Metric Britain

I detest running. It is the most soul-crushingly monotonous recreational activity that mankind has inflicted upon itself. However with lockdowns, advancing age, limited exercise options and a fervent desire to not get a belly, it has become a necessary evil.  I now look forward to going for a run. This is temporary. But even in on a cold, grey day, it's an opportunity to absorb some daylight, catch up on a podcast and maybe even smile at another human being.   Despite going running almost every other day now, I don't cover huge distances. I average 5 to 10 km. People often seem quite impressed by that. I don't know why.  What does impress me is that whenever I'm asked how far I've run and I give an answer in kilometres, nobody asks me, "What's that in miles?"  People seem to simply understand.  The same universal understanding is not true when I use kilometres for anything else. For example, when giving someone directions. A significant proportion of p...

Having spent considerable amounts of time in different countries and having visited four continents in the past few months, I've noticed that what many (including myself) consider to be a uniquely British or anglophone problem is in fact prevalent in a number of other countries - some of which have been metric for their entire existence. I've posted images of signs in the UK using 'mtrs' for metres where 'm' should be used and I've discussed the nonsensicality of the use of kph instead of km/h in the British context, whilst lauding the metrication efforts of other anglophone countries in a similar metric limbo to the United Kingdom. Whilst I do stand by my argument that in the UK, we need to fully utilise our official system of measurements, and do so properly, I've come to realise that we're not the only country screwing this up. The most common violation of the BIPM's accepted symbols for metric units is the (mis)use of 'mtr' to re...

With the average person giving their height in feet and inches, weighing their babies in pounds and ounces, quoting distances in miles, it is very easy to forget that the metric system is the official system of measurements throughout the United Kingdom. This begs the question: Why does the imperial system still dominate our speech? To answer the sub question, I will focus primarily on road signs, the vast majority of which are in imperial measures (typically miles and yards). With these being the measurements which most people see on a day to day basis, it impacts the decision people make regarding measurements. Seeing miles and yards on the road is more likely to make an individual speak in miles and yards for distances - in spite of their education in metres and kilometres. This has the knock-on effect of using miles per gallon for fuel consumption (although you would struggle to find an imperial gallon anywhere around) and miles per hour for speed. This has wider impacts in the m...

Before my most recent trip to Birmingham, I was told that it is an architecturally uninspiring and characterless city. However, it seems that the city is highly undersold. Admittedly, there are parts of the city which are dingy, but it is evident that a lot of investment has gone into the city in recent years. Shiny new buildings dot the skyline and complement the historic baroque buildings, to some extent even allowing one to overlook some of the less attractive edifices from the 60s. One of my favourite things about the city is how car-friendly it is in comparison to London. With wide roads and lots of affordable parking, it's a stark contrast to London's narrow and winding streets, but it still maintains pedestrian-friendliness. As I'm not an employee of visitbirmingham.com, I'll get to the point of this blog post: signs on the canal. Upon descending from broad street to the canal, I was met by a sign showing all of the landmarks from that point specified in me...

Anyone who has ever had to consult their iPhone for directions would notice one catastrophic failing - their failure to use metric units on their map feature. When I first got my iPhone (almost two years ago now), just like a child with a new toy I was very keen to test out the new features. My first order of business was to find the settings to change the units to metric and lo and behold, there was no option to change it. It seems like Apple use miles exclusively for the Anglophone world, despite the fact that the majority of the English-speaking world officially uses metric units. A bit of research shows that on the original iPhone, the map only featured metric units. These were replaced with exclusively imperial units (probably due to complaints from the overly vocal 'Imperialists') In any case, it is a shame that, at least there is no facility to at least switch units. I suppose only time will tell, but let's keep our fingers crossed that Apple do sort thi...