RIP Metric System

[dlockers]

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.

When you say myriad you don't need to say "of".

P.S that was a well meaning message, not being a troll

 

[GordyR]

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! “

This is a joke right, surely? You cannot possibly be serious.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

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.

8 pints to a gallon, 2 gallons weighs quite a lot, it takes up one watering can's full lol thats how I know because its a two gallon can, for some reason sprayers and misters are in liters/ml and watering cans are in gallons gawd knows why. This is how most people measure everyday things by comparison everyone knows what a pint of milk looks like but a gallon not so much. Conversions to metric for what purpose? If you can't picture the same amount in litres its meaningless.

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.

Very old pensioners now my mother is only familiar with imperial but she's 80 she's not anti metric but its just not something she has any grasp of I'm 58 but was only ever taught metric what I know of imperial I picked up from parents and grandparents but I can't convert/calculate any of it its just colloquial "I weigh 15 stones" whats that in Kg? No idea buf if I want to order 500kg of topsoil thats what I'll do I've no idea what that is in imperial because its outside my frame of reference and neither do I care honestly.

 

[Angilion]

When you say myriad you don't need to say "of".

P.S that was a well meaning message, not being a troll

I'm not sure about the correct usage. Sometimes "of" is correct and sometimes it isn't. I'm slack enough in my usage of English to let either slide.

 

[GGizmo]

I couldn't reply on the other thread so Ill type it here.

I said that companies should be able to use whatever system they like.

If people don't understand the system used then they just aren't going to buy from that place.

It's not like we've not had multiple systems clashing against each other before. The public will select the systems they want to use. It's obviously going to come down to metric and imperial. For example who here orders a 568ml of beer? Exactly.

The way of life we have comes from us. It isn't dictated to from a government.

 

[arknor]

sounds Imperialist to me

I said that companies should be able to use whatever system they like.

yea and then they use the ones that try to trick people who can't do the calculations in their head


everyone knows what 100 grams is or 1kg

how many people know 2.2lbs is a kg?

do people even measure their weight in stones and ounces anymore? it's all KG now?

no quarter pounder talk please......

 

[SPG]

No you order, half or a litre..... not 568ml of beer.

The backward UK way of pints is just that backward. However from a cultural perspective having a pint is deep in the psyche of the nation, So in other words its not a problem.

 

[Tony Edwards]

Imperialist me

yea and then they use the ones that try to trick people who can't do the calculations in their head


everyone knows what 100 grams is or 1kg

how many people know 2.2lbs is a kg?

do people even measure their weight in stones and ounces anymore? it's all KG now?

no quarter pounder talk please......

You failed on your first attempt. 100 grams is not 1KG the hint is in the K. Your shop keeper or drug dealer is scamming you.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Imperialist me

yea and then they use the ones that try to trick people who can't do the calculations in their head


everyone knows what 100 grams is or 1kg

how many people know 2.2lbs is a kg?

do people even measure their weight in stones and ounces anymore? it's all KG now?

no quarter pounder talk please......

I have no idea what 1kg or 100g is, I weigh myself in stones.
I only know km because I used to do 5k or 10k races and knew how far I was going in miles.

 

[413x]

Not really sure how imperial was ever a thing.

Its not because its not 10. Its because it chops and changes. Sometimes it's 3,sometimes 14. I mean you have to know every measurement.

Metric. No mater what it is you know the next unit is 1000x more.
Even better the same prefix is consistent.

We have weird special cases like "cm" and rather than mm or m. But it's still consistent. Ie a cl is 100th of an l as is a cm a 100th of an m. But I've never heard cW (centi watt)

But you'd know what it was.

 

[Dis86]

Not really sure how imperial was ever a thing.

Its not because its not 10. Its because it chops and changes. Sometimes it's 3,sometimes 14. I mean you have to know every measurement.

Metric. No mater what it is you know the next unit is 1000x more.
Even better the same prefix is consistent.

