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When will people learn the difference...
KT53
Posts: 9,016
I've just broken off from watching Monty Don's "Small Spaces, Big Ideas" because this always gets me screaming at the telly.
The voiceover person described the small garden at the rear of a property in London as being 30 metres square. That is 100 ft x 100 ft in old money. What she meant is 30 square metres or roughly 300 square feet, quite a difference I think you'll agree.
Unfortunately, you hear it all the time, even on news reports! Please, please, please get it right!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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They used to have as much problem with square yards and yards square, so nothing new.
Surely 30 metres square was correct? 30 square metres would be minute not "small"! It would be say 3M x 10M - surely not a garden? More a yard?
I agree with KT too. The Beeb, along with other broadcasters and newspapers that should know better, is losing editorial grip on content of both news and programmes and is full of bad grammar, poor vocabulary and, in this case, a poor grasp of spacial dimensions which is unhelpful, at best, in a programme about spaces.
Verdun - people die every day and whether it's expected or accidental it's sad but it's irrelevant to this thread which is about standards and accuracy, not life and death.
Enjoyed the programme very much.
Lizzybusy, it was a patio area behind a terraced house in London. Definitely not 30 metres in each direction.
Verdun. By comparison with what happened near you it's trivial, but getting things consistently wrong simply isn't acceptable. There was a news item recently where an aircraft was supposedly searching an area 1000 miles square, now that would be impressive. The area actually being searched was 1000 square miles ie approximately 35 miles each side of the search ares.
PS. It's KT53 not 63
Try to tell NASA that units aren't important: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/462264.stm
Correct measurements and sizing are vital when you plan anything!
It's why I always suggest that anyone trying to re design their garden draws up a simple plan - just the basics to start with, but the important bit is to do it to the correct scale
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I said previously that by comparison it's trivial. I've had time to rethink that response. Try ordering enough turf for an area 30 metres square when all you need is 30 square metres and see what happens. I'm not sure what you would do with the excess 870 square metres of turf because it's highly likely that the suppliers would refuse to take it back.