Tag Archives: metric

DfT guilty of making unfounded claims

Posted on 2013-05-17 by ronniec

Yesterday, the National Audit Office (NAO) criticised the UK Department for Transport (DfT) for its unfounded claims about the benefits of the proposed high speed rail project HS2. In this article, Ronnie Cohen identifies another unfounded claim by the DfT … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Myths, Road signs, Transport | Tagged claim, confusion, Department for Transport, DfT, drivers, evidence, Freedom of Information, metric, metrication, Road signs | 1 Comment

It’s trade or bust for Britain

Posted on 2013-04-27 by derekp

This is the title of a recent article by Robert Peston, the BBC’s Business Editor. Clearly, successive UK governments over the years have failed to steer the country away from the latter and towards the former. We suggest a simple … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Road signs | Tagged current account trade deficit, exports, metric, metric road signs, metrication, skilled workforce, trade | 11 Comments

Familiar with imperial? Do you know that…?

Posted on 2013-04-19 by ronniec

Miles, yards, feet and inches, pints, pounds and stones. Yes, fifty years after the UK embarked on the metric transition, we still need to be familiar with some of those old units. In this article, Ronnie Cohen looks at some … Continue reading →

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, History, Law, Science | Tagged imperial measures, metric, weights and measures | 2 Comments

The 1895 Select Committee on weights and measures

Posted on 2013-03-29 by tonyw

This article looks back to the findings and recommendations of the 1895 Parliamentary Select Committee on weights and measures.

Posted in Education, General, History, Law, Transport | Tagged imperial measures, measurement units, metric, metrication, UK Parliament, UKMA, weights and measures | 26 Comments

1862 report from the Select Committee on weights and measures

Posted on 2013-03-01 by tonyw

The question of adopting metric measures in the UK is not a new proposition; in 1862 Parliament’s Select Committee on Weights and Measures considered the matter and came down firmly in favour of metrication. A century and a half later, … Continue reading →

Posted in Law, Science, Technical, Views from abroad | Tagged imperial measures, measurement units, metric, metrication, UK Parliament, weights and measures | 7 Comments

Myths, misinformation and fallacies (1) – Are imperial units “natural”?

Posted on 2013-02-22 by Erithacus

The claim is often made by last-ditch defenders of miles, feet, pints and acres that “Imperial units are natural whereas metric units are artificial”. In the first of an occasional series of articles on “myths, misinformation and fallacies” used by … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Myths, Technical | Tagged measurement units, metric, metrication, weights and measures | 14 Comments

World trade – who are the top three?

Posted on 2013-02-15 by derekp

On 11 February, Bloomberg reported that China had overtaken the US in global trade. One of our readers has now drawn our attention to additional information on this subject.

Posted in General, Views from abroad | Tagged metric, metrication, UK USA metric USC imperial | 4 Comments

A UK metric time line from 1980

Posted on 2013-02-01 by derekp

In June last year, we published a time line up to 1980 showing progress towards the adoption of a single, simple, logical and coherent measurement system in the British Isles. We now bring this story up to date.

Posted in Consumer affairs, Education, General, Health, History, Law, Road signs, Science, Sport, Technical | Tagged Britain, imperial, metric, metrication, time line, UK | 7 Comments

Thinking of buying a fridge?

Posted on 2012-10-30 by derekp

A recent survey of their web sites leads us to speculate on where retailers see themselves: most plump for the present, but a few appear to favour the last century.

Posted in Consumer affairs, General | Tagged confusion, food volume, fridges, imperial measures, measurement units, metric | 9 Comments

Metrication in Malaysia illustrated

Posted on 2012-09-12 by derekp

It was not possible to provide illustrations for the article on metric progress in Malaysia that was published on MV in January 2010. We can now remedy this deficiency.

Posted in Road signs, Transport, Views from abroad | Tagged malaysia, metric, metric road signs, metrication | 10 Comments