In article ,
"michael adams" writes:
|
| They're now exactly the same. And have been since 1959
| And all are defined by their metric equivalent.
|
| The pound (avoirdupois) or international pound, abbreviation "lb"
| or sometimes # in the United States, is the mass unit defined as
| exactly 0.45359237 kilograms (or 453.59237 grams). This definition
| has been in effect since a 1959 agreement among the national standards
| laboratories of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
| South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
|
| http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/Fed...doc59-5442.pdf

I stand corrected. I didn't realise that the USA had signed up :-)

I am, of course, old enough to have been taught using the previous
units - but I defy anyone to produce an experiment that could be
carried out in a school that could tell the difference between an
Imperial and a metric pound or foot :-)

Or, indeed, any of the dozen or so seconds that we have had since
1950 ....


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.