From: G6JPG@255soft.uk   
      
   On 2025/11/21 21:5:44, Chris wrote:   
   > Rink  wrote:   
   >> Op 11-10-2025 om 21:06 schreef Stan Brown:   
   >>> On 11 Oct 2025 17:20:39 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:   
   >>>> So we probably should have a poll on whether there is *any* country   
   >>>> *other* than the US, which calls the ground floor the first floor.   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>> Reminds me of a 1981 Isaac Asimov essay, where in a footnote he said   
   >>> that the two most powerful countries not on the metric system were   
   >>> the United States and Liberia. And I believe Liberia has gone metric   
   >>> since then.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> O ?   
   >>   
   >> Since when has the UK gone metric?   
   >> Miles, inches, Pints, Ounches, etc, all gone?   
   >   
   > Officially everything in the UK is metric except pints of beer, road speed   
   > and distance. Pints of milk might still be a thing, but are labelled as 568   
   > ml.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   Still there, but legally all but pints in pubs must be given in metric,   
   though the standard sizes tend to remain as the packaging machinery   
   wasn't changed, so you get 454g jars - gradually changing as I presume   
   things wear out. Petrol and Diesel are shown as per litre on station   
   signs; schools have taught metric for decades. Milk is an odd one:   
   standard milk is sold in 1, 2, and 4 pint bottles (usually the squarish   
   plastic ones), though they are labelled as "2.xxx litres/4 pints", but   
   anything unusual, e. g. "filtered", "organic", etc. are in e. g. 2 litre   
   bottles (so if you buy a "fancy" milk, you're being stung twice - you   
   pay extra for the fancy claim, _and_ you're getting slightly less of   
   it). Some things are still traditionally _reported_ in the older units -   
   e. g. the weights of newborn babies in pounds and ounces, people's   
   heights in feet and inches, but the medical profession will be using kg   
   and m to _record_ any such measurements. (Weight is an odd one - again,   
   especially for older folk, it will use stones and pounds [it was never   
   in pounds only in the UK, except possibly for wrestlers/boxers/etc.],   
   but the medical records will be in kg.) Road distances and speeds remain   
   in miles, presumably because it would be a major exercise to change all   
   the signs. Fuel consumption (we don't use the term "mileage") is still   
   given in miles per gallon in popular literature (that's one of _our_   
   gallons by the way, about 4.55 l), though would probably be in l/100km   
   for scientific measurements.   
      
   Oh, and we favour the French rather than the German spelling for litre   
   and metre, though (kilo)gramme is increasingly losing its trailing -me   
   these days.   
      
   --   
   J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf   
      
   Our thorny national debate about Brexit could turn out to be irrelevant.   
   Sooner or later the EU as we know it may no longer be there for us to   
   leave. - Katya Adler, BBC Europe editor (RT, 2017/2/4-10)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)