint" pint so that pubs couldn't rip people off by using smaller glasses and selling short measures.
Now they're making it voluntary, pubs can put their own marks on the glasses. What could possibly go wrong?
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Does the CE mark have a visible line? I never saw one that did.
When I worked in a pub there as a student the glasses without visible lines were for cider (or other things with no head) and were to be filled to the rim.
Last time I was over there I was served beer in a glass with no line and 6/8" of foam at the top.
Re: Well.... (Score:5, Funny)
This is why I love reading Slashdot. It's like a Renaissance university, with such sophisticated and polite debates.
Re: Well.... (Score:3)
I'd say you have a pretty solid idea for a paper if you can outline this unified theory of fascism and libertarianism. I'd certainly be curious to see how two diametrically opposed ideological views cone together.
Before I request a draft, would you first reassure me that you're not just an NPC chucking terms together haphazardly because everyone disagrees with you is literally Hitler? I've been burnt before.
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't the point though that shops will be allowed to display products in imperial without also providing metric? So two shops can display products using different measures, which just makes it harder for consumers?
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The good news is, people in the UK, like people in the US, know how to convert units.
It will only be European tourists, who don't understand unit conversion, that will potentially be inconvenienced. Though not really, because they won't be buying bulk goods to cook at home while on vacation.
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I suspect that this is simply not true for people under 40, or perhaps 30. They haven't been exposed to Imperial units. Initially, when metric units were brought in, many items were sold in 454g package sizes. This hasn't been legal for a long time, so younger people simply are not accustomed to the common Imperial sizes.
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Informative)
many items were sold in 454g package sizes. This hasn't been legal for a long time
That is legal all over in the EU.
No idea why it might/would be illegal in the UK - makes no sense. You simply note the wage as "454g", wow so simple. Actually butter from Ireland in my supermarket here is something like 220g. Instead of the typical german 250g. And it is clearly written on the cover. And the price in the cupboard reflects it in the price per kg. (Price per kg is a voluntary sign done by the markets, not required per law).
I buy packages of food all the time, and they have completely arbitrary weights: 80g, 125g, 85g, 240g, 250g - no one forces you to sell something with a round number. If I buy meat from a butcher, he cuts it and I pay what it weights: 888g? 997g? Does not matter. Same with cheese or in rare cases bread. He has a loaf of bread - probably not knowing exactly what it weights, the baker aimed for 750g, but it usually is 780g or more - I want half of it, he cuts it with a knife, I get half a loaf of 341g - I pay for 341g.
No idea why anti EU haters invent bollocks like this.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
No idea why anti EU haters invent bollocks like this.
Because they don't have any logical arguments to make.
US Tourists Will Be Confused Too (Score:5, Interesting)
It will only be European tourists, who don't understand unit conversion, that will potentially be inconvenienced.
No, US tourists will be confused too. The UK used to use Imperial measures, not US measures and there are some differences. For example, a pint has 20 fluid ounces, not 16 as the US pint (a pint is not "a pound the world around" only in the US). This means that a gallon is 4.5 litres while a US gallon is only 3.8 litres.
In fact, older Canadian tourists will be not only better equipped to deal with these units than US tourists but also than the vast majority of British citizens most of who, like me, grew up with no knowledge of how many cubic barleycorns there are in a gill. Fortunately, the UK government is only considering this so hopefully, sanity will be restored before the UK regresses any further.
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Jesus fucking wept, you cannot be this ignorant surely? Because shopkeepers have *for centuries* ripped people off by shortchanging them on the measures they provide. So every country regulates weights and measures. And to do that, people in each country have to use the same set of weights and measures. And each extra set that has to be regulated costs extra money.
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Many British people don't know how to convert. It's not really taught in schools, hasn't been for decades. I only spent about 15 minutes on it in my whole time at school, and promptly forgot all the conversion ratios.
The only one I know is that an inch is 25.4mm, because some electronics stuff still uses multiple of 2.54mm.
I know a few very approximately. One yard is about 1 metre, as is 3 feet. I think 1 pound is about 2kg but I could be wrong. I have no idea what a stone is, or an ounce, or a mile, or a B
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Isn't the point though that shops will be allowed to display products in imperial without also providing metric? So two shops can display products using different measures, which just makes it harder for consumers?
Is this like some thing to make certain that stupid people don't get confused?
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It's to make comparison easy. Shops also have to display unit pricing, e.g. price per litre or per 100ml so that you can easily compare things like bottled water that comes in various sizes and multi-packs.
Sometimes you notice that the big box of cereal isn't actually any cheaper than the little box, or maybe even more expensive, because it gives you the price per kilo and the little one is on offer.
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The ones that win are the ones that standardize on a simple, clear and well-structured system. All others (including you) lose twofold: 1. More effort 2. Higher risk of mistakes.
