On 2009/02/22, at 2:09 AM, Jeremiah MacGregor wrote:
It appears to me that the conversion to metric in South Africa and
Australia was successful because there was also a change in the
product sizes to rounded metric. …
This is not generally true for Australia. Some industries took
advantage of the opportunity provided by the metrication process to
rationalise sizes of containers. This was generally done to reduce the
number of different size containers. As an example, milk containers
became 1 litre, 2 litres, and 3 litres and all other sizes ceased to
exist.
However, other industries chose to use odd sizes based on historical
models. These industries usually chose a soft conversion approach
where they kept the old size containers and gave them a new metric
size. For example, a small beer bottle contained 1/12 of an Imperial
gallon (378.8 millilitres) and this was quietly reduced to 375
millilitres.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they
now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for
their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many
different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial
and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA.
Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST,
and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com
for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected]
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