Dear John, These are the sorts of questions I am referring to when I say that there is a moral (social) dimension to metrication. It boils down to the question, 'Is it OK (morally right) to use a metric unit in this situation (store, market, work group, engineering conference, scientific conference etc.).
As an example of this I can quote the textile industry where I worked for some ten years. Here it was morally right (read socially acceptable) to use the incorrect term 'micron' when referring to fibre diameter and immoral (read socially unacceptable) to use the correct term micrometre; and this was true both in written and spoken form. I also know of an architectural engineering company where all drawings and calculations are done using SI units. The same engineers then refer to a 'desk three feet from the window'. They have one set of morals for drawings and 'official' work and another set of morals for conversations! Cheers, Pat Naughtin CAMS Geelong, Australia on 2002-07-14 03.49, kilopascal at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > 2002-07-13 > > Chris, > > I'm sure when you do your shopping, you ask for metric amounts. What > reaction do you get? Do you know of others who also ask for metric amounts? > Do you know what reaction they get? > > By reaction, I mean, odd comments, like .."you're the only one who uses > metric, etc.", strange facial expressions, or poor service. > > John > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Saturday, 2002-07-13 13:26 > Subject: [USMA:21034] Re: Appeal decision news > > > On Sat, 13 Jul 2002 12:59:16 -0400, you wrote: > >> 2002-07-13 >> >> So, they did appeal to the House of Lords. > > No, they petitioned the House of Lords to hear their appeal, as the > Judge refused them leave to appeal to the HoL. The announcement on > Monday would seem to be the decision whether or not they will hear the > appeal. > >> Now, let me ask, where does it go from here? If on Monday, the House of >> Lords decides not to hear their case, then the Court of Appeals decision >> stands and is binding. But, what will force them to comply, as it is >> apparent, that they will continue to be defiant and disobey? > > Hopefully the local authorities will feel they can then take action > against other hold-outs, but they may well try to take their case to > the European Court, in which case LAs may once again not wish to do > anything (and there is plenty of political pressure from local > politicians for councils not to take action anyway). > >> If the present decision is never overturned, will the authorities, like the >> DTI be able to effectively decertify every scale not in kilograms thus >> preventing their use? And what about analogue scales in both kilograms and >> pounds, will they ever be decertified? You know as well as I do, that a >> dual scale can be used to ignore the kilogram readings. > > I am not aware of any dual analogue scales for trade. > >> Will a positive ruling force the issue of pricing, or will they continue to >> price in pounds only? what are the opinions on this? > > Not many places price in pounds only, though the kg price is often > smaller. > > Chris > -- > UK Metric Association: http://www.metric.org.uk/ > >
