>>> Gustaf Sjöberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2001-03-02 08:36:07 >>> The text below comes from bwmaonline.com. They have some interesting opininons about metric quantities and their disadvatages, and I have to say that I partly agree with them. This is an addition to the old deci - centi - discussion. It is obvious that pro-metric people stab theirselves in the back when they say that 1000-multiples should be the only allowed, and which they unfortunately still are. ... The above factors have contributed to a general failure of metric units to find common acceptance by British people for food and drink packaging. Technically, metric indicates quantity as accurately as the customary system, but it fails to convey meaning or value. Whereas six ounces of cheese actually sounds like a quantity of cheese, 180g of cheese is just a very large number. ===== He may have a point, given that there are still Imperial/US standards being used for package sizing. 341 ml bottles of beer, 398 ml cans of cola, 454 g bags of bread, etc. What is required in the UK, US and Canada is a series of standard metric sizes. I have often wondered why we _apparently_ need to have packaged goods in various sizes that are half the amount of the previous. All too often the half-sized package is too little and the full size package is too much (I'm sure the marketing people insure that this is the case!) Finally, "180 g of cheese" sounds like a quantity of cheese to me, though I would more likely purchase 200 g, 500 g, 800 g (a common size on Canadian grocery shelves), or 1000 g. When I see "454 g" on a package I always feel like I'm a victim of product quantity downsizing. I would much rather buy a package that reads "500 g". Six ounces sounds like an increadibly small amount. What "sounds like a quantity" all depends on what you are used to hearing. greg Saskatoon SK Canada
