3 ms·

There’s also 0 appetite for completing the metrication process.

xnorswap 4y ago
Sure, but that's little to do with brexit and it's only really Miles (Road Signage) and Pints (of beer) that aren't metricated. Even milk is (legally speaking) sold by the litre.
- b112 4y ago
  And 2x4s? (I hear you call them 4×2s over there...)
  - anonymous_sorry 4y ago
    "two-by-four" is used colloquially in the UK for stuff with that approximate cross section, but wood is generally sold with millimetre measurements.
    - simondotau 4y ago
      It’s not even approximate. A typical two by four is around 1.5 by 3.5 inches, which is a full third less material than lumber which literally measures 2 by 4.
      - formerly_proven 4y ago
        IIRC this is because "two by four" refers to the size of the rough-sawn stock, but you buy milled 2x4s, so the difference is simply what's removed in milling. You can get these odd formats (stuff like "78x34 mm") in hardware stores here, too, it's just that they're not used for construction, because construction lumber is "hard metric", i.e. nice round numbers like 40x60 mm etc.
  - xnorswap 4y ago
    While there's an equivalent size, those are (legally speaking) sold by the mm. For example: https://www.builderdepot.co.uk/timber-sheets/carcassing-timber/ts_size--4-x-2-1 https://www.builderdepot.co.uk/timber-sheets/carcassing-timb... Note the listing is primarily in mm with the imperial measure along side. So of course the actual size is still equivalent to the old imperial size because of the history, from a legal perspective it's metric.
    - b112 4y ago
      Right, the size cannot easily change I suppose, for how could you repair older houses/etc? Or use older building plans? We (Canada) partially transitioned too, but didn't complete the building supplies part of it. So food is all metric, roads, speed limits, distances, weights, yet wood is imperial, and tools are metric and imperial. This makes sense, because with the US so close, and the largest trading partner, imperial cannot fully vanish in some repects, until they get rid of it too.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    “Two by four” is a category descriptor, not a measurement. Such products do not have dimensions which equal 2 and 4 in either imperial or metric units.
  - xxs 4y ago
    2x4 is a name of lumber that's not 2 by 4 inches at all.
- pansa2 4y ago
  Are a lot of things still sold as “454g / 1lb” or “568ml / 1 pint” (as I recall from a decade ago)? In most metric countries those would just be “500g” and “500ml”.
  - xnorswap 4y ago
    That used to be the case but typically I'd say most meat now is sold in round number of grams, for example 500g mince: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/250871426 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/250871426 And 400g Chicken (these definitely used to be ~450g packs for a long time): https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/304404328 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/304404328 I suspect shrink-flation has ended up rounding things to metric even when they were previously based off round imperial measures. Unlike inches, I can't remember the last time I saw something marked with lbs, I'm not sure I could even properly process how heavy "2lbs" is.
- bloak 4y ago
  The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_King...) mentions three legal exceptions: road traffic signs; pints for draught beer and cider, and milk in returnable containers; and troy ounces for transactions in precious metals. It doesn't mention one product that is very much in the news at the moment: energy. I'm fairly sure they still sell it by the kWh rather than the MJ. Colloquially, people still talk about calories rather than kJ in food. (And they do that even in Germany, I think, one of the few places where they measure font sizes in mm rather than points, or so I've heard.) EDIT: Perhaps kWh counts as metric, even though it's not SI?
  - kalleboo 4y ago
    Everywhere I've lived people also discuss display sizes in inches despite everything else being metric.
    - xxs 4y ago
      display sizes are in inches everywhere (like in the world) indeed - mostly b/c they are produced in such a way...
    - sgjohnson 4y ago
      And air conditioners. Even on mainland Europe they are mostly advertised in BTUs.
  - anonymous_sorry 4y ago
    kWh is more metric than imperial, although Joules are of course the standard unit of energy. Watts are a metric unit, as are seconds. Hours are not formally an SI unit, but at least according to Wikipedia [0] are "officially accepted for use with the SI". [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-SI_units_mentioned_in_the_SI https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-SI_units_mentioned_in_th...
    - midasuni 4y ago
      A kilowatt hour is 1000 joules per second over 3600 seconds, the amount of power a 1kW heater uses in 1 hour. Its as metric as the hectare

