If you thought social distancing was simple, think again. Ronnie Cohen draws attention some examples of confusing conversions. When will we learn to think metric and not convert?
I have recently noticed something odd about the imperial conversions given for the two metre social distance signs. I have seen three different conversions in different locations, then I thought if I were familiar with metres and had never heard of the imperial foot, I would be none the wiser. Here are the different conversions I have seen:
Shop Window Sign
NHS Floor Sticker
Shoe Shop Sticker
The first sign gives a conversion of 6 feet, 8% less than 2 metres. The second sign gives a conversion of 6 feet 6 inches, which is by far the closest conversion for two metres and is just 1% smaller. The third sign’s conversion is 22% larger than two metres. This is wildly inaccurate. I saw the latter in a shoe shop in Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London. I also saw the following notice in the same shoe shop:
In fact, a distance of 1.5 metres is equivalent to approximately 5 feet, not 6 feet.
There is a widespread perception that giving conversions is helpful. If different conversions are given for the same lengths, the general public will surely wonder which one is correct. It does not help our understanding of measurements. If the measures are wildly inaccurate, they are unhelpful and misleading. Such conversions are worse than useless. I know that social distancing guidelines are meant to be approximate. If you wanted to give the most precise measurement, you would give a conversion of 6 feet 6 inches but that involves using a combination of feet and inches. If you want to give a conversion to the nearest number of whole feet, you would give a conversion of 7 feet, which is 7% larger than two metres. However, I have not seen that anywhere.
It is encouraging that a lot of social distance signs and posters just use metres. We can avoid all these conversion issues if everyone was consistent and just used metres. Why don’t we just dispense with conversions and just use metres for all social distancing information?