Importance of Legal metrology

Legal metrology is an essential requirement, which underpins the sale at both retail and wholesale level of food, petrol and many other goods.

Legal weights and measures are fundamental to a sustainable trading economy. The concept of sale and purchase cannot exist without them. In our everyday lives people make many purchases that rely on their confidence in the system that ensures correct measurements, and likewise businesses need to know they are trading in a fair marketplace where no one company has an unfair competitive advantage.

In the UK, a legislative and practical enforcement programmer is in place to ensure this. All new weighing and measuring equipment at the design stage has to be type approved by National Measurement Office to examine and test that it is fit for use. Before it is used, it is verified to ensure its accuracy by a notified body, approved by National Measurement Office. While it is in use the trader will be responsible for its ongoing maintenance and accuracy and correct use.

To ensure that consumers and businesses alike have confidence in the system of Legal Weights and Measures in the UK, National Measurement Office works closely with Local Authority Trading Standards Services and collaborates with manufacturers and suppliers. To ensure that legal weights and measures are practiced consistently throughout Europe and the world, National Measurement Office also plays an active part in coordinating with WELMEC, the European cooperation in legal metrology and the International Organization of Legal Metrology.

III Make a plan of the text in the form of questions.

IV Give a summary according to your plan in a written form.

TEXT C

I. Mind the following words and word - combinations:

1. dimensional – просторовий

2. gauging – вимірювання

3. caliper – штангенциркуль

4. comparator – компаратор

5. interface – взаємозв’язок

 

II Listen to the text ” THE WORLD’S LARGEST METROLOGY COMPANY “MITUTO” and decide if the statements are true (T) or false (F):

1. The world's largest metrological company was founded in 1954.

2. Today Mituto presents 5000 products.

3. Mituto American Corporation was formed in 1973.

4. Mituto's philosophy was to make the best mechanical micrometer in the world.

5. The world's largest metrology company was founded by Yean Nowata with just one product.

UNIT 3

METRIC SYSTEM

TEXT A

I Read and remember the words and their translation:

1. aspiration– сильне бажання досягти чогось

2. decimal – десятинна система

3. to be aware – бути в курсі справ

4. earthly – земний

5. arc – арка, веселка

6. meridian – меридіан

7. pendulum – маятник

8. immutable – постійний

9. simultaneously – синхронно

10. counterbalances – врівноважені дії

11. density – компактність

12. light – світло

13. to subdivide – розділятися на групи

14. Are – Ар (міра земельної площі, дорівнює 100 м²)

15. oka – одиниця ваги в Єгипті(дорівнює 2, 34 англ. фунти)

II Read and translate the following text:

METRIC SYSTEM

The aspiration of many European scientists for the creation of a new single and uniform metrical system fulfilled at the duration of French Revolution. King Louis the sixteenth (XVI) proposed the creation of a decimal metrical system.

In 1670 Gabriel Mouton, famous scientist, being aware of the fact that this new metrical system should be based on earthly measurement, proposed a decimal metrical system, which would be based on the length of a thin arc of meridian. Later in 1671 Jean Packard, a French astronomer, proposed one unit of length based in pendulum. Nevertheless one century had to pass up to the creation of metric system.

In 1790 the French national assembly assigned to French Academy of Sciences to create immutable models for all the meters and all the weights. The academy created a system of units that was simultaneously simple and scientifically based on the proposal of Gabriel Mouton. In June, 1799 the metric system was adopted.

Finally the basis unit of length – meter was defined. The new units of surface and volume resulted from the meter were the square and cubic meter respectively.

Also as a basic unit of weight was the gram.The gram is equal to the mass of a cubic centimeter of clean water in the temperature of biggest density (4° C) The liter, resulted from the volume of cube with length of each side equal to 10 centimeters.

Multiples of square meter are: the Are, the Acre (10 are) and the hectare (100 are).

Even though the metric system was not accepted with enthusiasm, its adoption from other nations began to increase regularly after its obligatory use in France 1840. It is not accidental that the growth of metrical system coincided with the technological growth in Europe and America.

At the end of 1860 the need for existence of more precise and explicitly determined units became obvious, because of the requirements being created by the new scientific discoveries. This became possible with the Meter Convention in 1875. Meter Convention is an international treaty in which participated 17 countries. 35 nations had officially accepted the metric system.

This treaty determined the units as well as the mechanisms for the constitution and adoption of further determinations in the metric system. The metric models were manufactured and distributed in each nation that ratified the treaty.

