Careton It's the same in the UK. The bag containing the donated blood is hung from a (metric) spring balance. The nurse jiggles the spring balance every couple of minutes to make sure it hasn't "stuck". I'm not sure what the target weight is though - it's difficult to see the scale when lying on your back looking at the ceiling!
--- On Sat, 14/3/09, Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> wrote: From: Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:43812] Re: 24 hour time To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Saturday, 14 March, 2009, 2:30 PM One time when I donated blood the bag was put on a metric scale. When the indication on the scale was something like 600 g they took it off, as it was done. Blood is heavier than water, and the bag has a mass too. Carleton Who now is scared to use the word “weight” anywhere From: Jeremiah MacGregor [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 22:05 To: [email protected]; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:43697] Re: 24 hour time I'll bet the blood they took from you was measured in milliliters but they told you pints. Did you ask them what pint that would be? 473 mL is a pint and 450 mL is what the bag holds. Just think you can become a gallon donor by giving only 3600 mL of blood instead of 3800 mL, a savings to you of 200 mL. Jerry From: Carleton MacDonald <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 9:12:02 PM Subject: [USMA:43697] Re: 24 hour time The Red Cross came to work a couple of weeks ago for a blood drive. I was the first one in, and went to the booth to have the pre-donation discussion. The worker asked my weight [sic] and I told it to him in kilograms, telling him (truthfully) that I don't know it any other way. (The scale at home shows kg only.) He grumbled and did a somewhat incorrect, though flattering, conversion. And this was a medical person. Dang. Carleton -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill Hooper Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 16:41 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:43655] Re: 24 hour time On Mar 10 , at 2:38 PM, Stephen Mangum wrote: > How does one read 1776-07-04? Easy! One reads it "1776 July 4". What's the problem? For a recent medical problem, I answered questions including my birthdate numerous times. I always said "1935 July 15" and no one ever asked me to clarify that. I don't delude myself; I think most of them wrote "July 15, 1935" but it certainly was not unclear to them the way I said it. I gave my height in centimetres and mass in kilograms, too, by the way.. No problem! Bill Hooper 74 kg body mass* Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA * plus or minus a kilogram or so.
