On Wednesday 02 January 2002 11:39, Jonathan Amery wrote:
> In article <m2n.16HXYg-000rZX@chiark.greenend.org.uk> you write:
> >Oh, and btw - those non-metric units are not "English units", but
> > "Imperial units", if you want to picky :-)
>
> Of course the even more picky will note that US Imperial units (Queen
> Anne units mainly) and UK Imperial units (technically Queen Elizabeth
> II ones) are somewhat different. [1]
>
> Jonathan.
>
> [1] Notable if you're a Publican. :)
>
Indeed. That's part of the reason, I think, why there is confusion
over the name. We have "US Gallons" (Queen Anne) v. "Imperial Gallons".
The United States settled on a system of units which at the time were
used in a large part of the British Empire. Shortly thereafter, however,
the Brits standardized on a slightly different version of units. So, I've
always reserved Imperial for those which the Brits settled on.
This, BTW, shows that the Americans didn't "get it wrong" as some
have claimed. It was just a different choice of units among several
similar ones which had been in use at the time.
Of course, most of you Europeans can thank the Americans for
creating the decimal monetary system as you enjoy your new
Euros. (I still wish they had settled on calling them Ecu, it just
sounds cooler. Just my two ecus.)
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