Metrication
Encyclopedia
Metric system
The metric system is an international decimalised system of measurement. France was first to adopt a metric system, in 1799, and a metric system is now the official system of measurement, used in almost every country in the world...
, the international standard
International standard
International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide...
for physical measurements. This has involved a long process of independent and systematic conversions of countries from various local
Localism (politics)
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identity...
systems of weights and measures. Metrication began in France in the 1790s and spread widely during the following two centuries. The process is sometimes called metrification.
Overview
According to the CIA Factbook only Burma (Myanmar), LiberiaLiberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
have yet to adopt the International System of Units
International System of Units
The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
as their official system of measurement. Some sources, though, identify Liberia as metric while reports from Burma suggest that that country is planning to adopt the metric system. However, they all have adopted metric measures to some degree through international trade and standardisation for example, Sierra Leone switched to selling fuel by the litre in May 2011. The United States mandated the acceptance of the metric system in 1866 for commercial and legal proceedings, without displacing their customary units.
Both Liberia and Myanmar are substantially metric countries, trading internationally in metric units. Visiting advocates of metrication also claim that they use metric units for many things internally with exceptions such as old petrol pumps in Myanmar, calibrated in British Imperial gallons.
A number of jurisdictions have laws mandating or permitting other systems of measurement in some or all contexts, such as the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, which still uses many imperial measures, such as miles and yards for road-sign distances, road speed limits in miles per hour
Miles per hour
Miles per hour is an imperial unit of speed expressing the number of statute miles covered in one hour. It is currently the standard unit used for speed limits, and to express speeds generally, on roads in the United Kingdom and the United States. It is also often used to express the speed of...
, lb/oz, pints, etc. for many products, and inches for clothes. Most countries have adopted the metric system officially over a transitional period where both units are used for a set period of time. Some countries such as Guyana, for example, have officially adopted the metric system, but have had some trouble over time implementing it. Antigua
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
, also 'officially' metric, is moving toward total implementation of the metric system, but slower than expected. The government of Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda is a twin-island nation lying between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It consists of two major inhabited islands, Antigua and Barbuda, and a number of smaller islands...
have announced that they have plans to convert their country to the metric system by the first quarter of 2015. Other Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
countries such as Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
are officially metric but are still in the process toward full conversion.
In the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, the European Council
European Council
The European Council is an institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the EU member states, along with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, currently Herman Van Rompuy...
(of Ministers) used the Units of Measure Directive
Units of Measure Directive
As of 2009, the European Union had issued two units of measurement directives: In 1971 it issued Directive 71/354/EEC which required EU member states to standardise on the International System of Units rather than use a variety of CGS and MKS units then in use. The second, which replaced the...
to attempt to achieve a common system of weights and measures and to facilitate the European Single Market
Single European Act
The Single European Act was the first major revision of the 1957 Treaty of Rome. The Act set the European Community an objective of establishing a Single Market by 31 December 1992, and codified European Political Cooperation, the forerunner of the European Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy...
. Throughout the 1990s, the European Commission
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
helped accelerate the process for member countries to complete their metric conversion processes. During these negotiations, the United Kingdom secured permanent exemptions for the mile and yard in road markings, and (with Ireland) for the pint of beer sold in pubs (see Metrication in the United Kingdom
Metrication in the United Kingdom
Metrication in the United Kingdom is the process of introducing the metric system of measurement in place of imperial units in the United Kingdom....
). In 2007, the European Commission also announced that (to facilitate trade with the United States) it was to abandon the requirement for metric-only labelling on packaged goods, and to allow dual metric-imperial marking to continue indefinitely.
Other countries using the imperial system completed metrication during the second half of the 20th century. The most recent to complete this process was the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
, which began metric conversion in the 1970s and completed it in early 2005.
In January 2007 NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
agreed to use metric units for all future moon missions due to pressure from other space agencies.
The United States and the United Kingdom have some active opposition to metrication, particularly where attempts are made to stamp out the use of their indigenous systems of measurements. Other countries, like France and Japan, that once had significant popular opposition to metrication now have complete acceptance of metrication.
