The UK is *much* more metricated than the US. I sometimes feel that metrication is still not complete enough here in Ireland, but it is only when I go to the US that I realize how far we have come.
I agree that the UK is "more metric" than the US. Maybe not so much the people but at least in the field of industry etc.
The US is overwhelmingly non-metric. Everywhere you go, most road signs, signs in stores, legal notices, TV advertisements are only in Colonial units.
I love this "baddyizing" of imperial units (FFU, "Colonial". smelly(?))
In comparison, the UK is well metricated. The biggest visible imperial area is of course road signs.
But go into any shop and you will see products labelled in metric.
And you will also see products labelled in imperial.
You can go to a deli counter, and ask for 300 g of product, and they will weigh it out for you on metric scales, as opposed to looking at you as if you had two heads.
Correct, you can quote metric or imperial. Most people (Tesco poll) quote imperial.
I occasionally visit theme parks with my children, mainly in Florida, California and the UK.
Ditto me, with Florida and the UK
In the UK, *ALL* the height restrictions on the rides are posted in metric only.
Sorry. Wrong.
The most popular theme park by far is the Blackpool Pleasure Beach (the place that has the world beating 'Big One'). All signs their are in feet and inches, some have a metric equivalent.
You are talking about one of Thorpe Park, Chessington World or Alton Towers (don't bother with Thorpe park, its cr*p).
All those three are owned by the Tussauds group.
I actually complained to them about their signage considering the safety element and the fact that most people quote their heights in feet/inches.
They have to use a bit of wood with a red mark on it, which gets walked around the queue!
The thing that pushed me to complain is when a couple of kids got to the front of the queue without seeing the bit of wood with the red mark and were rejected after queuing for ages. The reason? They knew their height in feet/in (I 'listened in').
They have placed height boards at the ride entrances now, with feet inches one side and metric the other. The main signs still show metric.
Even travelling on the roads, if you pull in for petrol [gasoline] you buy it by the liter, and price is displayed *only* in pence per liter (no sign of the gallon). On television (we get the British channels over here) you hear both imperial and metric units tossed around.
But mainly imperial. People can listen in on British radio shows if they wish.
BBC World is predominantly metric though, but you cannot get that in the UK unless you have special equipment.
Metric tends to be used when people want to be precise about a measurement
("the knife had a 15 cm blade") and imperial when it's simply a phrase
("the incident took place just yards from the police station").
Actually whenever metric is used it tends to be "just metres from the police station". Shows tend to quote miles, yards, feet, inches. This is true of BBC1, 2, 3, 4 ITV 1, 2, 3 and the Sky channels. Stuff like "Discovery Channel" is usually imperial.
Sports tends to get a lot of metric with athletic type events, the Formula 1 is tranlsated in to miles, mph.
The only time I asked for directions to a station in London (being male, I don't often do this), I was told it was "100 metres up the road on the right".
That is rare - it would sound unusual to a Brit.
Perhaps that was not typical, but I doubt if I would have got such a response in the US unless the person I asked was wearing
(a) a uniform & helmet, and sitting on a humvee or (b) a white lab coat.
Very good point! The two people I know who quote metres are in / were in the army.
If you were an Australian visiting the UK, it would appear to you that you were in a very non-metric country. For an American, it would probably appear to be very metric. It is a comparative impression; we mainly notice the differences.
If an American was visiting expecting to see loads of loads of metric then, assuming he's pro-metric, he will be very disappointed.
Don't be hard on your compatriots - you're getting there :-)
We still have choice.
Off topic - I notice you have VMS in your email title - is that to do with Dec/Compaq/HP VMS? As in open-vms etc?