If you cannot see that, then there is a problem on your side. Seriously. This question has been settled more than 100 years ago.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Informative)
Among the winners are the ones who don't crash space probes into Mars because some engineers use meters while some use inches in the same system.
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
No, you're completely and utterly wrong. Imperial measures are already allowed on a voluntary basis. This is about allowing shopkeepers to use *only* imperial measures, which is an absolutely ridiculous thing to do, because:
- it requires creating a separate system of regulation of weights and measures, or else there's going to be a shit ton of fraudulent ripping off of customers
- vast swathes of British consumers don't know the imperial system and vast swathes of that vast swathe don't *want* to know the imperial system. At the moment, they don't have to, but in the future they will have no choice
- the small elderly minority who do want to use imperial can use it today because many goods have imperial measures shown alongside the official metric measures. So they have choice today
This creates an extra option for shopkeepers that will lead to fraud, and less choice for the many consumers who want to always be able to buy in metric
If this were about additional choice, the government could have required imperial measures to always be printed alongside metric. It's not about that. It's about appealing to a certain group of elderly voters who are attracted to (a) nostalgia, (b) rejection of forrin stuff like the metric system and (c) actions that make life worse for younger people, whom they really fucking loathe
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Well at least the US (and I think Myanmar) will not be alone. Big question is why ?
The US typically has both imperial and metric on all packing. Everyone under 60 learned the metric system in school when we were preparing to switch in the 1970s. We even had roadsigns with both imperial and metric across much of the country.
Why did we abort the switch, and why is the UK doing this, probably as a misguided protectionist measure.
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We never switched because the cost to retool the manufacturing infrastructure would have been huge.
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It's just your average Joe six-pack that refuses to change.
Ford has seen GAINS in productivity by switching to the metric system:
https://usma.org/going-metric-... [usma.org]
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We never switched because the cost to retool the manufacturing infrastructure would have been huge.
Untrue. The switch was to be phased in. You would not need to retool. You would use metric when creating new tooling for a new project.
Metric has fractions (Score:2)
standard units use rational measurements (fractions) and metric does not.
Metric gives your fractions like 1/10, 1/5, 3/10, 2/5, 1/2, 3/5, 7/10, 4/5, 9/10. Also known as 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9.
Its just different fractions.
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That has real implications for machining, where the machine tools designed using rational units have more accuracy at the same apparent level of precision.
Then why do imperial machinists use the decimal-based measurement "thousands of an inch" for most things?
Maybe it's because doing any kind of calculation with fractions sucks.
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
In the rest of the world: accuracy and precision: means the exact same thing.
using rational units you are not using "rational" units as in fractions. You have the same 1.5 inches, 1.3 inches, 1.2 inches as we have 2.8cm, 3.1cm.
No idea why people using imperial are so full of bollocks regarding their "superior measuring system".
-|-|-|- that is a meter.
On top you have inches.
Below you have cm.
You mark a point on the wall to drill a hole.
Does absolutely not matter if you tell a guy: do it at 17.589 inches or 44,67606cm. The guy will drill the hole at the X you marked. And will make a mistake of up to 2mm. (In case it is a soft wall).
So: why are you defending your measurement system with stupid bollocks arguments?
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misguided protectionist measure.
100% correct. We had already re-tooled our nation for it. reagan/GOP pushed the argument that being non-metric gave us the edge in business. Total BS.
Re-tooling wasn't necessary. You merely use metric next time you create new tooling for a new product. The switchover was being phased in.
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Re-tooling wasn't necessary. You merely use metric next time you create new tooling for a new product. The switchover was being phased in.
You are correct. Last time I checked, you could change CNC devices between metric and imperial by pushing a button.
And even old machines can be retrofitted with CNC.
But it is so much fun to troll the metric only folks.
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Well, all those brits who laughed at us for being backwards hillbillies can join us in trying to defend themselves.
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Or I can blame a party I'd never vote for, for being regressive idiots.
I don't mind imperial being displayed so long as metric is displayed too because we're talking mainly litres and grams here and they're far easier to work with when comparing.
Still a trivial matter and not something I'd bother writing to my MP about, there are plenty of more important issues.
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Money, of course.
If you want a pint of beer, it's around 454ml of liquid. Well, if I'm a shop, and I sell half-litre glasses of beer, I can pour 50ml less beer per glass and get more glasses of beer per keg.
Such unit shenanigans are common in Canada, where 2 litre bottles became 1.87 litre bottles (half a gallon), and now are 1.75 litre bottles.
Do it enough and you can scam a lot of money from people.
Pints are differnt between US and Imperial (Score:2)
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Presumably for Touristy reasons, and that alone.
Imperial measurements are functionally useless for everything that requires precision (eg construction, chemistry), but good-enough for food, like how it's used in Canada and the US. Canada uses Metric for everything that matters, and yet still tends to measure human height/weight and food in inches/pounds.
