He has Turkish ancestors, is funded by the Kremlin and also put the son of a KGB officer in the House of Lords . Says it all. Some how he's managed to convince the plebs that he's one of them.
RIP Metric System
- Thread starter LiE
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He has Turkish ancestors, is funded by the Kremlin and also put the son of a KGB officer in the House of Lords . Says it all. Some how he's managed to convince the plebs that he's one of them.
Soldato
I'm bi in measurement systems, I think in imperial in some ways and metric in other things.
For the body I usually think in imperial measurements. I think in miles instead of kilometres. But I'll think in metric for smaller measurements or weighing objects.
For the body I usually think in imperial measurements. I think in miles instead of kilometres. But I'll think in metric for smaller measurements or weighing objects.
Soldato
You forgot he has floppy hair, badly fitting clothes and is really sticking it to the man!
Soldato
Will that mean when I buy an ice cream cone I will need to ask for a 3 & 57/64" Instead of a 99? We seem to have become a nation that is for ever chasing the pointless. While pretty much ignoring things like truth, honesty, integrity and decency.
Associate
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I'm an electrical engineer. I have used metric (SI) for all my adult life. An electrical enclosure, for example, would be 2000mm high, 800mm wide, and 400mm deep. Sure, there have Imperial units on old sites that I have worked on in my early days and it wouldn't altogether surprise me if there are still some kicking about.
That said, I'm quite comfortable with Imperial units.
Associate
At this point I think the clown only wants to bring back imperial to know how many feet will be kicking him out of downing street when all this is said and done.
Still not sure what all the fuss is over this tbh.. we already use imperial in various situations without much issue, I suspect this change in the law will mostly be visible among say some market traders etc. or maybe a few minor brands re: particular products.
Does it really matter if some brand say chooses to sell milk or beer in pints in a supermarket?
Does it really matter if some brand say chooses to sell milk or beer in pints in a supermarket?
Permabanned
I don't think there is any fuss, just people will argue over anything for fun?
They do already. My milk says 4 pints on the label.
Associate
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Ain't that the truth.
Will we start teaching it? The only imperial unit I had to learn in school was miles. Never came across anything else. I'm not even young.
Milk and beer is already sold in pints?
Why revive stones, pounds and ounces? Who cares about feet and yards? It's not like it is a better measuring system. It is worse requiring silly conversions.
Why does it require conversions? What do you mean by start teaching it?
If you go into a pub and order a pint you know what that is right? What do you need to convert in that instance?
Associate
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Because people, particularly older people, prefer them. I'm old. But I prefer kg not stones. I get regularly weighed for my annual check up. The nurse weighed in kg. She thought I wanted in stones and pounds. She was a little surprised that I didn't need that.
Well done picking a measurement people know roughly. How much is in a 7 pint container btw? Can you picture that in your head? Or what is 2 gallons?
What's the percentage difference between 5 stone and 2 pounds against 7 stone and 6 pounds?
How many pints in a gallon? How much does 2 gallons of water weigh? How much space/volume does it use up?
I challenge you to do any of that without mentally converting to metric or other intermediate step.
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Bring back imperial measures? For millions they never went away
The Prime Minister’s reversal of European Union subjugation is not a reactionary spasm – this is about protecting our nation’s traditions
www.telegraph.co.uk
“Now, the Prime Minister says he wants to use “Brexit freedoms” to reintroduce the crown symbol on pint glasses. A threatened return to imperial measurements is annoying all the right people. “Red meat to Tory voters,” sneered The Guardian. Funny that. The Left would be the first to cry “act of imperialist aggression” if an entire indigenous people had to give up elements of its language and culture and adopt those of a larger power, but when the EU does it, hey, no worries! “
Weirdly, I'm 46, and still weigh myself in stones and pounds but keep track of my gym routines in kgs because that's what weights have written on them. I have no idea how to convert them off the top of my head though.
In what real-world situations would you need to know that? I can picture a 7 pint container in my head about as easily as I can picture a 7 liter container, I don't really see the distinction in that case?
Surely the measurements that people know roughly will be the useful ones to use here no?
What relevance does the volume some quantity of water takes up have to anything here? We already use pints in pubs/bars, we already use MPH for speed limits - what conversions do you need to do mentally there?
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if you cook and it requires 200ml milk / water many people would just weigh it - easy.
however, it seems a "A pint's a pound, the world around", duality, there too.
Man of Honour
I'm 53 and I use a mash of metric and imperial. A different mash to you. I measure people's weight in metric but their height in imperial, for example. I can convert between metric and imperial for casual use. Anyone who can use the hilariously over-complicated imperial system with its myriad of conversion factors and numerous different names for different units of the same type (e.g. off the top of my head I can name a dozen different imperial units for length) could convert between metric and imperial for casual use. It's just another couple of conversion factors to remember.
But for anything serious I'd use metric. It's a simpler system with less scope for errors. Also, it's standardised globally. Older systems of units weren't. An inch in one place would be different to an inch in another place, for example. That's why Napoleon is famous for being so short. He wasn't. His height was given in French feet and inches, which were longer than English feet and inches.
Hmm...could I name a dozen off the top of my head? Barleycorn, inch, foot, cubit, rod, ell, yard, furlong, fathom, mile, nautical mile, league. Yep, there's a dozen.
Old systems of units made sense in the past. They were locally standardised because the power to decree standards was local. They were based on things people could check easily, which is why the British imperial units of length are based on grains of barley. But that was the past. Metric is simpler, globally standardised and easier to work with.