Soldato
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Doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm English, so can easily switch between imperial and metric when required. Just don't get me started on US imperial measurements though.
Kilometres and kg
- Thread starter teaboy5
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oh yes please do
Soldato
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No not really other than the fact we do have a wierd duality when it comes to measurements i.e. I don't have a clue what a km is other than its roughly 1/2 a mile, blame UK distance measurements being resolutely imperial for that one the same can be said for body weight I'm 15 stone but Kg... not a clue. Otherwise kg is fine infact I don't have any idea what the imperial equivlalents are, pounds, ounces, not not a clue. Inches or mm/cm I'm ok with either, metres I prefer to yards which I don't have much idea of other than being slightly shorter than a metre. Yes we're totally *****d up this country. I'm surprised Nigel Farage or Boris in one of his more nationalistic moments hasn't demanded a return to imperial being taught in schools, probably has I shouldn't wonder...
KG is the better measurement anyway. Literally everything is weighed in KG, so why not bodyweight too?
Do people send their parcels weighed in stones when booking the item in at checkout? Are cars weighed in stones or KG? Is everything else weighed in KG or stones?
KG just offers a better basis of comparison and an overall better metric for weighing things.
Miles for distance, KG for weight but we will probably need tonnes for yo moma.
Yeah the duality in this country is wierd. Partly its because we or at least I learnt the imperial stuff from parents & relatives etc who knew nothing other than them hence bathroom scales being in stones rather than kg (stones is peculiarly british ask a yank what stones they weigh they don't have a clue what you're talking about, they only use pounds)
No, I'm not sick of people using the global standard units of measurement. Particularly since it's a very good system of units. Simple, useful, etc.
In practice I use a mixed bag of metric and imperial in daily life and I convert in my head as required. It's not a big deal to do so for daily life because an approximation is good enough. If I need accuracy for anything I'd be using metric anyway. I only use imperial because it's what I was raised with and are thus used to. Metric is far simpler. None of this 3 things to a whatsit and 13 whatsits to a doodah and 1473 doodahs to a weeble or whatever. Imperial units made sense in the past as a combination of custom and convenience in the middle ages, but metric is far simpler nowadays.
Is anyone sick of people no longer using units such as rods, chains, barleycorns, cubits, etc? Although strictly speaking some people do still use barleycorns as that's the standard unit of length in the imperial system. The imperial inch is the medieval English inch and that was defined by royal decree as 3 fat barleycorns side by side. Other units of length were defined in inches, i.e. in groups of 3 fat barleycorns. It made sense at the time. Grains of barley were quite uniform in size and the use of three and the specification that they were fat increased the uniformity. Grains of barley were easily and cheaply available and would keep for years if they were kept dry. It was a convenient way to make it practical for people to check lengths. In the middle ages. We don't need that sort of thing today.
In practice I use a mixed bag of metric and imperial in daily life and I convert in my head as required. It's not a big deal to do so for daily life because an approximation is good enough. If I need accuracy for anything I'd be using metric anyway. I only use imperial because it's what I was raised with and are thus used to. Metric is far simpler. None of this 3 things to a whatsit and 13 whatsits to a doodah and 1473 doodahs to a weeble or whatever. Imperial units made sense in the past as a combination of custom and convenience in the middle ages, but metric is far simpler nowadays.
Is anyone sick of people no longer using units such as rods, chains, barleycorns, cubits, etc? Although strictly speaking some people do still use barleycorns as that's the standard unit of length in the imperial system. The imperial inch is the medieval English inch and that was defined by royal decree as 3 fat barleycorns side by side. Other units of length were defined in inches, i.e. in groups of 3 fat barleycorns. It made sense at the time. Grains of barley were quite uniform in size and the use of three and the specification that they were fat increased the uniformity. Grains of barley were easily and cheaply available and would keep for years if they were kept dry. It was a convenient way to make it practical for people to check lengths. In the middle ages. We don't need that sort of thing today.
When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, gramps?
No, I'm sick of this perpetual hybrid situation we are in where we use multiple scales for the same measurements.
Imperial weights can do one as far as I'm concerned, we should cut over to full metric (most goods are sold in metric now at least). I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, I think stones will die out with the older generations. I'm in my 40s and think of my weight in KG nowaways.
In terms of distance, it's more complicated because we have a lot of infrastructure dependent on imperial i.e. road signs, car speedometers, general way we talk about distances. So I can at least see why that persists, even though I don't particularly like it.
