While children starting school this week will learn the metric
system, many Britons remain attached to imperial weights and
measures. Will the UK ever give them up? By Chris Summers BBC
News Online A generation of children is being taught to give
their weight in kilograms, to measure their height in
centimetres and to think of their drinks in litres. "Can I have
a 113grammer, fries and half a litre of Coke?" But even the
youngest school starters attending class for the first time this
week are likely to find a country which still uses imperial
measures when they finally end their education. Britons raised
to use the old standard will continue to give distances in
miles, to talk about 18 yard boxes when chatting about football
and furlongs when discussing horse racing. Britain first laid
plans to go metric in 1965, but will it ever go the full nine
yards (8.23 metres)? Beer and cider Many of the UK's traders are
already required by law to use metric units, but imperial
measurements can also be displayed. Come