I thought the same about the unwarranted (and inaccurate) precision by our Australian TV network when converting the pounds on The Biggest Loser.� As it was the first time I have seen it done, I did not want to quibble that it was not accurate, especially when considering that the pounds had been rounded to start with.

 

Although, I did quibble a few months when I mailed a letter to a US Company about the accuracy of the conversions they had provided on the Australian version of their Webpage.� I raised with them some errors I had discovered, and I also questioned why they had provided such a precise metric conversion of what was a US Customary approximation of 5,000 square feet.

 

Quote from letter: "There always going to be problems when you convert between units, for example do you provide a hard or soft conversion.�

 

A hard conversion to 464 square metres implies a precise measurement.� Not only is this not practical, it is not even accurate when you consider that the original source of 5,000 square feet was only an approximation. A soft conversion of either 450 square metres or 500 square metres appears more logical."

 

Unfortunately, I did not receive a reply to that letter.

 

However, to their credit I have noted there are corrections on some of the WebPages concerned.� One interesting correction was on the original French Webpage where they gave the specifications (caract�ristiques) in decimal inches. It has since been corrected.

 

On page 3 of my letter, I captured the original WebPages as a PDF documents and provided links to their current page.

 

I also wrote 'square metres' and not 'm�' in my letter, as I thought the person reading it may not understand what a 'm' is, and it was also the way it was written on their WebPages.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pierre Abbat
Sent: Wednesday, 9 February 2005 01:08
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:32228] Re: The Biggest Loser

 

On Tuesday 08 February 2005 01:20, Brenton wrote:

> I was watching on our Australian television, the NBC TV show The Biggest

> Loser.� The program being US based is of course presented only in pounds.

> 

> However, when the first episode went to air here a few weeks ago, there was

> no apparently no conversion to kilograms.� I have understood that the

> television station showing this series here received complaints from

> Australian viewers that they did not understand pounds.

As they were weighed to the nearest pound, presenting figures precise to the

decagram is unwarranted precision, and someone's mass varies by much more

than that when he takes a drink.

 

phma

--

Mes r�gles mensuelles ont lieu une fois par an.

����� -Les Perles de la m�decine

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