Imperial weights can do one as far as I'm concerned, we should cut over to full metric (most goods are sold in metric now at least). I can see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel, I think stones will die out with the older generations. I'm in my 40s and think of my weight in KG nowaways.
In terms of distance, it's more complicated because we have a lot of infrastructure dependent on imperial i.e. road signs, car speedometers, general way we talk about distances. So I can at least see why that persists, even though I don't particularly like it.
Soldato
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Metric is certainly simpler to work with especially liquids, how much is a fluid ounce? Not a scooby. Looking at mum's old cookbooks its a mystery. Millilitre is 1/1000 of a litre, weighs 1 gram, occupies 1 cubic centimetre in volume. Way easier to picture/convert. There is a certain nostalgia for the the old measurements though an inch is the length of the last digit of the thumb, a yard is supposedly the length of the outstretched arm to the end of the nose, a foot is, well, obvious really. A furlong is a furrow long i.e.the length a ploughman and oxen could plough a furrow in one go.
A cubit is the length of the forearm from the elbow to the end of the middle finger interestingly enough. All the early small measurements are based on the body because its a convenient reference, becomes a bit of nightmare trying to define a consistent one though.
Distance has always been an absurd refusal to accept metric i.e. miles instead of km, mph instead of kph which has never been explained why, I guess someone in govt would say it would be safety hazard for all the older drivers who don't understand metric or something, though there has to be few of those still on the road these days
It's all about the roads. People would misjudge speeds, they would see a sign saying 50 and having read signs a certain way for 30 years think that means they can drive with their speedo on 50 instead of 32 or whatever it should be. Because limits would be different they'd not be experienced in adhering to those limits. All the signs around the UK would need updating but you'd have this mismatch between old and new car speedos/odometers.
Of course it would be possible to cut over but you'd have to get past this initial painful hump and doubtless there would be loads of complaints about what a waste of money it was.
Actually judging distances, like oh I want to go to London that's X miles / Y KM away, I think people would learn pretty quickly.
Of course it would be possible to cut over but you'd have to get past this initial painful hump and doubtless there would be loads of complaints about what a waste of money it was.
Actually judging distances, like oh I want to go to London that's X miles / Y KM away, I think people would learn pretty quickly.
Soldato
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Olympic sized swimming pools, double decker buses, jumbo jets and football pitches are the tabloid measurement system of choice.
Blue whales. If you can't give me the measurement in blue whales, then you know what you can do with it!
Me too, although I think that I started using kg a little later, my GP weighed me once at a review of medication dosage subsequent to a heart problem I’d had some time earlier and gave me the weight in kg.
Once I got used to it I began to use it, although for some reason I still have difficulty imagining the size of Americans when I hear 175 lbs.
Kilometres came easy, I found it easy to think of distance in km after spending a few years truck driving around Europe, but I still think of speed in mph.
I no longer convert centigrade to Fahrenheit in my head, but I instinctively know that a high number in f means it’s hot.
If I WhatsApp friends in the US and say, “16c today, great stuff, it’s warming up”, I get “16? WTF are you talking about?”
there's a few conversions from driving trucks that stick...although they're not 100% accurate but they're commonly used like 90kph (limiter) is 56mph, or a 45ft trailer is 13m...even though trucks show the speed in KpH the computer usually shows the fuel consumption in MPG!
does anyone here measure fuel consumption in l/100km?
low bridges still have the measurements in imperial and metric...that's probably a good idea
same with fabricating/construction, an 8'x4' is a 1250x2540mm, or a 1/16" is 1.6mm, easy to remember but still not 100% accurate and rounded up/down
think I have some point here
(figures based on a true life story)
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I hate using kilometers for distance and speed so I'll always use miles for those, stone and lb if I'm weighing myself and celsius for temperatures. I'm 36 and have been using both interchangeably without even thinking about it and that'll never change.
not really though is it?
the metric system uses some fundamental relationships between sizes, lengths, mass, volumes, temperature, wavelengths etc of water and light, celestial movements etc, etc. it’s not arbitrary. Imperial is arbitrary, antiquated and essentially inaccurate.
Don't really care for most imperial units but having been brought up using both systems I much prefer miles when dealing with longer distances or speeds in most context but use metres for distances less than a mile or where speeds are in the context of per seconds.
I also use inches and feet as much as cm or metres and wouldn't want to have to use just one of those.
For anything else I'd quite happily see the back of imperial.
I also use inches and feet as much as cm or metres and wouldn't want to have to use just one of those.
For anything else I'd quite happily see the back of imperial.
Soldato
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I think this went unnoticed, are you a politician
.