Before the metric system
In mediaeval Europe, local laws on weights and measures were set by trade guildGuild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
s on a city-by-city basis. For example, the ell
Ell
An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...
or elle was a unit of length commonly used in Europe, but its length varied. It was 40.2 centimetres in one part of Germany, 70 centimetres in The Netherlands and 94.5 centimetres in Edinburgh. A survey of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in 1838 revealed that the foot had 37 different regional variations, the ell had 68, there were 83 different measures for dry grain, 70 measures for fluids and 63 different measures for "dead weights". When Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
wrote Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Latin for "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", often referred to as simply the Principia, is a work in three books by Sir Isaac Newton, first published 5 July 1687. Newton also published two further editions, in 1713 and 1726...
in 1687, he quoted his measurements in Parisian feet so readers could understand the size. Examples of efforts to have local intercity or national standards for measurements include the Scottish law of 1641, and the British standard Imperial unit
Imperial unit
The system of imperial units or the imperial system is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which was later refined and reduced. The system came into official use across the British Empire...
system of 1845, which is still commonly used in the United Kingdom. At one time Imperial China
Late Imperial China
Late Imperial China refers to the period between the end of Mongol rule in 1368 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and includes the Ming and Qing Dynasties...
had successfully standardised units
Chinese units of measurement
Chinese units of measurement are the customary and traditional units of measure used in China. In the People's Republic of China, the units were re-standardised during the late 20th century to make them approximate SI units. Many of the units were formerly based on the number 16 instead of 10...
for volume throughout its territory, but by 1936 official investigations uncovered 53 dimensions for the chi varying from 200 millimetres to 1250 millimetres; 32 dimensions of the cheng, between 500 millilitres and 8 litres; and 36 different tsin
Catty
The catty , symbol 斤, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael, which is of a catty. A stone is a...
ranging from 300 grams to 2500 grams. However, revolutionary France was to produce the definitive International System of Units
International System of Units
The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
which has come to be used by most of the world today.
The desire for a single international system of measurement derives from growing international trade and the need to apply common standards
International standard
International standards are standards developed by international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use, worldwide...
to goods. For a company to buy a product produced in another country, they need to ensure that the product will arrive as described. The medieval ell was abandoned in part because its value could not be standardised. It can be argued that the primary advantage of the International System of Units is simply that it is international, and the pressure on countries to conform to it grew as it became increasingly an international standard. SI is not the only example of international standardisation; several powerful international standardisation organisations exist for various industries, such as the International Organisation for Standardisation, the International Electrotechnical Commission
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
, and the International Telecommunication Union
International Telecommunication Union
The International Telecommunication Union is the specialized agency of the United Nations which is responsible for information and communication technologies...
.
Forerunners of the metric system
Decimal numbers are an essential part of the metric system. Although the IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns used decimal numbers for mathematical computations, it was Simon Stevin
Simon Stevin
Simon Stevin was a Flemish mathematician and military engineer. He was active in a great many areas of science and engineering, both theoretical and practical...
who in 1585 first advocated the use of decimal numbers for everyday purposes in his booklet De Thiende (old Dutch for 'the tenth'). He also declared that it would only be a matter of time before decimal numbers were used for currencies and measurements. His notation for decimal fractions was clumsy, but was overcome by the introduction of the decimal point, generally attributed to Bartholomaeus Pitiscus
Bartholomaeus Pitiscus
Bartholomaeus Pitiscus was a 16th century German trigonometrist, astronomer and theologian who first coined the word Trigonometry....
who used this notation in his trigonometrical tables (1595).
In his Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language
An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language
An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language is the best-remembered of the numerous works of John Wilkins, in which he expounds a new universal language, meant primarily to facilitate international communication among scholars, but envisioned for use by diplomats, travelers, and...
, published in 1668, John Wilkins
John Wilkins
John Wilkins FRS was an English clergyman, natural philosopher and author, as well as a founder of the Invisible College and one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
proposed a system of measurement that was very similar in concept to today's metric system. He proposed retaining the second as the basic unit of time and proposed that the length of a pendulum which had a period of one second should be the base unit of length. This length, for which he proposed the name "standard", would have been 994 mm. His base unit of mass, which he proposed calling a "hundred", would have been the mass of a cubic standard of distilled rainwater. The names that he proposed for decimal multiples and subunits of his base units of measure were the names of units of measure that were in use at the time.
In 1670, Gabriel Mouton
Gabriel Mouton
Gabriel Mouton was a French abbot and scientist. He was a doctor of theology from Lyon, but was also interested in mathematics and astronomy....
published a proposal that was in essence similar to Wilkins' proposal, except that his base unit of length would have been 1/1000 of a minute of arc
Minute of arc
A minute of arc, arcminute, or minute of angle , is a unit of angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one degree. In turn, a second of arc or arcsecond is one sixtieth of one minute of arc....
(about 2.04 m) of geographical latitude. He proposed calling this unit the virga. Rather than using different names for each unit of length, he proposed a series of names that had prefixes, rather like the prefixes found in SI.
