Can we also go back to red & black wires please...

[Dustydazzler]

Brexit: Government to launch study on economic benefits of reintroducing imperial units

<strong>Exclusive: </strong>Business minister mocked for ‘ludicrous’ attempt to quantify ‘Brexit benefit’

uk.yahoo.com

 

[littlespark]

We call it a “pint of milk” but it’s 568ml marked on the label.
Most are sold as 500ml, 1L or 2l now

We should be clever enough to deal with both systems. One is not better than the other.

 

[Zerax]

No it is not!

You must provide any measurement for sale in metric.

You can make them anything you want (e.g. 2440mm) and you can also provide the values in anything else like UK imperial, Egyptian cubit, punnet of strawberries, etc, if you want.

Metrication in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don't have the patience to wade through all that... can you pull out the relevant reference please... I read the bit about consumers can ask for what they want, but not that sellers can advertise and sell in whatever units they want.

 

[Mike Johnson]

At least 2440 x 1220 allowed old duffers to visualise the size as 8 x 4.

 

[pc1966]

I don't have the patience to wade through all that... can you pull out the relevant reference please... I read the bit about consumers can ask for what they want, but not that sellers can advertise and sell in whatever units they want.

The legally binding value must be metric, they are the official units.

The "supplementary indicator" can be anything that helps the consumer (but obviously has to match so you are not cheating!).

So you can sell a 1lb jar of jam but it must clearly indicate 454 g as well.

 

[Zerax]

The legally binding value must be metric, they are the official units.

The "supplementary indicator" can be anything that helps the consumer (but obviously has to match so you are not cheating!).

So you can sell a 1lb jar of jam but it must clearly indicate 454 g as well.

Yeah... that was my point.. the legally binding value is in metric. So I hope that we can move away from that and have legally binding units in imperial too ! (so that sheet materials can be sold as whatever they actually are !)

I just checked... and I can't find anything in my food cupboards that shows anything other than metric sizes... so it looks likely that the manufacturers have rolled over and gone all metric to simplify product ranges across borders.

 

[pc1966]

Yeah... that was my point.. the legally binding value is in metric. So I hope that we can move away from that and have legally binding units in imperial too !

You mean to use the industrial inch that was defined as 25.4 mm in 1930?

Or would you prefer to use the US survey inch, or maybe the the older Scottish inch? Or maybe go back to the Roman inch (standardized under Agrippa to about 0.97 inches or 24.6 millimetres)?

 

[nicebutdim]

I think it's important to keep in mind that the proposal isn't to abandon metric, but to allow goods to be sold by imperial measures.

We've never stopped buying pints of milk or beer, but legally we weren't actually doing so. Traders had to sell us metric equivalents when we asked for imperial measures. If an item has traditionally been produced to an imperial standard, and common sense dictates that it continues to be, I don't see any problem with that. It's not as though we're ever going to abandon the metric system and find ourselves suddenly banned from buying cable by the metre.

While the proposals are partly rhetoric aimed at appeasing those who intensely dislike the EU, it must be remembered that nothing was achieved when bureaucracy mandated that all goods had to be sold by metric measures - we asked for goods by the same measures before and after EU membership mandated change and we'll continue to to so in future. A sensible shopkeeper will happily serve their customers, regardless of whether they want to buy bananas by the lb or kg.

In short; this is a storm in a tea cup and will have no impact on daily life.

 

[R-fur]

No way should we try and go back to imperial units, why some people are still using them is beyond me. I am 62 and was only taught metric is school, when I started working everyone was talking in alien when it came to measurements. The imperial system was a nightmare to learn as a 16/17 year old. It is rediculous that 50 years on we are still using both systems we should be like Ireland or Canada and just be metric. I would happily buy my beer in half liters and would not have a problem with road signe and speeds in Kilometers.

 

[pc1966]

To be fair, road signs are a bit like the side of the road you drive on (or are supposed to!). Changing them has very little benifit but enormous negative consequences for years to come due to existing cars being equiped for another system, and "muscle memory" of where you try to drive/turn.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Just remember when driving on the right in a right hand drive car, turning in any direction stay in the gutter.

 

[R-fur]

To be fair, road signs are a bit like the side of the road you drive on (or are supposed to!). Changing them has very little benifit but enormous negative consequences for years to come due to existing cars being equiped for another system, and "muscle memory" of where you try to drive/turn.

I totaly accept that, but if we had done it 50 years ago when we 'went metric' we would be over it now.

I admit it would be fun watching the younger generation working things out without a calculator. We should bring back slide rules and realy teach Europe a lesson

 

[Mike Johnson]

I went all the way through UNI with a slide rule, but admit that when using one I often multiplied 2 x 2 or similar as I got into the mode of using it for long calculations, the beauty of a slide rule is the logarithmic results are only a turn of the rule, no saving into memory and then re-call to carry on the calculation, often foxed young engineers how I had the answer before them.

 

[nicebutdim]

No way should we try and go back to imperial units, why some people are still using them is beyond me. I am 62 and was only taught metric is school, when I started working everyone was talking in alien when it came to measurements. The imperial system was a nightmare to learn as a 16/17 year old. It is rediculous that 50 years on we are still using both systems we should be like Ireland or Canada and just be metric. I would happily buy my beer in half liters and would not have a problem with road signe and speeds in Kilometers.

What benefit would we gain from distance and speed being expressed in metric, rather than imperial? It's been some time since the change was made in IE, yet I still don't know of a single benefit. I can think of a number of detrimental issues which arose from the change.

Most of the metric measures we use came about through convenience. Many imperial measures remained as they were convenient and no real benefit would be derived from change. It's not as though kids have to learn about pounds, shillings and pence - I'm 46 and didn't learn about those at school.

 

[pc1966]

What benefit would we gain from distance and speed being expressed in metric, rather than imperial? It's been some time since the change was made in IE, yet I still don't know of a single benefit. I can think of a number of detrimental issues which arose from the change.

The usual argument is for the car maker's benefit, so they don't have so meany variations in specifications, etc. However as ROI drives on the same side as UK it seems to actually be detrimental there as you are creating yet another variation!

It's not as though kids have to learn about pounds, shillings and pence - I'm 46 and didn't learn about those at school.

You don't think the next "Brexit benefit" will be the return of lsd (and not the drug)?

 

[pirate]

I'm not really in favour of returning to pounds, shillings, pennies, florins, half-crowns etc, but I firmly believe tha the major cuses of inflation were the introduction of the decimal coinage, and...
the abolition of the ten bob note!

However, if we are to seek change, may I suggest that we all return to quoting our fees in guineas? An immediate %5 uplift while looking posh!