The duty of the international office in France is the permanent secretariat of the Treaty of Meter as well as the exchange of information referring to the use and the improvement of metrical system. In 1921 the office extended the work of international standardization in electric models, in 1933 in the models of lighting and in the models of measurement of radiation in 1960.

The same year (1960) a generalized simplification of metric system as well as its denomination in to the International System of Units was decided. The International System of Units has been established worldwide following simultaneously the continuously created scientific needs for the determination of new and more precise metrical units. In Greece the complete establishment of Metric System took place on the 1st of April in 1959 when the unit of weight known as oka was used until then was replaced by the kilogram.

III Answer the questions:

1. Who proposed the creation of a decimal metrical system?

2. When did Jean Packard, a French astronomer, propose one unit of length based on pendulum?

3. When was the metric system adopted?

4. When was the metric system officially accepted by 35 nations?

5. Who created a system of units that was simultaneously simple and scientifically based on the proposal of Mouton?

IV Complete the sentences:

1. The … created a system of units that was …simple and scientific based…Mouton.

2. In … the complete establishment of Metric System … on the 1st of April in 1959.

3. The...of many European scientists for … of a new single and uniform metrical system fulfilled at the… of French Revolution.

4. The duty of the… in France is the permanent secretariat of the Treaty of Meter as well as the exchange of information referring to the use and the … of metrical system.

5. …the sixteenth (XVI) proposed the …of a decimal …system.

 

V Find the English equivalents to the words:

Маятник, розділятися на групи, десятинна система, компактність, бути в курсі, меридіан, постійний, синхронно, врівноважені дії

 

VI Match the English words with their Ukrainian equivalents:

1. immutable a.маятник

2. pendulum b.десятинна система

3. earthly c.бути в курсі

4. decimal d.сильне бажання досягти чогось

5. density e.земний

6. simultaneously f.веселка

7. to be aware g.синхронно

8. aspiration h.світло

9. arc i.постійний

10. light g.компактність

VII True or false statements:

1. The meter resulted from the volume of cube with length of each side equal to 10 centimeters.

2. Also the basic unit of weight was the kilogram.

3. Multiples of square meter are: the Are, the Acre and the hectare.

4. King Louis the sixteenth (XVI) proposed the creation of a decimal metrical system.

5. Multiple of square meter is the Are.

 

VIII Translate into English:

1. Король Луї XVI запропонував створення десяткової метричної системи.

2. Багато Європейських учених прагнули створити нову і загальноприйняту метричну систему.

3. У Греції прийняття метричної системи відбулося 1-го квітня 1959 року.

4. Основною одиницею довжини в метричній системі був метр.

5. Офіційно, 35 країн світу ратифікували метричну систему.

IX Make up sentences with the terms:

Simultaneously, metric system, arc of meridian, decimal, a basic unit of weight, kilogram, aspiration, scientific discoveries, pendulum, counterbalances, Are.

X Speak on the topic using the following words and word - combinations:

The aspiration, French Revolution, King Louis the sixteenth, Meter Convention, decimal metrical system, meter, International System of Units, the need for existence, oka, kilogram, complete establishment, officially accepted, multiples of square meter, a thin arc of meridian.

 

TEXT B

I Read and remember:

1. frustrate – розчаруватися

2. neatly – уміло, чітко

3. familiarity – фамільярність

II Read text and define the main idea of it:

SMALL-UNIT METRIC SYSTEM

The small-unit metric system is based on three fundamental units: the centimeter, which quantifies displacement, the gram, which quantifies mass and the second, which quantifies time.

The small-unit metric system is so-called because one centimeter is equal to 0.01 meter (10 ^-2 m), and one gram is equal to 0.001 kilogram (10 ^-3 kg). The CGS system, like the metric system, was originally developed by scientists who were frustrated with the English (foot-pound-second) system. The CGS units of displacement and mass lend themselves neatly to calculations in scientific notation, while English units generally do not. Time remains somewhat messy in all systems; there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day.

The Standard International System of Units has officially supplanted the small-unit metric system as well as the metric system. But it is good to have passing familiarity with the small-unit metric system, because that scheme is still used by some astronomers and physicists, and many older scientific books and papers were written with a preference for it. Today's International System provides formal definitions for the meter, kilogram, second and also specifies and defines four additional units: the Kelvin for temperature, the ampere for electric current, the candela for luminous intensity, and the mole for material quantity.