As part of its health campaign, the UK Government defined a "unit of alcohol" as being a cL (or rather 10 mL) of pure alcohol and many health advice pamphlets state th emaximum amount of alcohol that should be drunk in terms of "units of alcohol". For many years they were rather coy about what a "unit" actually was apart form saying that a pint of beer had two units of alcohol. In recent years the number of units of alcohol has started appearing on bottles of alcoholic drink. If you were able to buy 500 mL of 4.2% beer, you would know that you were buying 2.1 units of alcohol. However, a [UK] pint is a little more than 500 mL, so an opportunity for health warning has been lost.
Unfortunately, many other countries also defined their own "units" of alcohol, but every unit was different. Since, under EU law, alcoholic drinks must display the alcoholic strength as a percentage by volume, the UK definition is probably the best in Europe, but Her Majesty's Government, in their infinite wisdom, have seen fit to hide their light under a bushel. ----- Original Message ----- From: Bill Hooper To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:53 AM Subject: [USMA:37848] Re: Are there Decimeters ? If sow then Where? [... snip...] The prefix "centi-" is in very prevalently use as the "centimetre", of course, although there are efforts in some parts of the world (Australia, for example) to eliminate it and use millimetres instead. In Europe it is not uncommon to find wine and beer served by the centilitre or the decilitre. [...snip...] Bill Hooper 1810 mm tall Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA
