Metric Views

The UK Metric Association has accused the European Commission of “political cowardice” because it has caved in to American and European exporters - supported by the UK Government - and effectively abandoned the objective of a single, rational system of measurement throughout Europe.

The Commission has just published its response to the recent consultation on revising the Units of Measurement Directive. It is a badly written and illogical document, and UKMA has commented on it in the following press release:

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The media always report statistics of oil production, reserves etc in “barrels”. But how many people know how big a “barrel” is?* Indeed is it an appropriate unit of measurement to use in the context of world energy policy?

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A new method of defining the kilogram is being sought by various teams of scientists around the world. However, it may be some years before a decision emerges. (NB - this will obviously not alter the actual size of the kilogram). This article, contributed by Martin Vlietstra, will be of interest to the more technically minded.
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The introduction of metric units in the UK has been controversial and much of the opposition has been on the basis that it ‘betrays our heritage’ or is a ‘foreign imposition’. However as a schoolboy then engineer - who has used not just metres and kilograms, but watts, farads, joules and newtons (all international units named after British scientists) - I have always thought we should be proud of using the metric system.

Having learned more about the history of the metric or international system of units I am dismayed that most British people are unaware of the substantial contribution our scientists and metallurgists have made. In particular how 19th Century metallurgists in London helped make the first international kilograms and metres.
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