From what I understand, all that's being proposed here is to not punish shops for listing imperial measurements or using them where it's familiar (eg a pint
Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're obviously not in the construction industry. Literally 99% of everything in US construction is Imperial... surveys, brick, block, re-bar, concrete slabs, lumber, insulation thickness, doors and frames, windows, ceiling tile, shower tile, cabinets, countertops, tub dimensions, hardware, fasteners, roofing, siding and trim, paint, truck widths, parking lots, etc. Sure a few globally distributed products may have alternate units, like a soccer field, but the origins of all our existing building stock, property measurements, and off-the-shelf components are native Imperial.
I've been waiting for US architecture and construction to go metric for 40 years, but I'm resolved my drawing sets are going to be Imperial the rest of my lifetime.
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Presumably for Touristy reasons, and that alone.
Imperial measurements are functionally useless for everything that requires precision (eg construction, chemistry), but good-enough for food, like how it's used in Canada and the US.
Fresh meat!
You are now challenged to defend your statement - tell us how metric is more precise. I've always wanted to know. I've been using both standards, and apparently mistakenly, my metric stuff is inherently more precise than anything I do imperial. Doesn't seem to be, but you seem to know.
I'e soo excited!
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Re:Well.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because imperial measurements are based on factors of 2 and 3
Right. You've got an imperial recipe that calls for 1-3/4 cups of flour. The equivalent metric recipe calls for 245g of flour.
Quick: What's the amount of flour to use if you want to divide the recipe by 3?
Re:Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
This argument always comes up and makes no sense. You can just use factors of 2 and 3 in metric too. You can buy 1200mm planks of wood at most DIY stores, for example.
Even with imperial measurements you are working in base 10, in decimal. So you might as well use units that are also decimal, instead of base 12 or base 3 or base 1760. In fact a lot of engineering is done in mils, thousandths of an inch, because it's just so much easier to work in base 10.
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Personally, i find the Imperial measurements a lot more consumer friendly for goods such as foods and beverages. Metric is fine for scientific and engineering uses, but a liter is a just plain obnoxious unit for packaging soft drinks. I don't see why they can't co-exist.
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Pints are fine, eh? Is that US liquid pints or imperial pints?
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UK pints of beer are imperial, 20 imperial fluid ounces. Thou shalt not pour 16 fluid ounces and call it a pint, except thou continue to 20. A half liter is right out. 20 shall be the number of fluid ounces of beer in your glass, and your glass of beer shall contain 20 fluid ounces, and be an imperial pint. Thus sayeth the Lord.
What if I want a quart? (Score:2)
... 20 shall be the number of fluid ounces of beer in your glass ...
But Monty, what if I want a quart?
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20.82 US fl oz.
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Why not? (Score:2)
And, to be fair, among all the "Orwellian" this and "Orwellian" that people throwing around nowadays, the situation with fines for wrong units of measure was literally Orwellian.
'I arst you civil enough, didn't I?' said the old man, straightening his shoulders pugnaciously. 'You telling me
you ain't got a pint mug in the 'ole bleeding boozer?'
'And what in hell's name is a pint?' said the barman, leaning forward with the tips of his fingers on the
counter.
'Ark at 'im ! Calls 'isself a barman and don't know wha
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Oh, now you want them to read the book before considering what it teaches?!
How will they ever find a book that actually says whatever they think? The name of the author might not match their sense of Virtue!
I understand requiring a specific measure system. (Score:2)
Yea I realize the article is mostly click bait - well here we are, baited and complaining about things that probably aren't a problem
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They didn't ban the old one, they just said you need to provide metric. Now shops won't need to provide metric.
Having a single measurement system consumers can rely on is a good thing.
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Can't (Score:2)
You can't ban the old one everywhere, because a lot of stuff still uses the old system.
The best example is construction. All sizes, even if measured in metric, are still based on imperial measurements, because that's how everything is built. You can't rebuild a wall using 50mm by 100mm boards, because the original wall used 2" x 4" boards. While 50mm x 100mm would be close, it wouldn't be close enough to line up with existing walls. Ditto drywall thickness, standard window and door frames, subfloors, prebui
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Weighing on the measure (Score:5, Funny)
If I wasn't so stoned I'd say it's about time the metric system of weight took a pounding.
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If I wasn't so stoned I'd say it's about time the metric system of weight took a pounding.
Why was this bit of cleverness modded down? And what the fuck is wrong with the moderators around this place lately? It seems they've all had humorectomies. I'm starting to think that some of the moderation is being done by algorithms. Is that you, HAL?
Getting goods on the shelves in the first place (Score:4, Insightful)
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Sounds like a simple economic problem.
Re:Getting goods on the shelves in the first place (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh for the Love of God, please DON'T (Score:5, Insightful)
For you Brits/UKers, please fight against this. It is a horrible mistake to go back to non-metric.
