On 2009/01/31, at 1:58 PM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote:
Didn't someone say that all the road signs in the UK were still in
miles? So what markers give km figures? Do you have both miles and
km side by side in the UK?
Jerry
The difference is that the UK politicians have decided that road signs
will be in old pre-metric measures and that the road design and
construction will be done using the far more efficient metric system.
The signs use old names and the markers use the modern metric system.
The metric markers are the ones that the road engineers and the
maintenance crews use. They are generally placed at 100 metre
intervals and most of those that I noticed when I was last in the UK
were quite small and painted (from memory) blue. It appeared to me
that they were made to look inconspicuous so that politicians and anti-
Europeans wouldn't notice them.
As I have said previously, conversion is expensive, but I have no idea
how much it costs UK tax payers to maintain this foolish illusion.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Geelong, Australia
From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 1:03:45 PM
Subject: [USMA:42544] Re: Small item seen on TV
Lol - Martin got his km figures from markers on the side of the
motorway! (I will let him explain)
I wholly disagree that people do 'speak metric', from 40 years
experience.
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:55:13 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: [USMA:42540] Re: Small item seen on TV
To: [email protected]
Mike,
From your description I would understand it to be that metric is
used everywhere but on road signs. But road signs must be both if
Martin said he was 55.7 km from London or did he just do a conversion?
So people do speak in metric and don't really need to have things
dumbed down as some one put it earlier.
Your comments about pilots in the US explains why the last time I
flew in a plane, the pilot hesitated before saying the temperature.
He must have been trying to translate it from what was on his screen.
Jerry
From: Michael Payne <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 12:29:23 PM
Subject: [USMA:42533] Re: Small item seen on TV
I visit the UK perhaps 6-10 times a year, the people that I know in
the UK tend to talk in meters/metres when referring to a new house
size, etc. If you go into a UK hardware store it's almost all
metric, supermarkets have gram scales, prices might be marked as
pence/pound but normally pence/gram, it's weighed in grams. Fuel is
sold in liters, road signs are all in miles and miles per hour but
all road work is done in meters. In general it seems like a big mess
which is why here in the US we need to do it differently, Australian/
New Zealand and South Africa did a very good transition in the 60's
and 70's. Most young people in those countries don't know non metric
units.
I'm a pilot, when I fly into the UK the atmospheric pressure is in
hPa, the visibility is in meters, the runway length is in meters/
feet. Temperature is Celsius, it's also Celsius for all pilots in
the US. Call 703 661 2990 here in the US to listen to the weather
pilots get at my local airport.
Mike Payne
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeremiah MacGregor
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Sunday, 25 January 2009 17:16
Subject: [USMA:42529] Re: Small item seen on TV
When you say the UK is bi, do you mean they use both metric and
English equally,? 50 % ? Or is there more of a leaning towards one
or the other? How are both use equally without causing confusion?
Say for instance in the medical field. Would a doctor speak metric
and a nurse respond in English? It must make for some strange
communications.
Jerry
From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 11:40:08 AM
Subject: [USMA:42515] Re: Small item seen on TV
Because the UK is not metric (it's 'bi') and in the case of tyre
pressures there are not laws forcing the use of metric.
Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:00:18 -0800
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Stephen,
I interpreted the statement to mean that bar and kPa were the most
common. It doesn't mean the is no psi, it just means it isn't very
common. If the UK is metric then why would psi dominate and not kPa?
Jerry
From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:27:02 AM
Subject: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV
Except in the UK (which is part of Europe) where PSI dominates.
Maybe you meant "Mainland Europe"
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: [USMA:42439] Re: Small item seen on TV
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:22:34 +0000
The most common units of measure for tyre pressures in Europe are
bars or kPa. (100 kPa = 1 bar).
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor
Sent: 24 January 2009 14:59
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:42430] Re: Small item seen on TV
Harry,
Aren't they suppose to be in pascals or something along that line?
Jerry
From: Harry Wyeth <[email protected]>
To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:39:58 PM
Subject: [USMA:42388] Small item seen on TV
A minor point of interest: on PBS's US broadcast of the BBC World
News tonight, in a piece re the resumption of natural gas to
Europe, there was "footage" showing close-ups of presssure gauges
on pipeline fixtures out in the snowy fields. One showed pressure
in kg/cm2, and the other in "bar".
HARRY WYETH
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Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
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