In 1790, Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
submitted a report to the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
in which he proposed the adoption of a decimal system of coinage and of weights and measures. His proposed base unit of length was the foot which he suggested should be either 3/10 or 1/3 of the length of a pendulum that had a period of one second – that is 3/10 or 1/3 of the "standard" proposed by Wilkins over a century previously. His base unit of mass was to be the bushel
Bushel
A bushel is an imperial and U.S. customary unit of dry volume, equivalent in each of these systems to 4 pecks or 8 gallons. It is used for volumes of dry commodities , most often in agriculture...
, which would have been the mass of a cubic foot of water. Like Wilkins, the names that he proposed for multiples and subunits of his base units of measure were the names of units of measure that were in use at the time.
Conversion process
The metric system was officially introduced in France in 1799. In the 19th century, the metric system was adopted by the following European countries: PortugalPortugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
(1814), Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
and Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
(1820), Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(1835), Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(1850s), Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
(1861), Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(1870, legally from 1 January 1872), Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
(1876, but the law was adopted in 1871). Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
adopted the metric system in 1907.
Chronology and status of conversion by country
Links in the country point to articles about metrication in that country.| year of conversion |
country | previous system of measure |
status of metrication |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1795 | France | French French units of measurement France has a unique history of units of measurement due to radical attempts to adopt a metric system following the French Revolution.In the Ancien régime, before 1795, France used a system of measures that had many of the characteristics of the modern Imperial System of units... |
complete |
| 1814 | Brazil | Portuguese Portuguese customary units The Portuguese customary units were used in Portugal, Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese Empire until the adoption of the Metric System in the 19th century.The Metric System was adopted by Portugal and Portuguese colonies in 1852 and by Brazil in 1862.... |
complete |
| 1814 | Portugal | Portuguese Portuguese customary units The Portuguese customary units were used in Portugal, Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese Empire until the adoption of the Metric System in the 19th century.The Metric System was adopted by Portugal and Portuguese colonies in 1852 and by Brazil in 1862.... |
complete |
| 1820 | Belgium | various | complete |
| 1820 | Netherlands | Dutch Dutch units of measurement The Dutch units of measurement used today are those of the metric system. Before the 19th century, a wide variety of different weights and measures were used by the various Dutch towns and provinces. Despite the country's small size, there was a lack of uniformity... |
complete |
| 1848 | Chile Metrication in Chile Chile adopted the metric system in 1848. Previously, the Spanish system of measures was used.-History:On January 29, 1848, when Manuel Bulnes was president, a Chilean law was passed in which the metric system was adopted.Chile signed the Metre Convention in 1908.... |
Spanish | almost entirely complete |
| 1852 | Mexico | unknown | complete |
| 1852 | Spain | Spanish | complete |
| 1861 | Italy | various | complete |
| 1862 | Peru Metrication in Peru Peru adopted the metric system in 1862. Before, the Spanish system of measures was used. - History :In 1862 the Peruvian government decreed the metric system to be official in Peru. However, several years later the old measurements were still used... |
Spanish | almost entirely complete |
| 1864 | Romania | Romanian Romanian units of measurement The measures of the old Romanian system varied greatly not only between the three Romanian states , but sometimes also inside the same country... |
complete |
| 1871 | Austria | various | complete |
| 1872 | Germany | various German units of measurement Germany had an indigenous system of German units of measurement prior to its adoption of the international metric system. These units are now mainly of historical interest.-German system:... |
complete |
| 1875 | Norway | Norwegian Norwegian units of measurement As in the case of the Danes the Norwegians' earliest standards of measure can be derived from their ship burials. The was built ca. 700 AD and differs from the Danish boats less than it does from the Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships which all date from ca. 800 AD. Thwarts are typically spaced about... |
complete |
| 1876 | Sweden | Swedish Swedish units of measurement In Sweden, a common system for weights and measures was introduced by law in 1665. Before that, there were a number of local variants. The system was slightly revised in 1735. In 1855, a decimal reform was instituted that defined a new Swedish inch as 1/10 foot... |
complete |
| 1876 | Switzerland | various | complete |
| 1876 | Hungary | various | complete |
| 1886 | Finland | Finnish Finnish units of measurement In Finland, approximate units of measure were derived from natural actions or objects such body parts, later standardised for the purpose of commerce. Some Swedish and, later, Russian, units were also used.... |
complete |
| 1908 | Costa Rica | Spanish | complete |
