"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

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 :-)


Indeed.

I didn't know any of this before this evening, but apparently

"The 1878 definition in the U.K. defined pound as a mass, but having a
very slightly smaller value (equal to approximately 0.453592338 kg)
than it does now."

As against 0.45359237.

Which pencil and paper suggests is 0.000000032 of a gram difference.


Watching the footie the other night, as you do, I was flabbergasted
to hear Sam Allerdyce the blunt Bolton Manager, refer to one of
the players on the pitch as being only 1.7 metres tall. Something
like that anyway. Yer Wah???? Get out the tape measure Mother !

So it's strapping 1.9 metrers now as well I suppose.



michael adams

....



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


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.