Category Archives: Education

Understanding body weight and height in metric units

It was inevitable that the selection of London to host the Olympic Games would bring into focus some of the consequences of the UK’s measurement muddle. Metric Views looks at one aspect, the measurement of body height and weight, measured … Continue reading

Posted in Education, General, Health, Sport, World Records | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Just how much does not being fully metric cost the UK economy?

One of our regular readers, John Frewen-Lord, has compiled a quiz, or rather two quizzes, to illustrate the waste resulting from the UK’s measurement muddle. The editors of Metric Views are unsure why a penalty of £1 per second has … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Technical, Transport | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

The link between measurement skills and numeracy

Poor numeracy is blighting Britain’s economic performance and ruining lives, says a new charity launched to champion better maths skills.

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The generation gap

In his recent article “Why I …”,  Ronnie Cohen looked at the present to explain why he believes the UK should complete the transition to metric units. However, some of those who commented on his article also looked back. In … Continue reading

Posted in Education, General, History, Science, Technical | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Why I became involved with measurement matters

One of our readers has written to explain why he became interested in the campaign to complete Britain’s prolonged metric changeover.

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, Health, Road signs, Science, Technical, Transport | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

Heading for the exit?

Problems of sovereign debt in the eurozone have seen the UK side-tracked in EU decision making, and, say some commentators, headed for the exit. Is this situation likely to impact on the UK’s stalled metric changeover?

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Road signs | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Remarks by Eric Schmidt throw up a paradox

The executive chairman of Google remarked recently that Britain needs to “bring arts and science back together”. But the USA, where he is based, is the most backward country in the world for sharing of measurement units between scientists and … Continue reading

Posted in Education, General, Science, Views from abroad | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Eurocodes for structural design, and that decimal marker

Britain is currently adopting European codes for structural design and allowing British Standard codes to lapse. This raises the issue of the preferred decimal marker – should imperial or continental practice be followed?

Posted in Education, General, Technical, Views from abroad | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

Surprisingly balanced article in the Daily Mail

An interesting article about metrication appeared in the Daily Mail Online recently, describing the current situation reasonably well – but arguing that the current British mixture of metric and imperial measurements is actually a good thing since it enables people … Continue reading

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Media | Tagged , , , , | 25 Comments

Numeracy Counts

A recent report has stressed the importance of numeracy – and of raising the level of numeracy – both for people with learning difficulties and for people who are otherwise well qualified.  In this article Martin Vlietstra suggests that fully … Continue reading

Posted in Education, General, Media | Tagged , , | 12 Comments