On Thu, 30 Aug 2018 at 14:03, jimlux <[email protected]> wrote: > > There may well be a law in the United States, probably buried in some > enabling or appropriating bill, that says "The Department of Commerce > shall provide national standards for mass, time, voltage, etc." but > that doesn't say "and all residents of the United States shall use only > the standard provided by the Department of Commerce, and no other" > > What about Germany? Notoriously it is "Das Land der Gebote, der > Vorschriften, und der Verbote." (Commandments, regulations, and > prohibitions) >
In the UK there are laws requiring metric for most things - beer being one obvious exception I can think of, as I had 3 pints today. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/packaged-goods-weights-and-measures-regulations That said, it references the "1985 Weights and measures Act" http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72/contents which refers to "United Kingdom primary standards and authorised copies of the primary standards." The United Kingdom primary standards shall be— (a)in the case of the yard, the bar described in Part I of Schedule 2 to this Act; (b)in the case of the pound, the cylinder described in Part II of that Schedule; (c)in the case of the metre, the bar described in Part III of that Schedule; (d)in the case of the kilogram, the cylinder described in Part IV of that Schedule. Then going to the metre definition, it talks of an X shaped bar http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/72/schedule/2 I believe that is almost certainly the one held at NPL, and was on display at the recent "NPL Open House". However, it makes no reference to NPL directly. There was a case of a butcher not too far from me who refused to sell meat in kg. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/629763.stm I believe he died before going to prison, but he was quite adamant he would not sell in kg. It would have been interesting if he priced his meat at £12 / 0.45454545454545454545454545454545454545454545454545454545454545454 kg, which would be £12/pound. When it comes to time (the subject of this list), I'm not sure where the UK stands legally. I will ask on the newgroup uk.legal.moderated https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/uk.legal.moderated which is visited by solicitors, students of law, and people wanting legal advice. Dr David Kirkby Ph.D C.Eng MIET Kirkby Microwave Ltd Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Althorne, CHELMSFORD, Essex, CM3 6DT, United Kingdom. Registered in England and Wales as company number 08914892 https://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/ Tel 01621-680100 / +44 1621-680100 _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to http://lists.febo.com/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts_lists.febo.com and follow the instructions there.
