I have just got back from a trip to the USA. It was quite a reminder of how different the UK and USA are. I have become so used to units being metric-only or dual that it was odd to see non-metric-only in most instances.
I don't know whether the glass is 90% empty or 10% full. However, I did notice a small trend towards metric. For example, rational metric sizes seemed more common in supermarkets now. I think that it will be interesting to see what happens if the proposed FPLA amendment for metric-only labelling goes through. I am still hoping that somebody will follow up on what I did to try to get a parallel proposal for beer labels. At the airport on the return journey, the baggage was weighed in pounds by federal employees. I was surprised to see lack of metric values in matters that I thought were federally regulated such as weights marked on the side of trucks. My United Airlines ticket used the European format (this surprised me) for date but 12 hour clock for time. At check-in I was asked for the time of flight and I used the 24 hour format which was accepted with apparent comprehension. On a previous trip I noticed that British airways tickets are 24 hour format. The United 777 had an electronic map available at each seat showing dual units. The units were correctly presented as far as I could see. The captain or first officer reported temperature verbally during flight in Celsius first followed by Fahrenheit. On arrival in London he reported temperature in Celsius only. I think he had an American accent. I occasionally saw Celsius temperatures on public displays but they were the exception. They often had inconsistent labelling, for example one display used the degree symbol with no letter for Fahrenheit and 'c' (lower case) for Celsius with no degree symbol. I found it was pointless to try to communicate with metric units. It was not always easy even with 1st generation European immigrants whose day jobs were healthcare. However, I did notice that many people seemed to know what the units were (i.e. that kilograms is a weight measure) and the order of magnitude (i.e. that kilograms would be used instead of pounds, and grams instead of ounces). I also noticed that understanding of non-metric units was very superficial. I was at a zoo and some text mentioned bushels. My US companion claimed to know what a bushel was. After further discussion it appeared that the only thing that was known was that it was a measure of large volume used on farms. The relationship to other volume measures was not known. I visited two zoos while there and they both failed to provide metric units in their explanations. One of the zoos was quite large, although it uses metric units in the website, it does not use them for the educational explanations at the zoo itself. www.brookfieldzoo.org/default.asp I drove a Toyota and a BMW while there. I could switch the units from F to C on the BMW by pushing a button but I could not find out how to switch from miles and gallons to km and litres. The Toyota owner told me that it was not possible to switch units on his car and I think he would have known, I certainly could not find a way to do it. I visited a domestic kitchen that had recently been installed with top of the range European company products such as Miele and Poggenpohl. I could not easily see how to switch the oven and fridge to Celsius. It is interesting to note that clothes washing in the US does not appear to involve numerical temperatures like in Europe, it seems to only need 'cold', 'warm' and 'hot'. -- Terry Simpson Human Factors Consultant [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.connected-systems.com Phone: +44 7850 511794