| 1908 | Denmark | Danish Danish units of measurement The Danes started with a system of units based on a Greek pous of which they picked up through trade in the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age. Some early standards of measure can be recovered from measured drawings made of the , which though dating to the early Iron Age exemplifies plank built... |
complete |
| 1912 | Dominican Republic | unknown | complete |
| 1918 | Russia | Russian Obsolete Russian units of measurement A native system of weights and measures was used in Imperial Russia and after the Russian Revolution, but it was abandoned in 1924 when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system.The Tatar system is very similar to the Russian one, but some names are different.... |
complete |
| 1923 | Thailand | various | 3rd method, almost entirely complete |
| 1925 | Republic of China | Chinese Chinese units of measurement Chinese units of measurement are the customary and traditional units of measure used in China. In the People's Republic of China, the units were re-standardised during the late 20th century to make them approximate SI units. Many of the units were formerly based on the number 16 instead of 10... |
almost entirely complete |
| 1954 | India Metrication in India Metrication or metrification is the process of converting to the metric system based on the International System of Units . India's conversion to the metric system occurred in stages between 1955 and 1962... |
various | complete |
| 1954 | Sudan | various | complete |
| 1957 | Japan | Japanese Japanese units of measurement ' is the traditional Japanese system of measurement. The name shakkanhō originates from the name of two of the units, the shaku, a unit of length, and the kan, a mass measurement.The system is Chinese in origin... |
almost entirely complete |
| 1959 | Greece | Old Greek Ancient Greek units of measurement Ancient Greek units of measurement would later create the foundation of Egyptian, and formed the basis of the later Roman system.Generally speaking, standards of measurement within the ancient Greek world varied according to location and epoch. Systems of ancient weights and measures evolved as... |
complete |
| 1946 | Indonesia | various | almost entirely complete |
| 1948 | South Korea | Japanese Japanese units of measurement ' is the traditional Japanese system of measurement. The name shakkanhō originates from the name of two of the units, the shaku, a unit of length, and the kan, a mass measurement.The system is Chinese in origin... |
partially complete |
| 1963 | Laos | unknown | complete |
| 1963 | Vietnam | unknown | complete |
| 1967 | Ireland Metrication in Ireland Ireland inherited the imperial System of measurement from Britain, and these units continued to be used after Irish independence. It is principally due to Irish membership in the European Union that metric units were introduced. Progress towards metrication is mixed... |
before 1807, Old Irish Old Irish units of measurement - Length :A troighid was the length of a man's foot, divided into twelve ordlach, "thumb-lengths". These figures assume a man's foot to measure 25 cm .... after 1807, Imperial |
complete |
| 1967 | Pakistan | unknown | complete |
| 1969 | New Zealand Metrication in New Zealand New Zealand started metrication in 1969 with the establishment of the Metric Advisory Board and completed metrication on 14 December 1976 .-Strategy toward Metrication:... |
Imperial | complete |
| 1970 | Australia Metrication in Australia Metrication in Australia took place between 1970 and 1988. Before then, Australia mostly used the imperial system for measurement, which the Australian colonies had inherited from the United Kingdom. Between 1970 and 1988, imperial units were withdrawn from general legal use and replaced with SI... |
Imperial | complete |
| 1971 | South Africa | Imperial | complete |
| 1973 | Canada Metrication in Canada Canada has converted to the metric system for many purposes but there is still significant use of non-metric units and standards in many sectors of the Canadian economy... |
Canadian Imperial Canadian units Canadian units are the traditional weights and measures used in Canada. The country has officially adopted the metric system, but still maintains legal definitions of the imperial units under Schedule II, Section 4 of the Weights and Measures Act... |
partially complete |
| 1998 | Jamaica Metrication in Jamaica Jamaica started metrication in the 1970s. However, it was not completed until the 2000s.Since the 1970s, metric units were introduced into the curriculum of the primary and secondary school systems. The Common Entrance and CXC examinations syllabus use metric units. The Ministry of Education also... |
Imperial | complete |
| 2005 | Saint Lucia | Imperial | complete |
There are three common ways that nations convert from traditional measurement systems to the metric system. The first is a quick, so called "Big-Bang" route which was used by India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in the 1960s and several other nations including Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
since then. The second way is to phase in units over time and progressively outlaw traditional units. This method, favoured by some industrial nations, is slower and generally less complete. The third way is to redefine traditional units in metric terms. This has been used successfully where traditional units were ill-defined and had regional variations.
The "Big-Bang" way is to simultaneously outlaw the use of pre-metric
History of measurement
Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Primitive societies needed rudimentary measures for numerous tasks such as: constructing dwellings of an appropriate size and shape, fashioning clothing, or bartering food or raw materials....
measurement, metricate, reissue all government publications and laws, and change education systems to metric. India's changeover lasted from 1 April 1960, when metric measurements became legal, to 1 April 1962, when all other systems were banned. The Indian model was extremely successful and was copied over much of the developing world.
