Trivia: Britain's most broken law is?

Ah, it says "to the nearest 0.1p". It does not say "to a precision of

0.1p". There is a different. If the price is 99.12p then you would have to show it as 99.1p, yes. If the price is 99.000000p, then stating 99p is accurate "to the nearest 0.1p" and so is quite correct.

However, it does mean several entries in the BT price list are incorrect as they express prices to more precision that 0.1p (and I don't mean showing 99.100000p which would also be correct!). However, that may not be "price marking" in the sense of labling something in a shop, so may not apply.

That is not what is says is it. If it is 99.00000p, then stating 99p is "expressed to the nearest 0.1p" isn't it....

'Expressed to the nearest 0.1p' means to write it down to an accuracy of one-tenth of a penny. It does not specifically say you may not express the tenth if the price happens to be a whole number. It does specifically say you may round up or down the hundredth to the nearest tenth. So 99.05 should be expressed as 99.1, and 99.04 should be expressed as 99.0. Petrol Stations are an example of how to do it correctly (except when the price goes over

1).

In a maths exam, if you are asked to write the answer in decimal expressed to the nearest tenth you are expected to write, for example, '1.0'. If you write '1' you will get it wrong.

I'm sorry, but I feel that there is at least ambiguity here. 99.04 to the nearest 0.1p is "ninty nine pence". One way of experessing the value "ninty nine pense" it to write 99p, and it remains to the "nearest 0.1p" of the actual value of 99.04.

As an aside, I remember when fruit chews were "8 for a penny" (those were the days). Presumably now one would be required to quote 0.1p each. Then if someone purchased 20 of them, they would have no cause to complain if they were charged 2.5p not 2p for them... (Yes, I know we do not have ha'pennies now, nostagia creaping in).

In message , Max writes

Well I know someone who was fined for it. 'Committing a public nuisance' is the technical term for it.

"dakeb" wrote

Absolute rubbish. If the "number to the nearest tenth" is 1.0, then "1" is also the same number "to the nearest tenth". Anyone who says otherwise should be asked what the result of "1.0 minus 1" is!!

Perhaps you are thinking about "to 2 significant figures"? Or "to 1 decimal place"?? Certainly not "to the nearest tenth"!!

M.A. (Cantab) [ie Cambridge University Mathematics graduate]

Nobody is disputing "1.0p" is the same value as "1p". But "1p", although accurate to the nearest 0.1p, is not "expressed" (i.e. written down) to the nearest 0.1p. The aim of the law is to show that the price hasn't been rounded down or up. If you write the price as "1p" for all you know it might really be "1.4p" rounded down to fool the customer (after all rounding IS allowed in the hundredths). Which is why petrol stations express their price as 86.0p/litre on their pumps and signs.

It's not ambiguous to me as an Engineer.

es: copyright - no contest!

"dakeb" wrote

Good - keep that thought ...

"dakeb" wrote

Of course it is!

To be "expressed to the nearest 0.1p", the visual representation of the answer simply has to represent the correct *value*. The correct value, is that amount which can be represented either by the characters "1.0p" or "1p" (which you have agreed above is the same answer).

"dakeb" wrote

No so! We are expecting the retailer to be obeying the law, and showing the correct number which is the nearest tenth of a penny.

If the (accurate) number was closer to "1.4p" than to "1p", then the amount of "1p" would *not* be "to the nearest tenth of a penny". In that case, the law would have been broken - just as much as if the retailer had put "0.8p".

Fortunately, if the nearest tenth of a penny is the amount which can be written as "1.0p" or "1p" then the retailer *will* be "expressing it to the nearest tenth of a penny" and so should be OK.

"dakeb" wrote

Ah, well that explains everything! ;-)

So why is there an unscreened public urinal in the middle of London?

Because it isn't a nuisance if the urine is going down an appropriate drain.

(a) Why is it not indecent exposure to urinate in an unscreened public urinal?

(b) Why cannot one urinate into an open drain? (They all lead down to the same sewer pipes.)

Not so. You have foul drains and freshwater drains in many places. Foul drains run to the local sewage treatment works. Freshwater drains lead groundwater and roofwater into natural drainage systems like rivers and streams. We recently had a problem in this area when someone doing home building plumbed his new bathroom into the freshwater drain which fed into a stream in the local park. Had to close the park for several weeks on health grounds. Not to mention the stink.