The situation in the UK is a "Very British Mess"
Sometimes office space is advertised in square feet, sometimes in square metres, sometimes in both. Farming subsidies (which are set by the EU) are paid per hectare so farmers know exactly how large their farms are in hectares. Of course, the moment some journalists see the word "hectare", they whip out their calculators and give an Imperial equivalent to a ridiculous number of decimal places. The Farmers Weekly on-line magazine is a right mess when it comes to land sales, but all of the figures that I saw regarding British crop yields were in metric units (even though many had Imperial units in brackets). Next month sees the introduction of Home Information Packs in England and Wales. What this means is that before you sell a house, you must get together a dossier that has an "Energy Certificate" and copies of various other papers regarding your property. One of the mandatory features of the Energy Certificate is the estimated energy required to heat the property to a specified temperature, taking into account the method of construction, the "useful floor area in square metres" and the energy per square metre. Until now, it has been unusual for estate agents to quote the floor area of properties that they are advertising. (Typically they are advertised as being 3/4 reception rooms, 3/4 bedrooms). The EU Commission working party has stated its position regarding the proposed amendment to the EU directive on units of measure. Basically, it seems that the 31-Dec-2009 deadline will be removed, but that the directive will be extended to included areas of "customer protection" in addition to "commercial purposes". I understand this to mean that it will be mandatory for advertising literature to have metric units. Also, the acre is being dropped form the list of imperial units that might be used. _____ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Millet Sent: 23 July 2007 03:17 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:39150] Re: Pure SI for area in UK? I don't think it's gone quite totally. I hear lots of references to the acre in various BBC shows such as My Family and some of the earlier ones. If I recall correctly, there is still some confusion as to whether or not the UK uses square foot or square meter for things like office space. At least most other references on the shows are in SI though. I remember one episode of My Family where the husband was mad because the neighbors had taken ten centimeters of his property and built a fence. Mike On 7/22/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: I noticed in this BBC News science article that only the hectare is used for area. It looks like non-SI units for area are either a vanishing breed or gone altogether: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6909249.stm Perhaps UK readers can confirm. Ezra -- "The boy is dangerous, they all sense it why can't you?"
