Thread: Another Phoenix Flies!!

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Almost everybody I know refers to birth weights in pounds,
<snip>
But while you are about it, why not extend your rant to include the use of weight when you really mean mass? After all, the use of the more correct term was specified at the same time as metric units, yet there are still people who use weight when they mean mass.

John

You are correct about mass V weight issue John, but they still record the "birth weight" in Government perinatal statistics. So I guess it's a use of soft science.

It all came home to me after two incidents,

1. I caught a baby and took it outside to weigh and dutifully did the conversion to archaics (sic) and wrote both the measurement and the conversion on the cot card (pink card of course because it was a girl and that's what grandmother did), then went back into the delivery suite and announced the weight in ancient Englishes to mum and grandmum. The reply was "don't you have it is Kilos"? The family were of continental European decent and didn't understand British Empire measurements.
2. I was discussing things with a mum in the ante-natal ward and up came the issue of weight. The mum, a primary school teacher, had recently done a test with her class where she asked them to describe what a hundredweight (CWT) was the answer from each child was different and included a Volkswagen. Then one of her pupils asked "Miss, why are babies weighed different to everything else?"

The pupil had no concept of pounds and yet we continue to announce the mass of babies in lbs, and this is probably the only time in a child's life that we do it. We need the Metric Conversion Board to come back and head slap any of us who announce a baby's mass in King Arthurs.

Originally Posted by UncleHo

We need the metric conversion board to come back and rectify the stupidity of pandering to the people that can't count past the number of their fingers and toes, and return to the imperial measurements as used in US and GB

MILES, GALLONS, TONS,ACRES,Feet Inches,rods,roods,perch

good old AVOIRDUPOIS

However in health even the US uses the metric system for drugs. Far far safer.

Calculating child growth and milestones in Bodeca's are a nightmare, converting ounces to pounds then stones is fraught with risks of errors. Similarly caculating measurements in emergency procedures is quicker, easier and far safer if the measurements are continuous in a base 10 system. Herry VIII's are always a mixture of dozens, scores and perches. I have a kilderkin of saline solution and I need 5 drams measured in minims! Sorry doctor my syringe is calibrated in grains.