{"id":241,"date":"2008-04-14T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/britains-metrication-fiasco\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T23:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T23:41:19","slug":"britains-metrication-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/2008\/04\/14\/britains-metrication-fiasco\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain&#8217;s metrication fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Britain has made a complete hash of metrication whilst failing to teach its young the basic numeracy skills to deal with the ridiculous anomalies that have arisen as a result. E.g&#8230;<\/b><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>People who think 7.5 lbs is the same as 7 lb 5 oz.<\/li>\n<li>People who think of 0 as freezing 0 as boiling and yet think room temperature as 70.<\/li>\n<li>Local authorities such as Southampton City Council that insists building plans be submitted in metres but continue to rent allotments in rods!<\/li>\n<li>People who weigh themselves in stone or weigh cement etc. in hundredweight but have no idea of the value of either in pounds, let alone kilograms.<\/li>\n<li>We buy petrol in litres but our road signs are still in miles &#8211; thus making fuel economy calculations almost impossible for the majority of the population. And this is a time when we are told we need to r<i>educe our carbon footprint<\/i>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Metric measures were legalised in the UK in 1863, yes, 150 years ago! Since then we have endured three failed attempts at metrication. Can&#8217;t really blame Brits for being a bit muddled when it comes to measuring things, can you?<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>Useful Links<\/h2>\n<div>UK and US Metrication associations&#8230;<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ukma.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/ukma.org.uk\/<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/usma.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/usma.org\/<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I am a great admirer of Markus Kuhn&#8217;s and his writings on the metrication and general standards compliance. Nice guy and very approachable&#8230;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Markus_Kuhn_(computer_scientist)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Markus_Kuhn_(computer_scientist)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">I have written a publicly accessible, multi-function units converter over at GarfNet Projects. Hardly rocket science but I find it handy. I plan to release the source code under a GPL later this year but it&#8217;s free to use now..<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.garfnet.org.uk\/converter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.garfnet.org.uk\/converter<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain has made a complete hash of metrication whilst failing to teach its young the basic numeracy skills to deal with the ridiculous anomalies that have arisen as a result. E.g&#8230; People who think 7.5 lbs is the same as 7 lb 5 oz. People who think of 0 as freezing 0 as boiling and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,6,1488,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-journal","category-politics","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Britain&#039;s metrication fiasco - GarfNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/garfnet.org.uk\/cms\/2008\/04\/14\/britains-metrication-fiasco\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Britain&#039;s metrication fiasco - GarfNet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Britain has made a complete hash of metrication whilst failing to teach its young the basic numeracy skills to deal with the ridiculous anomalies that have arisen as a result. 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