EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

BBC ^ | 11 sep 2007 | BBC

[LeGrande]

I suppose that depends on who is doing the cooking. Someone who is used to the metric system would undoubtedly find the Imperial or U. S. customary systems to be inefficient.

Actually what you will find, is that in cooking, the metric equivalents of the cup and the teaspoon etc. have just been converted over, because those quantities are naturally occurring. There is no advantage with the metric system for cooking and there are some disadvantages.

The same argument occurs with measurements. A nautical mile is much better than a kilometer for navigation purposes.

The only place where the metric system is superior is in scientific and engineering calculations. Just shifting the decimal is clearly better than imprecise conversions.

[Tanniker Smith]

I guess that that wasn't immutable enough. Maybe because the water has to be at precisely 4 degrees Celsius besides (which is whatever Kelvin).

A precise amount of a pure substance at a particular temp is a little more complicated then the time light travels a certain distance (a sec) or the length of several billion cycles of some isotope.

Me? I'll stick with miles per hour.
TS
Yo! Where's my metric hour? Why am I still using the stuff from Ancient Babylonia???

[myknowledge]

I don't mind it at all. What if a foreign tourist from a country that uses metric drives on an American road unfamiliar with U.S. imperial speed limits (mph)?

A bit of hospitality would help? Anyone?

[myknowledge]

Who was the 19th Century's greatest dictator?

Napoleon Bonaparte?

[myknowledge]

Stuart Highway, Northern Territory.

Westlink motorway network, New South Wales.