Time to decimate the decimeter.

Nando Times online ^ | 2/18/02 | Jill Lawless

[scouse]

World: 'Metric martyrs' lose case over imperial measures

Copyright © 2002 AP Online

By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

LONDON (February 18, 2002 8:56 a.m. EST) - England's "metric martyrs," five grocers who refused to sell sprouts, bananas and pumpkins in kilos and grams, didn't get an ounce of sympathy in court Monday.

Two High Court judges ruled that the men do not have the right to sell exclusively in pounds and ounces - a decision their supporters said marked the "death of democracy."

The traders were ordered to pay the legal costs of the prosecution, estimated to be about $145,000.

Lawyers for the five had argued that England and Wales should be exempt from European Union rules requiring fruit and vegetables to be labeled in grams and kilograms.

Judges Sir John Laws and Sir Peter Crane refused the men permission to appeal earlier penalties and said European law ruled supreme.

Laws told the defendants that "imperial measures, much loved of many, seem to face extinction."

The men's lawyers had argued that the 1985 Weights and Measures act allowed them to use either metric or imperial measures in their shops and market stalls. But the judges agreed with earlier rulings that a European Union directive - later adopted by Parliament - requires loose goods to be sold in metric measures.

Customers may ask for goods any way they want, and produce can be labeled in both metric and imperial, but shopkeepers are required to sell in kilos and grams.

Story continued at URL

[scouse]

First we had the "Meter Maaids" next it will be "Millimeter Maids"

[spanky_mcfarland]

If we use the English system of weights and measures...

What is vehicle engine displacement measured in liters (and sometimes centiliters)?

Also, why are soft drinks sold in one and two liter bottles?

These are great mysteries on the order of why do 24-hour convenience stores have locks on their doors.

[goldstategop]

The imperial system was based on an arbitrary body length which was not an exact measurement. The metric system is based on the mathematical unit of ten, allowing a uniform set of measurements to exist for whatever needs to be measured. Which is what has made the latter the common standard of reference for worldwide commerce and scientific activities.

[satchmodog9]

But is not a foot still 12 inches. Leave it up to the Europeans to fine a man into submission for using the wrong scale of measurement.

[gridlock]

If there is no intent to deceive, then what is the harm in using a different measure? There is no evil intent here, so why is there a crime?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

What is vehicle engine displacement measured in liters

My Detroit-made Ford Ranger 4 x 4 has a 3.0 liter engine.
1 liter = 61.02 cubic inches = 1.0567 U.S. fluid quarts

[satchmodog9]

Because only the evil Americans use this as the standard for measurement any more so it must be EVILLLLLLL. Also it is the lefty way to fine people into oblivion for no good reason.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Leave it up to the Europeans to fine a man into submission for using the wrong scale of measurement.

I suppose a willing buyer and a willing seller should be left in peace by the government. However, even in the US most localities have a bureau of weights and measures who check the honesty of scales, gas pumps and such. If you allow that, then they can require the units dispensed be the ones they know how to measure.

[_Jim]

Time to decimate the decimeter.

Scintilate the centimeter ...

Mutilate the millimeter ...

Nada to the nanometer ...

[TrueKnightGalahad]

So the choice of "one ten millionth of the meridian distance between the pole and the equator as determined by survey" (the early standard definition of a meter) was NOT arbitrary? How does the meter relate to any sense of measurement that is easily understood and intuitive? You can use your hands to measure a horse, or your feet to pace a room's dimensions, and get a rough approximation of space that actually means something in terms of actuality. Rule of thumb? The width of a thumb is usually close enough to an inch as to make the difference academic -- if you want a precise measurement of that inch, pull out your ruler, but for approximations, we have our own bodies as the reference par excellence, and they are useful for the things we need to do -- which is precisely the reason the English system of measurement proves so useful and intuitive for people's daily lives. Want another definition of a meter? "A meter is now defined as 1,650,763.73 wavelengths of the orange-red radiation of Krypton 86." Oh, yeah, that's meaningful -- gee, guess I'm wrong! One problem with the meter as a unit of measurement is that it has no relational correlate with human experience -- it's just a made up unit that relates to nothing real, tangible, experiential, so it's actually as arbitrary as anything else. The fact that it's calculable by tens (Hmmm, I WONDER of that has anything to do with having ten fingers; so base ten is more rational than base 2, or base 32 for that matter? Why are the metric supporters willing to privilege one body part but not another? And what about people born with only 8 fingers? The metric system clearly discriminates against them! :-)) does not argue for its use, as calculating by tens for otherwise unuseful things leaves an equally unuseful result. Make whatever arguments for the adoption of the metric system you please -- but don't repeat the canard that it's a more rational system, for it demonstrably is not...it's as arbitrary and irrrational as any other system, just decidedly less relevant to experience.

[razorback-bert]

So you have 3.1701 quart engine.

[counterrevolutionary]

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

[Ace's Dad]

I use the Jag XKE method for conversion: I remeber that the old E-type had a 3.8 liter engine, that equals one gallon. Easy, eh, old chap?

[constans]

Note that paragraph tags are your friend. :)

That said, the nice symmetric part of the metric system is not only that everything is base-10, but rather than 1 cubic centimeter (that is, 1 mililiter) of water weighs 1 gram. Thus, you have, length, volume, and mass all unified together surrounding one of the basic elements of the earth-- water.

The much more obscure standards that you describe are used because they provide a much much higher level of precision than weighing 1cc of H2O.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

1 cubic centimeter (that is, 1 mililiter) of water weighs 1 gram.

Actually, the kilogram is the only basic unit still defined by an artifact, the standard kilogram at the BIPM in Paris. One liter of pure water at 4 deg. C and 760 mm Hg is approximately one kg, but not exactly. All U.S. weights and measures are legally defined in terms of ISO (kilogram-meter-second) units. But one definition is as good as another. BTW, do you know the difference between a survey foot and an a statute foot?

[Aarchaeus]

The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

If you arre going through gasoline at that rate, you are not burning it, you are spewing it! You need to get that broken fuel line replaced.

[counterrevolutionary]

It's a Simpsons line. The poor mileage indicated has been pointed out before, but one doesn't tamper with a classic.

[Chewbacca]

"Loose goods must be sold in kilograms."

Easy enough to solve.
Take the bunch of bananas and put them in a bag.
Staple shut.
Items are no longer loose. Weigh item and sell it by the pound.

[Consort]

Metric Time Link

[Consort]

All kinds of time