Re:Oh for the Love of God, please DON'T (Score:4, Interesting)
Metric is used in the US far more. It's actually the mandated unit system. In fact, the US customary units (often called imperial) are defined in terms of metric - the inch, ounce and other measures are pegged at their metric counterparts with an exact value. Like 25.4mm to the inch - this is an exact conversion and fixed by law. There are similar conversions that are fixed, I think grains to grams (gr to g, now there's a way to get things confused - because someone unfamiliar might think "3 gr" means 3 grams, rather than 3 grains) from which all other measures of weight and mass can be derived.
Reeeeee! (Score:2, Funny)
Brexit opportunities (Score:3)
British Eurosausage as well? (Score:4, Funny)
Great, "Pounds" (Score:2)
Five pounds please.
Have fun with that. You have no idea what I just said.
Gimme a second (Score:2)
Five pounds please.
Have fun with that. You have no idea what I just said.
Let me have a second...
You have no idea what I just said. Second has at least three different meanings, and no synonyms.
EU haters again? (Score:5, Informative)
EU ban on markings and sales in pounds and ounces
There is no such ban.
You only have to make clear how much that is in grams or ml (milliliters).
No idea why stupid Idiots invent "EU bans".
Monitors here are still sold in "inches" and a pint is a pint is a pint, and no it is not 500ml, it 620 "odd" ml, just like in UK.
Re:EU haters again? (Score:5, Interesting)
This.
Living in a country with a long history of very "unique" units, these units didn't go away when we joined the EU. What happened was that these units were listed alongside of SI units now. Which means that tourists don't have to ask anymore what that quirky, quaint "unit" is supposed to mean.
People still use them. People still know them. People still order by them. This has neither changed before nor after our EU participation. You can still order your beer in the "old" system (frankly, if you don't, you pretty much out yourself as a tourist) and getting your groceries in metric could be tricky, at least if it's prepackaged.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
When you thought the UK couldn't be more retrograd (Score:4, Funny)
Problem solved (Score:4, Funny)
Migration continues, government funding poured into identity politics, and police continue to officially record non-criminal 'hate' incidents, resulting in people not committed of any crime being barred from jobs for not checking their thinking.
But I can now proudly advertise my flour, priced by the bushel. Thanks, Boris.
Stealthed Rip-Off (Score:4, Interesting)
The examples I was told about included decimalisation - then the UK moved from “pounds, shillings and pence’ (240 pence to the pound) to the decimal system (100 pence to the pound) from the sale of fuel at gas stations that switched from gallons to litres and the sale of produce in grocery stores when that switched from pounds and ounces to kilos.
Retailers the world over are always going to take up an opportunity to squeeze a bit more profit out of customers - and this looks like a government-sanctioned opportunity to do it.
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Oh no, now they'll only be able to communicate with the US.
Yes, they can be like America where wine and soda are measured in liters but milk is measured in gallons. Where big engines are measured in HP and little engines are measured in watts.
The American military uses kilometers for horizontal distances and feet for vertical distances.
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We have no trouble converting units.
When I'm estimating a moderate volume of water, I use gallons. The human brain can do a better estimation in certain ranges of unit values than others. Oh, people wish it wasn't so, but it is so. Quite so.
And when I want to estimate how much that volume of water might weight, I say to myself, 358 gallons per metric ton = ~2200 lb
The hilariously funny part is, if you can't math you're not using any of the numbers anyway, and so 1L = 1kg does you no good anyway!
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1L = 1kg does you no good anyway!
It does.
As most ordinary people can not carry more than 10l aka 10kg in each hand over a useful distance. How much that is in your universe/metric system - up to you.
You sound like you want me to learn your system, to figure out how far I can carry a certain amount of liquid, because you think I can not figure that in my own system. Sounds: retarded.
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I’ve never seen a gasoline mower with a wattage rating.
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UK gallons are not the same as US gallons.
One of the many advantages of metric units is that they are standardized world-wide.
Re:Talk the talk. (Score:5, Insightful)
Not really. US Customary units aren’t the same as British Imperial units, despite their shared origin in a preceding English system. Most obviously, our fluid ounces, pints, quarts, gallons, and tons differ by not insignificant amounts. Not that I’ve ever had to write code to deal with converting units between oddball unit systems in engineering software...
Re: (Score:2)
I'm sure all this hyper nationalism isn't going to result in any problems whatsoever.
Tell me though - can parts be made more accurately or precisely in metric?
Besides, the most nationalistic countries in the world use metric.
Re: (Score:2)
Tell me though - can parts be made more accurately or precisely in metric?
Can parts be made more accurately when different things use different systems, leading to costly mistakes?
nationalistic countries in the world use metric.
They don't use it for nationalistic reasons. What a nonsense argument.