The phase-in way is to pass a law permitting the use of metric units in parallel with traditional ones, followed by education of metric units, then progressively ban the use of the older measures. This has generally been a slow route to metric. The British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
permitted the use of metric measures in 1873, but the changeover was not completed in most Commonwealth countries until the 1970s and 1980s when governments took an active role in metric conversion. Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
also followed this route and did not complete the changeover for 70 years. In the United Kingdom, the process is still incomplete. By law, loose goods sold with reference to units of quantity have to be weighed and sold using the metric system. In 2001 the EU directive 80/181/EEC
Units of Measure Directive
As of 2009, the European Union had issued two units of measurement directives: In 1971 it issued Directive 71/354/EEC which required EU member states to standardise on the International System of Units rather than use a variety of CGS and MKS units then in use. The second, which replaced the...
stated that supplementary units (imperial units alongside metric including labelling on packages) would become illegal from the beginning of 2010. In September 2007 a consultation process was started which resulted in the directive being modified to permit supplementary units to be used indefinitely.
The third method is to redefine traditional units in terms of metric values. These redefined "quasi-metric" units often stay in use long after metrication is said to have been completed. Resistance to metrication in post-revolutionary France convinced Napoleon to revert to mesures usuelles
Mesures usuelles
Mesures usuelles were a system of measurement introduced by Napoleon I in 1812 to act as compromise between the metric system and traditional measurements...
(usual measures) and to some extent the names remain throughout Europe. In 1814, Portugal adopted the metric system but with the names of the units substituted by Portuguese traditional ones
Portuguese customary units
The Portuguese customary units were used in Portugal, Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese Empire until the adoption of the Metric System in the 19th century.The Metric System was adopted by Portugal and Portuguese colonies in 1852 and by Brazil in 1862....
. In this system the basic units were the mão-travessa (hand) = 1 decimeter (10 mão-travessas = 1 vara (yard) = 1 meter), the canada
Canada (volume)
The canada was the fundamental unit of liquid volume of the ancient Portuguese Measurement System. It was used in Portugal, Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese Empire until the adoption of the metric system. It was equivalent to 4 quartilhos...
= 1 liter and the libra (pound) = 1 kilogram. In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, 500 g is informally referred to as a pond (pound
Pound (mass)
The pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the Imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
) and 100 g as an ons (ounce
Ounce
The ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
), and in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
500 g is informally referred to respectively as ein Pfund and une livre ("one pound"). In Denmark, the re-defined pund (500 g) is occasionally used, particularly among older people and (older) fruit growers, since these were originally paid according to the number of pounds of fruit produced. In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
a mil (Scandinavian mile) is informally equal to 10 km, and this has continued to be the predominantly used unit in conversation when referring to geographical distances. In the 19th century, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
had a non-metric system completely based on metric terms (e.g. 1 fuss (foot) = 30 cm, 1 zoll (inch) = 3 cm, 1 linien (line) = 3 mm). In China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
the jin
Catty
The catty , symbol 斤, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael, which is of a catty. A stone is a...
now has a value of 500 g and the liang
Tael
Tael can refer to any one of several weight measures of the Far East. Most commonly, it refers to the Chinese tael, a part of the Chinese system of weights and currency....
is 50 g.
It is difficult to judge the degree to which ordinary people change to using metric in their daily lives. In countries that have recently changed, older segments of the population
Demographics
Demographics are the most recent statistical characteristics of a population. These types of data are used widely in sociology , public policy, and marketing. Commonly examined demographics include gender, race, age, disabilities, mobility, home ownership, employment status, and even location...
tend to still use the older units. Also, local variations abound in which units are round metric quantities or not. In Canada, for example, ovens and cooking temperatures are usually measured in degrees Fahrenheit and Celsius. Except for in cases of import items all recipes and packaging includes both Celsius and Fahrenheit so Canadians are typically comfortable with both systems of measurement. This extends to manufacturing where companies are able to use both imperial and metric since major export is for the U.S. but metric is required for both domestic and for nearly all other export. This may be due to the overwhelming influence of the neighbouring United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; similarly, still many English Canadians (unlike most French Canadians) often use non-metric measurements in day-to-day discussions of height and weight, and for clothing sizes, which are invariably measured in inches, though most driver's licences and other official government documents record weight and height only in metric (Saskatchewan driver licences, prior to the introduction of the current one-piece licence, indicated height in feet and inches but have switched to centimetres following the new licence format). In Canadian schools though metric is the standard except when it comes up in recipes, where both are included, or in practical lessons involving measuring wood or other materials for manufacturing. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, Fahrenheit is seldom encountered (except when some people talk about hot summer weather) while other metric units are often used in conjunction with older measurements, and road signs use miles rather than kilometres. Another example is "hard" and "soft" metric. Canada converted liquid dairy products to litres, 500 g and 250 g sizes, which caused some complaining at time of conversion, as a litre of milk is 35 imperial ounces, while the former imperial quart used in Canada was 40 ounces. This is a "hard" metric conversion. Conversely, butter in Canada is sold primarily in a 454 g package, which converts to one Imperial pound. This is considered "soft" metric. Such countries could be said to be "semi-metric". However unlike in the rest of Canada, metrication in the Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
has been more implemented and metric measures are more consistently used in Quebec than elsewhere in Canada.
