S.I. or British M.U.?

There's no such thing as American English. It's either English or it isn't.

Centimetres are deprecated in SI units. They belong to the CGS system.

My car manual quotes tyre inflation pressures in bar (metric but not SI). No mention of PSI.

Increasingly sold in metric sizes, particularly the better quality ones (e.g. Spax)

Yes, a magnum is 1.5 L and is readily available. A Nebuchadnezzar is 15 L and used mainly for promotional purposes, the cost per unit volume being significantly higher than normal bottle sizes. The Drappier Champagne house make even larger sizes.

You can ask for them and you'll get 1200 X 600's.

The UK is 'officially' metric in its measuring system. We have a prorogation from the European Commission to retain certain 'traditional' measures which are deemed of special interest; these are primarily; the pint, (for sales of beer and milk -delivered to the door in bottles; and the mile, for measurements of road distances and signage {'London 56 M; Services 10 M, 25M; Speed Limit 70mph, 60mph, 40mph, 30 mph} All other measurements must be stated in metric, although it's frequently ignored. Materials are sold in metre lengths, carpets are quoted in sq. metres, vegetables are priced in Pound/Pence per Kilogram, however most people will ask for five pounds of potatoes, two yards of cotton, a 2x4 timber depicted as 50mm x

We use the imperial system, at least everyone I know uses the imp system including shops, stores, merchants and everyone else. Officially we use the metric system but no one does in reality, it was primarilly brought in to rip UK residents off at the petrol pump - we used to buy our petrol / deisel / oil in gallons (5.5 litres) and when it was raised in price by the government or their controllers, the oil industry, it went up by 5 or 10p a gallon, now it goes up by 5 or 10p litre and it's not as noticable as going up by 50p a gallon.

Which supermarkets? All the ones I go in sell milk in 2 litre, 1 litre and 500 ml containers.

The message from Bob Martin contains these words:

In the UK? Really? All the ones I've seen are in pints. We always buy the 2.272 litre size - 4 pints. There's two in the fridge right now.

Some other things such as TVs and computer monitors are "officially" sized in inches, wherever you are in the world.

Vehicle tyres partly likewise; they are a mish-mash (eg 165/70 x 13, the 165 being mm and the 13 being inches).

UK carpets are great: standard width 4 metres but length and area in either.

But what I (age 49 and educated in the UK basically in metric) want to know is why British builders, irrespective of age and mostly younger than me, always seem to deal in Imperial!

Because their elevator doesn't visit the top floor....

Usually sold in metric reams these days (500 sheets). IIRC a ream was

Owain

In Scotland we used to get 1/6, 1/5 and 1/4 gills depending on the pub. Oh, the joy of finding a quarter-gill pub.

I did once buy a quintuple of a single malt. Can't remember the measure, but it came in a half-pint glass.

Owain

Both are "hard of thinking". If you can't use both, easily, you're no-one.

But that's because the 100mm module is the same as the 4"module.

Mary

You get both. Round here the big supermarkets (Tescbury's) sell it in pint multiples while the smaller local places like One Stop have gone metric.

And theYorkshire gill was not the same.

Mary

"nightjar .uk.com>"

I'm WAY over that group but use all systems, including three types of temperatures.

Mary

No "ish" about it: the base size, A0, has an area of 1 square metre

"Reams" of 500 sheets. The original Imperial ream was 480 sheets, IIRC.

Does that mean their leavesdrop off in winter?