Going metric

Sir, – Dermot O'Rouke in Saturday's (Sep 10) Letters to the Editor(September 10th) notes that on Operation Transformation on RTÉ, contestants give their weight in stones and pounds. I wonder will they have difficulty converting litres at the petrol pump to gallons if they call at a filling station, and will they ask for a pint of milk if they are running low for breakfast, and will they be able to convert the kilometric speed limits to miles per hour? It's time we fully embraced the metric system and left the antiquated and regressive imperial measurement far behind. – Yours, etc,

LEO MORAN,

Dundalk, Co Louth.

Sir, – Metric units have been taught in Ireland since 1970, therefore everyone under 50 years of age is familiar with their use and struggles to comprehend pounds, stones, hundredweights, etc. Can we, including estate agents, who continue to use square feet instead of square metres, once and for all adopt the metric system in our everyday life? – Yours, etc,

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GORDON McCABE,

Limerick.