On 2005 Sep 6 , at 5:38 PM, Pierre Abbat wrote:
... making it, and
the ounce, a lot more precise than the Imperial standard yard could ever be.
I don't know how Pierre concludes that the ounce is more precise than the yard.
By the same kind of definitions as he cites for the ounce, the "Imperial standard yard" is precisely as precise as the ounce. The yard is defined as 36 inches, the inch is defined as 25.4 mm and the metre (and thus the millimetre) is defined by the distance light travels in a specified period of time, all of which are the same or similar to relations used by Pierre to define the ounce.
What is your point here, Pierre? Are you trying to argue that the pint should be retained along with the legitimate units of the SI system after metric is adopted? Surely it is not the precision of the pint or the metric units that are at issue.
However, the question of how you fill a pint glass with beer and count (or not count) the foam as part of the volume sold, IS an issue. But it is a different issue, one having nothing to do with the precision of the pint. That issue (how to count the foam) would be a fair trade issue no matter whether one is buying a liter mug of beer ("ein Mass") in Munich or a 500 mL "pint" glass in Liverpool.
In the US they avoid the problem entirely. They do it (in most cases) by the incomprehensible practice of not stating AT ALL how much the container holds. They just tell you it is so much for a large, and so much for a small one. I paid $7 for a large plastic cup of beer at a football game last week and I have no idea how much was supposed to be in it. Not knowing that, it made little sense quibbling over the foam. (I can imagine your question "What if you ask them how much is in a large cup?" so I'll answer your question right away: They say "this big" and they show you the cup!) Nobody measures anything. They just fill up the cup.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
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Make it simple; Make it Metric
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