Sure, but that's little to do with brexit and it's only really Miles (Road Signage) and Pints (of beer) that aren't metricated. Even milk is (legally speaking) sold by the litre.

b112 4y ago
And 2x4s? (I hear you call them 4×2s over there...)
- anonymous_sorry 4y ago
  "two-by-four" is used colloquially in the UK for stuff with that approximate cross section, but wood is generally sold with millimetre measurements.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    It’s not even approximate. A typical two by four is around 1.5 by 3.5 inches, which is a full third less material than lumber which literally measures 2 by 4.
    - formerly_proven 4y ago
      IIRC this is because "two by four" refers to the size of the rough-sawn stock, but you buy milled 2x4s, so the difference is simply what's removed in milling. You can get these odd formats (stuff like "78x34 mm") in hardware stores here, too, it's just that they're not used for construction, because construction lumber is "hard metric", i.e. nice round numbers like 40x60 mm etc.
- xnorswap 4y ago
  While there's an equivalent size, those are (legally speaking) sold by the mm. For example: https://www.builderdepot.co.uk/timber-sheets/carcassing-timber/ts_size--4-x-2-1 https://www.builderdepot.co.uk/timber-sheets/carcassing-timb... Note the listing is primarily in mm with the imperial measure along side. So of course the actual size is still equivalent to the old imperial size because of the history, from a legal perspective it's metric.
  - b112 4y ago
    Right, the size cannot easily change I suppose, for how could you repair older houses/etc? Or use older building plans? We (Canada) partially transitioned too, but didn't complete the building supplies part of it. So food is all metric, roads, speed limits, distances, weights, yet wood is imperial, and tools are metric and imperial. This makes sense, because with the US so close, and the largest trading partner, imperial cannot fully vanish in some repects, until they get rid of it too.
- simondotau 4y ago
  “Two by four” is a category descriptor, not a measurement. Such products do not have dimensions which equal 2 and 4 in either imperial or metric units.
- xxs 4y ago
  2x4 is a name of lumber that's not 2 by 4 inches at all.
pansa2 4y ago
Are a lot of things still sold as “454g / 1lb” or “568ml / 1 pint” (as I recall from a decade ago)? In most metric countries those would just be “500g” and “500ml”.
- xnorswap 4y ago
  That used to be the case but typically I'd say most meat now is sold in round number of grams, for example 500g mince: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/250871426 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/250871426 And 400g Chicken (these definitely used to be ~450g packs for a long time): https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/304404328 https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/304404328 I suspect shrink-flation has ended up rounding things to metric even when they were previously based off round imperial measures. Unlike inches, I can't remember the last time I saw something marked with lbs, I'm not sure I could even properly process how heavy "2lbs" is.
bloak 4y ago
The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_King...) mentions three legal exceptions: road traffic signs; pints for draught beer and cider, and milk in returnable containers; and troy ounces for transactions in precious metals. It doesn't mention one product that is very much in the news at the moment: energy. I'm fairly sure they still sell it by the kWh rather than the MJ. Colloquially, people still talk about calories rather than kJ in food. (And they do that even in Germany, I think, one of the few places where they measure font sizes in mm rather than points, or so I've heard.) EDIT: Perhaps kWh counts as metric, even though it's not SI?
- kalleboo 4y ago
  Everywhere I've lived people also discuss display sizes in inches despite everything else being metric.
  - xxs 4y ago
    display sizes are in inches everywhere (like in the world) indeed - mostly b/c they are produced in such a way...
  - sgjohnson 4y ago
    And air conditioners. Even on mainland Europe they are mostly advertised in BTUs.
- anonymous_sorry 4y ago
  kWh is more metric than imperial, although Joules are of course the standard unit of energy. Watts are a metric unit, as are seconds. Hours are not formally an SI unit, but at least according to Wikipedia [0] are "officially accepted for use with the SI". [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-SI_units_mentioned_in_the_SI https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-SI_units_mentioned_in_th...
  - midasuni 4y ago
    A kilowatt hour is 1000 joules per second over 3600 seconds, the amount of power a 1kW heater uses in 1 hour. Its as metric as the hectare