I don't think the UK is as un-metric as you try to lead us to believe.
Fair enough, if your opinion is that the UK is more metric than I lead
people to believe then that's up to you. All I can do is apologise if
you've read me wrong.
You need to ask yourself why a group like UKMA exists though. How many
metric countries have pressure-groups insisting that the government
metricate their country?
I know from the conversations here and from other people's experiences that
there is enough of a metric environment in the UK that makes it difficult
to ignore metric, even if one tries too..
Why would anyone "ignore" metric?
I wish the UK posters here would answer my question from a previous posting
as to the day to day exposures people have with metric and how it is
handled.
I'm from the UK and while I may be biased I am not a liar.
Maybe you have located a radio station that uses English units, but what
about the ones that don't?
I deliberately picked the BBC. I also deliberately picked the london
version. Here are my reasons:
1) The BBC, as part of its charter, must be unbiased. In fact many say that
the BBC would be biased toward metric (but that's another story)
2) The London station is for over 9 million of the most multicultural,
multi-national people in the world (let alone in the UK).
If anything I've pointed you towards a station that, considering the above,
might be weighted against my particular opinion. How fair can I be?
There are many other stations in the UK - you could choose BBC Radio1 (for
teenagers to 30 somethings), BBC Radio 2 (music for all ages). Or try a
rival station like Capital 95.8 FM (another London based station) or Virgin
radio (a national station).
What do the people who listen to them do when they here reports in metric?
I don't know - I can't answer on behalf of everyone in the UK. It's not
very relevant though since most of the output will be in imperial. If you
tune into "learning zone" or "open university" shows then you'll get a lot
more metric.
What about the people who read metric information in the newspaper?
I really really hardly ever happens. Most UK newspapers are online. You
can see for yourself.
Do they translate it?
See above
Do they ignore it? Do they understand it as it is?
See above
What does the average person who buys gasoline by the litre do?
They don't.
They don't buy by the the gallon also.
They put �XX.XX worth in - or they fill up the tank.
No-one ever puts the nozzle in and mutters "Hmm, I think I'll put 10 litres
in today" or "Gosh, I'd love to put a couple of gallons in".
When someone is filling up and they are looking at the readout do you
honestly think they are looking at the delivery amount going up?
Or do you think they are looking at the '�' figure going up?
Do they carry a calculator to convert their purchase to gallons?
See above.
What a bizzare notion that people would use calculators to work out how many
gallons or litres their tank has just recieved!
What about the shops where loose goods are weighed in your presence and the
point of sale is in kilograms?
Have a look at older posts in order to see why I'm not going to restart
flogging this dead horse.
Maybe nobody on the street understands metric.
I think that may be pushing it a bit too far.
Then all the better for the shops. Maybe they like it that way. What
better way to increase sales then on people's ignorance.
There are groups in the UK that make sure that shops are fair. I don't know
that much about them except they exist so I don't want to make comments on
an area I am not fully knowledgable..
No wonder stores like Tesco make huge profits. They feed off of the
public's ignorance.
I think that may be pushing it a bit too far.
If there is a mess in the UK, don't expect it to be fixed. If the mess
benefits business at the customer's expense then the mess is desirable.
Hmmm
I would agree with your assessment of 1908 Victorian Britain and the
Olympics, except for the fact that other events were in metres and not
yards.
Although I cannot claim to be an expert but before the n-hundred metre track
runs there were indeed n-hundred yard runs.
What is 9 stone in kilograms?
I'm not sure, but I presume you are from the US so multiply that by 14 to
get pounds