Exceptions
As of 2007, in most countries of the world the metric system officially dominates; but traditional units are still used in many places and industries. For example, automobile tyre pressure is measured as psi in countries such as BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and Chile
Metrication in Chile
Chile adopted the metric system in 1848. Previously, the Spanish system of measures was used.-History:On January 29, 1848, when Manuel Bulnes was president, a Chilean law was passed in which the metric system was adopted.Chile signed the Metre Convention in 1908....
which are otherwise completely metric. Office space is often rented in traditional units, such as square foot
Square foot
The square foot is an imperial unit and U.S. customary unit of area, used mainly in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is defined as the area of a square with sides of 1 foot in length...
in Hong Kong and India, tsubo
Tsubo
Japanese words have the following meanings:*pressure point in the context of traditional medicine*a Japanese unit of measure*Cooking pot or a similar vessel...
in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
or pyeong
Pyeong
A pyeong is a unit of measurement in Korea equal to square metres . The similar unit of measurement in Japan is the tsubo...
in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
. Traditional measurements are still used in some areas: e.g., in plumbing
Plumbing
Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...
the diameters of pipes are still measured in inches in some countries (in the United Kingdom all new pipes are metric). Automotive wheel diameters are still set as whole inch
Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...
measurements (although tyre widths are measured in millimetres) and dots per inch
Dots per inch
Dots per inch is a measure of spatial printing or video dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch . The DPI value tends to correlate with image resolution, but is related only indirectly.- DPI measurement in monitor...
continues to be used in describing graphical resolution in the computer industry. Television and monitor screen diameters are still commonly cited in inches in many countries; however, in Australia and South Africa, centimetres are often used for television sets, whereas CRT computer monitors and all LCD monitors are measured in inches. The only exception to the metrication process in Ireland was the pint
Pint
The pint is a unit of volume or capacity that was once used across much of Europe with values varying from state to state from less than half a litre to over one litre. Within continental Europe, the pint was replaced with the metric system during the nineteenth century...
in bars, pubs, and clubs; although alcohol sold in any other location is in metric units (usually 330 ml (canned beer), 500 ml (bottled beer), 750 ml (wine), or 1 l (spirit)). In Australia, a pint of beer was redefined to 570 ml (see Australian beer glasses). In both metric and non-metric countries, racing bicycle
Racing bicycle
A racing bicycle, also known as a road bike, is a bicycle designed for competitive road cycling, a sport governed by according to the rules of the Union Cycliste Internationale...
frames are generally measured in centimetres, while mountain bicycle frames are measured in either or both. In Spain and former colonies i.e. Americas and Philippines certain pre-metric units are still used e.g. the quiñón for land measurement in the Philippines, the fanega, ferrado and atahúlla to name three used in Spain and other former possessions. The pulgada (inch) is 23 mm so 2 mm shorter than the English inch.
Antigua
Antigua , also known as Waladli, is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means "ancient" in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after an icon in Seville Cathedral, Santa Maria de la...
, see above), the transition is still in progress. The Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 and has an...
announced metrication programmes in 2005 to be compatible with CARICOM.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the metric system is used by most businesses and is used for most transactions. Metric units must be used for the retail sale of consumer goods that are sold by weight or volume and imperial units can continue to be displayed in parallel. British law has enacted the provisions of European Union directive 80/181/EEC which catalogues the units of measure that may be used for "economic, public health, public safety and administrative purposes". These units consist of the recommendations of the General Conference on Weights and MeasuresGeneral Conference on Weights and Measures
The General Conference on Weights and Measures is the English name of the Conférence générale des poids et mesures . It is one of the three organizations established to maintain the International System of Units under the terms of the Convention du Mètre of 1875...
supplemented by some additional units of measure that may be used for specified purposes.