We have weird special cases like "cm" and rather than mm or m. But it's still consistent. Ie a cl is 100th of an l as is a cm a 100th of an m. But I've never heard cW (centi watt)

But you'd know what it was.

Erm...metric doesn't just work in factors of 1000 though.

 

[GGizmo]

Imperialist me

yea and then they use the ones that try to trick people who can't do the calculations in their head


everyone knows what 100 grams is or 1kg

how many people know 2.2lbs is a kg?

do people even measure their weight in stones and ounces anymore? it's all KG now?

no quarter pounder talk please......

When I was going to school we had to learn both systems and convert between them. I hated it.

I think of some measurements in imperial while others in metric. For example short distances in metres, but car drive journey's in miles.

Height and weight in feet/inches, stones and pounds. Though at the hospital they use kilograms.

I think the main problem when this all started was that the market traders were stopped from writing the imperial measurement on the item as well as the metric. I think for a time both were allowed. If I remember correctly the traders wanted to use the imperial system as a lot of their customers were older people who only knew the imperial system.

 

[n111ck]

I have no idea what 1kg or 100g is, I weigh myself in stones.
I only know km because I used to do 5k or 10k races and knew how far I was going in miles.

Exactly nobody really weighs themselves in kilo's.

As I said on the other thread (that seems too have been deleted) - anything that is commonly referred in relation to a measurement is never metric - and if metric fails to cut across give people the choice of both.. it will always be a pint of lager..

In fact can anyone think of anything that is commonly referred to in metric?

 

[Dis86]

Exactly nobody really weighs themselves in kilo's.

As I said on the other thread (that seems too have been deleted) - anything that is commonly referred in relation to a measurement is never metric - and if metric fails to cut across give people the choice of both.. it will always be a pint of lager..

In fact can anyone think of anything that is commonly referred to in metric?

Pretty much everything in science and engineering.

 

[413x]

Erm...metric doesn't just work in factors of 1000 though.

I can't actually think of anything that isn't. I know there are. But I can't think of any.

 

[arknor]

No you order, half or a litre..... not 568ml of beer.

The backward UK way of pints is just that backward. However from a cultural perspective having a pint is deep in the psyche of the nation, So in other words its not a problem.

don't they serve pints in Germany and switzerland?

I remember drinks were decilitres though but I think 5dcl was 500ml so made it easy

 

[Dis86]

I can't actually think of anything that isn't. I know there are. But I can't think of any.

Centimetres. Decimetres. Their volumetric equivalent are the two other common ones. Many of the units of scientific measurement.
Oh and the swedes and nords use 10,000 metres as a standard unit!

 

[SixTwoSix]

I drive in miles, I run in KM, I weight myself in KG, I drink in pints, I cook recipes in grams, as mentioned in the other thread, I like our mish mash mix of measurements in this country.

 

[413x]

Centimetres. Decimetres. Their volumetric equivalent are the two other common ones. Many of the units of scientific measurement.
Oh and the swedes and nords use 10,000 metres as a standard unit!

I know deci is an option.
But I don't think i ever used it in my science degree. It was always ml, l, etc
And mm, m, km,

Obviously when writing just used x10³ etc

Actually it was Usually micro or even nano for me!

 

[Tony Edwards]

Exactly nobody really weighs themselves in kilo's.

As I said on the other thread (that seems too have been deleted) - anything that is commonly referred in relation to a measurement is never metric - and if metric fails to cut across give people the choice of both.. it will always be a pint of lager..

In fact can anyone think of anything that is commonly referred to in metric?

You could not be more wrong. Everthing comes in metric.

Also they do have a choice and always have. This is like sovereignty all over again.

I drive in miles, I run in KM, I weight myself in KG, I drink in pints, I cook recipes in grams, as mentioned in the other thread, I like our mish mash mix of measurements in this country.

I dont drink in pints because I drink from 338ml bottles.