Talk:International yard and pound

Notability
Shortly after this article was created yesterday, User:Sopher99 put up a notability tag. Any suggestions? Zyxwv99 (talk) 21:42, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Wrong spin on US adoption
The following paragraph in the article puts the wrong spin on the situation with US adoption:

"In the USA, the international yard and pound were adopted for scientific and technical purposes effective 1 July 1959. The announcement by the National Bureau of Standards, published in the Federal Register on the above date, stated 'the refinements in the definitions of the yard and the pound will have no effect at all upon ordinary trade and commerce.'[13] In July 1968, the United States Department of Commerce published in the Federal Register a document listing the common weights and measures used in commerce. This list included the yard of 0.9144 meter (exact) and pound of 0.453 592 37 kilogram (exact) and well as multiples and subdivisions. This was in response to a request for clarification by the House Committee on Science and Astronautics.[13]:36"

This implies that the international pound and yard were adopted in 1959 for scientific and technical purposes, but it wasn't clear that this applied to all uses except surveying until 1968. But reading page 31 of source 13 makes it clear that the adoption for all purposes except surveying began in 1959. The change didn't make any difference for ordinary trade and commerce because ordinary trade and commerce did not make precise enough measurements to distinguish the difference between the old and new standards; it wasn't a question of using two different standards, a new one for scientific and technical and an old one for trade and commerce. Jc3s5h (talk) 03:47, 17 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the clarification. I changed the article accordingly. Zyxwv99 (talk) 12:51, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Not International At All
Of the six nations listed that have signed the treaty in 1959, five have since metricated to the point that both the yard (except on UK roads) and pound are illegal for use in trade and no official use of these units exists in these nation's laws. They can't be an international units then if in only one country such units are legal. This point needs to be mentioned less people think the yard and pound are legal in these countries.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Ametrica (talk • contribs) 10:33, 3 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Fair enough. Just keep in mind that the the term "international pound" is used in official documents to describe the pound that has been used since 1959. This term must continue in use for a long time because calling it a US pound would make people thing the pre-1959 pound is being referred to. Also, it must be used to describe any precise mass measurements that were made using that pound; even after the pound is eventually abandoned, records and contracts referring to the pound will still exist. Jc3s5h (talk) 16:30, 3 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I think there's a basic principle of linguistics involved here. Things acquire names that stick long after the meaning has become obsolete. Positive and negative electrical charge, for example, named before electrons were discovered; otherwise it would be the other way around. For people who don't understand this concept, editing the Wikipedia offers temptations to "correct" the peculiarities of their own language. Zyxwv99 (talk) 03:27, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

According to the Wikipedia article on the yard, the term "international yard" is only used in the US.


 * A yard (abbreviation:yd) is a unit of length in the imperial and United States customary systems of measurement. Historically a yard was also used in other systems of units. The yard is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches. Under an agreement in 1959 between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States, the yard (known as the "international yard" in the United States) was legally defined to be exactly 0.9144 metres.[3] Prior to that date, the legal definition of the yard when expressed in terms of metric units varied slightly from country to country."

Also, the very same article says the unifying of the yard was an agreement and not a treaty. The word treaty in the first paragraph must be changed to agreement, other wise you have two articles on the same subject using two different terms. Also, if it was a treaty, where can anyone see a copy of it with the legal signatures? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ametrica (talk • contribs) 17:36, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

The article says "In Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the yard and pound have been mostly abandoned following metrification in the 1970s." As a Canadian resident, I can tell you this is not true. While the metre has mostly replaced the yard, the pound is in common use. Go into any grocery store and look at the prices. The signs are all in $/lb. 65.93.30.152 (talk) 13:25, 25 December 2017 (UTC)

Do list
We still needs dates on when New Zealand and South Africa adopted the international yard and pound (and not just when they signed the treaty)

Seeing that they went metric over 40 years ago, such a request is moot. They may have only adopted it in name only but never in substance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ametrica (talk • contribs) 03:52, 21 February 2017 (UTC)


 * The "adopted" it in the technical sense that they adopted the formal definition. This had (obviously) no practical effect on everyday life, because people carried on buying rulers and stuff, and happily measuring things to within 0.1 mm. But you seem to have answered your own question -- "such a request is moot." (Moved new topic to bottom, as normal.) Imaginatorium (talk) 06:28, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

WP:ENGVAR
Per this edit, the usage of this page was established as American English. Kindly maintain it consistently, pending a new consensus to the contrary. — Llywelyn II   07:25, 13 June 2017 (UTC)