The metric system had been legal for nearly a century before metrication efforts
Metrication in the United Kingdom
Metrication in the United Kingdom is the process of introducing the metric system of measurement in place of imperial units in the United Kingdom....
began in earnest. The government had been making preparations for the conversion of the Imperial unit
Imperial unit
The system of imperial units or the imperial system is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824, which was later refined and reduced. The system came into official use across the British Empire...
since the 1862 Select Committee on Weights and Measures recommended the conversion and the Weights and Measures Act of 1864 and the Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act of 1896 legalised the metric system. In 1965, with lobbying from British industries and the prospects of joining the Common Market, the government set a 10 year target for full conversion and created the Metrication Board
Metrication Board
The Metrication Board was a non-departmental public body that existed in the United Kingdom to promote and coordinate metrication within the country and prepare the public for the change.-History:...
in 1969. Metrication did occur in some areas during this time period, including the re-surveying of Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
maps in 1970, decimalisation
Decimalisation
Decimal currency is the term used to describe any currency that is based on one basic unit of currency and a sub-unit which is a power of 10, most commonly 100....
of the currency
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
in 1971, and teaching the metric system in schools. No plans were made to make the use of the metric system compulsory, and the Metrication Board was abolished in 1980 following a change in government. The United Kingdom avoided having to comply with the 1989 European Units of Measurement Directive (89/617/EEC), which required all member states to make the metric system compulsory, by negotiating derogation
Derogation
Derogation is the partial revocation of a law, as opposed to abrogation or the total abolition of a law. The term is used in both civil law and common law. It is sometimes used, loosely, to mean abrogation, as in the legal maxim: Lex posterior derogat priori, i.e...
s (delayed switchovers), including for miles on road signs and for pints for draught beer, cider, and milk sales.
United States
International Bureau of Weights and Measures
The International Bureau of Weights and Measures , is an international standards organisation, one of three such organisations established to maintain the International System of Units under the terms of the Metre Convention...
in 1875. The system was officially adopted by the federal government in 1975 for use in the military and government agencies. In 1985, the metric system was made the preferred (but predominantly voluntary) system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce. It has remained voluntary for federal and state road signage to use metric units, despite attempts in the 1990s to make it a requirement. A 1992 amendment to the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA)
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act
The Fair Packaging and Labeling Act is a US law that applies to labels on many consumer products. It requires the label to state:*The identity of the product;*The name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor; and...
, which took effect in 1994, required labels on federally regulated "consumer commodities" to include both metric
Si
Si, si, or SI may refer to :- Measurement, mathematics and science :* International System of Units , the modern international standard version of the metric system...
and U.S. customary units. As of June 2007, all but two US states (New York and Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
) have passed laws permitting metric-only labels for the products they regulate. Likewise, Canada also legally allows for dual labelling of goods provided that the metric unit is listed first and that there is a distinction of whether a liquid measure is a U.S. or a Canadian (Imperial) unit. Today, the American public and much of the private business and industry still use U.S. customary units despite many years of informal or optional metrication. At least two states, Kentucky and California, have even moved towards demetrication of highway construction projects.
Air and sea transport
Air and sea transport use the nautical mileNautical mile
The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...
. This is about one minute of arc
Minute of arc
A minute of arc, arcminute, or minute of angle , is a unit of angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one degree. In turn, a second of arc or arcsecond is one sixtieth of one minute of arc....
of latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
along any meridian arc
Meridian arc
In geodesy, a meridian arc measurement is a highly accurate determination of the distance between two points with the same longitude. Two or more such determinations at different locations then specify the shape of the reference ellipsoid which best approximates the shape of the geoid. This...
and is precisely defined as 1852 metres (about 1.151 mile
Mile
A mile is a unit of length, most commonly 5,280 feet . The mile of 5,280 feet is sometimes called the statute mile or land mile to distinguish it from the nautical mile...
s). It is a non-SI
International System of Units
The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
unit (although accepted for use in the SI by the BIPM). The prime unit of speed for maritime and air navigation remains the knot (nautical mile per hour).
The prime unit of measure for aviation (altitude) is usually estimated based on air pressure values and, in many countries, is still described in nominal feet though many others employ nominal metres. The policies of the International Civil Aviation Organization
International Civil Aviation Organization
The International Civil Aviation Organization , pronounced , , is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It codifies the principles and techniques of international air navigation and fosters the planning and development of international air transport to ensure safe and orderly growth...
(ICAO) relating to measurement are:
- there should be a single system of units throughout the world
- the single system should be SI
- the use of the foot for altitude is a permitted variation
Consistent with ICAO policy, aviation has undergone a significant amount of metrication over the years; for example, runways are usually given in metres. The United States metricated the data interchange format (METAR
METAR
METAR is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting....
) for temperature reports in 1996. Metrication is also gradually taking place in cargo weights/dimensions and fuel volume/weight.
Accidents and incidents
Confusion over units during the process of metrication can sometimes lead to accidents. One of the most famous examples was during Canada's metrication: in 1983, an Air CanadaAir Canada
Air Canada is the flag carrier and largest airline of Canada. The airline, founded in 1936, provides scheduled and charter air transport for passengers and cargo to 178 destinations worldwide. It is the world's tenth largest passenger airline by number of destinations, and the airline is a...
