General > General Technical Chat
UK back to "imperial" measurements ?
Gregg:
We'll know they are serious if they bring back Whitworth fasteners
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: coppice on May 30, 2022, 07:21:19 pm ---
--- Quote from: IanB on May 30, 2022, 07:10:28 pm ---
--- Quote from: CJay on May 30, 2022, 05:58:33 pm ---Nor were Imperial units ever banned in the UK, it's just another lie, more smoke and mirrors to mislead the gullible.
--- End quote ---
They may not be banned, but they are prohibited. You can go to the greengrocer and buy two pounds of potatoes, but by law the price must be shown by the kilogram and the receipt must show the weight in kg.
https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and-packaging-the-law
--- End quote ---
They aren't prohibited. The law only requires the same common ground units be used for comparing prices. Sometimes that can be something non-metric like price per sheet for toilet paper. We have some weirdities with units in the UK. We went metric around the time home deliveries of milk ended. Home delivered milk was in pint glass bottles. People migrated to buying their milk in litres from the supermarket. At some point, for reasons I don't know, the supermarket milk changed to pint bottles, and that's where they are today. We buy specialised (e.g. chocolate) milks in litre bottles, but plain milk in 1, 2, 4, 6, or 8 pint plastic bottles.
--- End quote ---
In Oz, the common size for flavoured milks is 600ml, which is "near as dammit" to an Imperial pint.
The more logical size would be 500ml, (which is quite close to a US Pint), but we were used to Imperial Pints, so 600ml, it is!
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: Gregg on May 31, 2022, 12:48:56 am ---We'll know they are serious if they bring back Whitworth fasteners
--- End quote ---
Interestingly, Whitworth is semi-compatible with some of the coarser US threads, or as the Brits call them U.N.C.
UK BA, & the finer US sizes so beloved by Tektronix are compatible to nothing else!! >:(
vk6zgo:
--- Quote from: TimFox on May 30, 2022, 07:35:51 pm ---Before 1974, the price of gasoline in the US was well below $1.00 per US gallon.
With the oil shock, the price rose, but most gas-station pumps could not use a price above $1.00.
However, most could be set for liters, so Americans found themselves buying gasoline by the liter until the pumps could be replaced.
Now, the US retail price is above $1.00 per liter, but the electronic pump controls can handle much higher prices than that.
Similarly, wine and spirits used to be sold here by the "fifth", which was 1/5 gallon = 0.8 quart = 757.0 ml = 25.6 fl oz.
Taking advantage of the standard European size for spirits and wine bottles, we now buy them in 750 ml size = 25.4 fl oz.
We all know what happens to prices when units change.
--- End quote ---
They were always referred to as "26 fl oz" bottles in Australia, so we were probably getting "ripped off" for 0.4 ml all along, so what's another 0.2ml between friends.
You can still buy beer in "big brown bottles" in this country (although they are not so popular as they were).
From the look of them, they are still reusing the same old ones from years back!
IanB:
--- Quote from: coppice on May 30, 2022, 07:21:19 pm ---They aren't prohibited. The law only requires the same common ground units be used for comparing prices. Sometimes that can be something non-metric like price per sheet for toilet paper. We have some weirdities with units in the UK.
--- End quote ---
Indeed, and some of these weird oddities do give rise to things which are prohibited.
I recall a story in the news a while back, where some Continental-style café/bars in the UK were trying to sell beer by the 500 ml glass, as is traditional in Europe. The law came down on them like a ton (or tonne?) of bricks and said they were not allowed to do that.
But conversely, the spirit measure in England became 25 ml instead of 1/6 gill (and the Scots got short changed). Such is British legislation.
On a related note, can any US members remember buying a pint of whiskey?
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