When defining a font-size property,
ex length value must refer to the computed
font size of the parent element

Actual (live) results in your browser:

XXXXX

 

Initial condition: You must have the Ahem font installed on your system

This_test_requires_the_Ahem_font.

Expected results:
The green bar should be approximately 17.4px tall and about 80-90px wide.

Actual results in Internet Explorer 8:
The green bar is 160px tall and 800px wide.

Actual results in Internet Explorer 7:
The green bar is 100px tall and 500px wide.

Internet Explorer 8 incorrectly computes the font-size from a preceding declaration and does not compute the font-size by refering to the computed font size of the parent element.

References

"The relative units 'em' and 'ex' are relative to the font size of the element itself. The only exception to this rule in CSS1 is the 'font-size' property where 'em' and 'ex' values refer to the font size of the parent element."
coming from CSS 1, section 6.1 Length units

"(...) 'em' and 'ex' length values refer to the computed font size of the current element. On the 'font-size' property, these ['em' and 'ex'] length units refer to the computed font size of the parent element."
coming from CSS 1, section 5.2.6 font-size and coming from CSS 2.1, section 15.7 Font size: the 'font-size' property, <relative-size>

Firefox 2.x, Firefox 3.0.11, Opera 9.64, Safari 4.0, Konqueror 3.5.8, Konqueror 4.2.4, Seamonkey 1.x, Seamonkey 2.x, NS 7.2, K-meleon 1.x, Galeon 2.0.4, Epiphany 2.22 all pass this test.

Valid HTML 4.01! Valid CSS!