Correct metric is used everywhere but road signs for distance, many height restrictions are both meters and feet/inches. As Martin says, many of the UK papers tend to convert everything away from metric, some have both in the same story with metric only or imperial only.
You are correct about pilots in the US converting the temperature, more often than not they make a mistake, I can get the correct temperature on my Blackberry. You will often hear US pilots say the temperature is "about" degrees Fahrenheit. Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeremiah MacGregor To: Michael Payne ; U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 25 January 2009 17:55 Subject: Re: [USMA:42533] Re: Small item seen on TV Mike, From your description I would understand it to be that metric is used everywhere but on road signs. But road signs must be both if Martin said he was 55.7 km from London or did he just do a conversion? So people do speak in metric and don't really need to have things dumbed down as some one put it earlier. Your comments about pilots in the US explains why the last time I flew in a plane, the pilot hesitated before saying the temperature. He must have been trying to translate it from what was on his screen. Jerry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Michael Payne <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 12:29:23 PM Subject: [USMA:42533] Re: Small item seen on TV I visit the UK perhaps 6-10 times a year, the people that I know in the UK tend to talk in meters/metres when referring to a new house size, etc. If you go into a UK hardware store it's almost all metric, supermarkets have gram scales, prices might be marked as pence/pound but normally pence/gram, it's weighed in grams. Fuel is sold in liters, road signs are all in miles and miles per hour but all road work is done in meters. In general it seems like a big mess which is why here in the US we need to do it differently, Australian/New Zealand and South Africa did a very good transition in the 60's and 70's. Most young people in those countries don't know non metric units. I'm a pilot, when I fly into the UK the atmospheric pressure is in hPa, the visibility is in meters, the runway length is in meters/feet. Temperature is Celsius, it's also Celsius for all pilots in the US. Call 703 661 2990 here in the US to listen to the weather pilots get at my local airport. Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeremiah MacGregor To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 25 January 2009 17:16 Subject: [USMA:42529] Re: Small item seen on TV When you say the UK is bi, do you mean they use both metric and English equally,? 50 % ? Or is there more of a leaning towards one or the other? How are both use equally without causing confusion? Say for instance in the medical field. Would a doctor speak metric and a nurse respond in English? It must make for some strange communications. Jerry ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 11:40:08 AM Subject: [USMA:42515] Re: Small item seen on TV Because the UK is not metric (it's 'bi') and in the case of tyre pressures there are not laws forcing the use of metric. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:00:18 -0800 From: [email protected] Subject: Re: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV To: [email protected]; [email protected] Stephen, I interpreted the statement to mean that bar and kPa were the most common. It doesn't mean the is no psi, it just means it isn't very common. If the UK is metric then why would psi dominate and not kPa? Jerry ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Stephen Humphreys <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:27:02 AM Subject: [USMA:42494] Re: Small item seen on TV Except in the UK (which is part of Europe) where PSI dominates. Maybe you meant "Mainland Europe" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [USMA:42439] Re: Small item seen on TV Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 15:22:34 +0000 The most common units of measure for tyre pressures in Europe are bars or kPa. (100 kPa = 1 bar). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeremiah MacGregor Sent: 24 January 2009 14:59 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:42430] Re: Small item seen on TV Harry, Aren't they suppose to be in pascals or something along that line? Jerry ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Harry Wyeth <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:39:58 PM Subject: [USMA:42388] Small item seen on TV A minor point of interest: on PBS's US broadcast of the BBC World News tonight, in a piece re the resumption of natural gas to Europe, there was "footage" showing close-ups of presssure gauges on pipeline fixtures out in the snowy fields. One showed pressure in kg/cm2, and the other in "bar". HARRY WYETH ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Share your photos with Windows Live Photos – Free Find out more! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows Live Hotmail just got better. Find out more!
