Ronnie Cohen draws attention to an exchange of e-mails between a visitor to the UKMA web site and himself, on behalf of the UKMA Committee.


Ronnie Cohen draws attention to an exchange of e-mails between a visitor to the UKMA web site and himself, on behalf of the UKMA Committee.
One of the most important, and perhaps surprising, human achievements during the nineteen and twentieth centuries was the adoption around the world of a common language of measurement. Ronnie Cohen provides an illustration of the benefits this can bring.
One of the last bastions of imperial units is our road network and hence car manufacturers’ marketing campaigns. Ronnie Cohen has been looking at some their promotional material.
UKMA has recently acquired two pamphlets from the 1970s Australian metric conversion programme. One about the switchover to metric units for weather reports, and one about the switchover for motoring.
Martin Vlietstra, one of our regular contributors, offers his thoughts on an early pronouncement by the newly-appointed Leader of the House of Commons.
In a recent BBC news article about the Toddbrook Reservoir in Derbyshire, it was reported that, following storm damage, the dam was in danger of collapse with the potential of releasing 300 million gallons of water onto the nearby town of Whaley Bridge.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-49189955
In 2019, readers could be forgiven for having no idea what 300 million gallons of water looks like.
As we approach the summer holiday season, Ronnie Cohen looks at the familiar metric units that we are likely to encounter wherever we go on holiday. And, yes, that includes the USA, although its exceptionalism is likely to provide us with a few problems.
In the unlikely event of Donald Trump deciding to buy a measuring tape while he is in Britain, he will find a wide choice of a type that is popular in the US. Indeed, he may have difficulty finding any other. We look at availability.
One of our regular contributors, Ronnie Cohen, has followed up on Martin Vlietstra’s article about the “new kilogram”, with a summary of the forthcoming changes to SI. It proved difficult to create some of the symbols used by SI in the text editor used by Metric Views, and readers who require the full story may wish to visit https://www.bipm.org .
The redefinition of the kilogram takes effect in two weeks time. To mark the event, Martin Vlietstra, one of our frequent contributors, looks at the “old” and “new” versions of this international standard.