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This reminds me that due to unfortunate circumstances I have to
take medication and the directions say to take it ".....with a full glass
of water (8 ounces or 240 milliliters) unless ...."
I wonder why the directions do not say simply "....... with a full cup
of water unless ....."
Or with .... (8 fl.oz. or 1/4 L).
Or with .....(8 fl.oz. or 0.25
L).
Either of the three alternatives seems better than the overly precise 240
when related to the precision of a single digit 8. The former implies
precision never intended.
The difference between an 8 fl.oz. cup and 1/4 L cup is irrelevant
here. Furthermore, while I encountered many an American who did not know quite
how much an ounce was (or that there were several different ones), cups
seem familiar in all the western world.
While at this, I checked the volume of glasses and cups in our household
and noticed another argument for measuring in cups instead of glasses.
Surprisingly to me, all the every-day-use cups, the obese, low ones all thru the
tall, lean ones were close in volume. Common glasses, on the other hand,
differed +80 % -30 %.
Maybe I should look up whoever writes these medicine instructions and point
out the advantage of the universal, metric/customary unit called "cup." Paul,
any chance for success?
Stan Jakuba
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 06 Nov 10, Friday 15:05
Subject: [USMA:37470] More metric
products.
Just within this week I spotted a few more metric products on
the shelf. Pictures are attached.
First is Gold Peak
tea. I'm in Rochester, NY, and I haven't seen it in our two major
supermarkets (Wegman's and Tops). I picked it up, instead, in a hospital
cafeteria, purely by chance. Notice that the 500 mL is not in
parentheses. As a side note, I've noticed that a few more teas are
available in 500 mL sizes, with Nestle's boldly proclaiming the "1/2 liter"
size on the multipack wrapper. I hope that this nudges the most
recognizable name in bottled teas, Snapple, to change their 473 mL pints to
1/2 liters.
Second is the new line of Cacao Reserve chocolates from
Hershey. 100 g size. They've taken the cue from Cadbury's
chocolates, which have been sold as 100 g tablets in the US for a while.
It's interesting to notice that while Cadbury's uses a nicely rounded 3.5oz
for the USC size, Hershey labels it as 3.53oz. BTW, the chocolate is
excellent, better than Cadbury's, and close in taste to the German
Milka.
Third is another coupon. It's no secret that Listerine has
been metric for a while. But what's new is the fact that they're
starting to advertise the product in metric. And Listerine throws in a
little teaching device, telling the consumer that the coupon is valid on sizes
500 mL or larger. I don't know if the average consumer knows a) what mL
is, and b) how many mL in a liter. But, seeing the 500 mL & 1 L
Listerine bottles side by side on a shelf will provide an instant
lesson. Listerine also has occasional 250 mL bottle free with the
purchase of 1 L, which is clearly indicated on the packaging, in metric only.
Remek
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