I can understand some of the mess.
Kilograms for gain makes sense as when one is gaining mass, the kilogram
numbers being smaller makes one seem less fat. Stones don’t make sense, since
if you are losing weight you would want pounds because the pound being smaller
than the kilogram makes you feel like you are losing a lot.
The rest is part of the bad thinking habit ingrained from English units.
Innumerate people in the past couldn't count past 20 and thus big numbers are
difficult for them to visualise, so they so to keep the numbers small they use
metres/yards, then feet then inches then centimetres and millimetres. Of
course they can always use the prefix deci to eliminate the inches and feet,
but this prefix is rarely if ever used, so there is no familiarity.
Celsius makes winter seem colder and Fahrenheit summer seem hotter.
It all works out to how much exaggeration you want you numbers to display. In
the US it is common to exaggerate forest fires by claiming they cover tens of
thousands of acres when in only works out to a few square kilometres. It is as
if those reporting want everyone to feel the whole world is engulfed in flames.
From: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, 2014-06-14 16:12
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:53964] A Very British Mess
The UKMA has coined the term "a very British mess" for the "metric muddle" (as
they also say) in the UK right now.
Little did I realize how bad things actually were until I saw this post on
Metric Views (http://metricviews.org.uk) from which I pass along the key
excerpt (as a comment to the Old Habits Die Hard post):
[I]t is quite normal for UK people to use kg for weight gain, however weight
LOSS is measured in stones, get it right please!! Kg for gain, stones for loss,
right?
Distances of less than a few metres are given in feet, thereafter in metres.
Longer distances are of course in miles.
Lengths of less than 30 cm are in inches until it is down to 3 cm, then it is
OK to use mm so long as it is compared to a finger nail or something.
Degrees Celsius (centigrade to me) is used in winter, Fahrenheit in summer,
that makes it all sound better.
Snowfall is in cm up to about 2.5 cm, then in inches or even feet if it is in
USA. Flood water is always in feet, it sounds better then metres. Tide height
is metres as is normal water depth, unless it is very deep, then feet sound
better.
What a shame they've let things slide so badly over there. If we ever get
started in a serious way here, let's hope we follow the good examples of
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. instead.
-- Ezra
