"Dennis Ferguson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
[snip]
Quoted message said:
In Hong Kong steep hills have signs which indicate grades as, for
example,
Quoted message said:"1:6" or "1:8" placed on top of a picture of a right-angled
triangle. They
Quoted message said:probably acquired this habit from the UK,
[snip]
Here in the UK there are some gradients given in %, but most of them
are still in the form 1 in something. They seem to calculate only to
the nearest whole number, 1:4, 1:3 etc and the % signs are obviously
straight conversions of the old system, so a sign will be 25% or 33%,
never, apparently, anything in between. Some roads can get pretty
steep, being originally graded for trains of pack horses, but 33% is,
I think the limit.
Jeremy Parker