Boeing 767
Boeing 767
The Boeing 767 is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It was the manufacturer's first wide-body twinjet and its first airliner with a two-crew glass cockpit. The aircraft features two turbofan engines, a supercritical wing, and a conventional tail...
, nicknamed the "Gimli Glider
Gimli Glider
The Gimli Glider is the nickname of the Air Canada aircraft that was involved in a notable aviation incident. On 23 July 1983, Air Canada Flight 143, a Boeing 767-200 jet, ran out of fuel at an altitude of ASL, about halfway through its flight from Montreal to Edmonton via Ottawa...
" after the incident, ran out of fuel in mid-flight. The incident was caused, in a large part, by the confusion over the conversion among litres, kilograms, and pounds, resulting in the aircraft receiving 22,300 pounds of fuel instead of the required 22,300 kg.
While not strictly an example of national metrication, the use of two different systems was a contributing factor in the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter
Mars Climate Orbiter
The Mars Climate Orbiter was a 338 kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998 to study the Martian climate, atmosphere, surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program, for Mars Polar Lander...
in 1998. NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
specified metric units in the contract. NASA and other organisations worked in metric units but one subcontractor, Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, provided thruster performance data to the team in pound force seconds instead of newton seconds. The spacecraft was intended to orbit Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
at about 150 kilometres (93.2 mi) altitude but the incorrect data meant that it descended to about 57 kilometres (35.4 mi) and most likely burned up in the Martian atmosphere.
On 25 September 2009, the British Department for Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
published a draft version of legislation to amend its road signage legislation for comment. Amongst the proposed changes is an amendment to existing legislation to make dual unit height and width warning and restriction signs mandatory. This is justified in Paragraph 53 of the Impact Analysis by the text "... Based on records from Network Rail’s incident logs since April 2008, approximately 10 – 12% of bridge strikes involved foreign lorries. This is disproportionately high in terms of the number of foreign lorries on the road network." This proposal was shelved with the change of government in 2010.
Opposition
Only the United States continues to see significant popular opposition to metrication, the main objections being based in localism, tradition, cultural aesthetics, economic impact, or distaste for measures viewed as "foreign". Japan had significant popular opposition at one time for similar reasons. Popular opposition in the United Kingdom exists to a lesser degree and can be associated with anti-European Union sentiment. France, where the measures were largely invented, saw popular opposition during the early 19th century, though not for long. Thus, with the exception of the United States, metrication is now fully or substantially accepted in nearly all countries.See also
- Anti-metricationAnti-metricationThe spread of metrication around the world in the last two centuries has been met with both support and opposition. All countries except Burma , Liberia, and the United States of America have officially adopted the metric system, although actual usage may be more complex.-Natural evolution and...
- Conversion of unitsConversion of unitsConversion of units is the conversion between different units of measurement for the same quantity, typically through multiplicative conversion factors.- Process :...
- Language reformLanguage reformLanguage reform is a type of language planning by massive change to a language. The usual tools of language reform are simplification and purification. Simplification makes the language easier to use by regularizing vocabulary and grammar...
- Metric clothes sizes (EN 13402)EN 13402EN 13402 is a European standard for labelling clothes sizes. It is based on body dimensions, measured in centimetres. It replaces many older national dress-size systems in popular use before the year 2007. Acceptance of this form of standardization varies from country to country...
- French units of measurementFrench units of measurementFrance has a unique history of units of measurement due to radical attempts to adopt a metric system following the French Revolution.In the Ancien régime, before 1795, France used a system of measures that had many of the characteristics of the modern Imperial System of units...
- Metrication in ChileMetrication in ChileChile adopted the metric system in 1848. Previously, the Spanish system of measures was used.-History:On January 29, 1848, when Manuel Bulnes was president, a Chilean law was passed in which the metric system was adopted.Chile signed the Metre Convention in 1908....
- Metrication in the United KingdomMetrication in the United KingdomMetrication in the United Kingdom is the process of introducing the metric system of measurement in place of imperial units in the United Kingdom....
- Metrication in the United StatesMetrication in the United StatesMetrication is the process of introducing the International System of Units , a metric system of measurement, to replace the historical or customary units of measurement of a country or region...
- Metrication in CanadaMetrication in CanadaCanada has converted to the metric system for many purposes but there is still significant use of non-metric units and standards in many sectors of the Canadian economy...
- Metric yardstick
- Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States
- Preferred numberPreferred numberIn industrial design, preferred numbers are standard guidelines for choosing exact product dimensions within a given set of constraints....
s - Change managementChange managementChange management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is an organizational process aimed at helping employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment....
, a field studying how changes can be efficiently implemented in modern communities