Metric / Imperial

[Gloster]

When they were building the Channel Tunnel there was a cartoon showing a cross-section of the earth with two tunnel excavations, the ends of which have passed each other, one above the other. In the end of one tunnel is a French workman with a pick saying, “Quoi! Profonder en pieds?” At the end of the other is an English worker saying,”What! Depth in metres?”

 

[alxndr]

Because there was a permanent ground marker at the 10 1/2mp and the object measured was 5.555 m beyond.
And I only had a tape measure in metric.

I'll just about let that slide.

What really irks me though is the decision for some location cases to be formally labelled with miles and meters divided by 10. I don't care that it makes the conversion to chain easier (dividing by 2 gets close enough), it just feels wrong.

Very few people I have come across quote (as in speak) in the 24 hour format. ('I'll meet you at fourteen o'clock', or at 'fourteen hundred hours' sounds quite silly, or a clandestine military operation!). Whereas it is getting less usual to see the 12hr clock in formal print, although certainly usually in use in an informal note. So we all mentally make the change quite easily. Twenty-two hundred news anyone?

Maybe it's ingrained in me from safety critical comms, or maybe it's due to being awake just as much in night time as I am day, but I tend to default to the 24hr clock, especially if there's any chance of ambiguity.

 

[Devonian]

To be honest, for that kind of thing a "foot" isn't actually a foot - it's a unit of length about one ruler long.

And I suppose school rulers might be a more 'metric' 25cm long if it weren't for that pesky ISO A4 paper being just under a foot on the longest side!

 

[CEN60]

Here's confusing for you - I work in the rail industry as a track designer. I was born in the 60's so by the time I got to school had gone thru' decimalization of the currency and taught completely metric at school and university. Started in BR in the late 80's - the Pway/Track discipline to this day uses the following - Miles & Yards (sometimes miles chains and yards and I have seen miles and metric parts of a mile), track radii in meters, speed in Miles Per Hour and track cant in millimeters!!!!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

This and many other real life cock ups caused by mathematical or other errors are in Matt Parker’s excellent book Humble Pi. Much recommended if that’s your thing

I have that book by my bedside at the moment and I too recommend it - very amusing.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Mars Climate Orbiter. The TL;DR version is that the navigation system was specified in metric but was fed a value in imperial so it ended up too deep into the atmosphere and likely burned up.

There was another probe loss back in the early 1970s; some rocket was lost immediately after launch from Cape Canaveral for the exact same reason - one rogue figure in the software from the different system.

More recently, some cowboy builders are using measurements in opposing systems as a way of confusing their victims. I am aware of one particularly outrageous instance in North Devon where the cowboy in question was so confident he actually wrote on his invoice that he had built some fence posts "not more than 1800mm apart". The victim, who was not familiar with what metric measures looked like, later discovered they were about 33% further apart than that... and there are also two posts fewer than was paid for...

 

[Devonian]

the cowboy in question was so confident he actually wrote on his invoice that he had built some fence posts "not more than 1800mm apart"

Outrageous indeed. But it reminds me that posts are often more than 1800mm apart because standard fence panels are still 1828mm... or exactly six feet wide.

 

[ABB125]

I use a mixture of units:

• Long distances in miles, but I can usually work it out in km too (and chains if railways are involved)
• Short(ish) distances in metres (eg: 30m); I have no comprehension of yards!
• Very short distances in cm, mm, inches or feet depending on the circumstances, such as the equipment I'm using
• Weights in kg and grams, and tons (or is it tonnes? Whichever is 1000kg, not that it matters in speech, or simply writing 5T!)
• Volume in litres
• Speed in mph (preferably) for cars, metres per second for classroom use
• Pressure is Newtons per square metre in the classroom, psi in real life!

So it could be summed up as follows:

• Real life = a mixture
• Academia = virtually all metric

Notably, many items are sold in "metricised Imperial", such as jam jars (454g/1lb), fence panels (?m/6ft), wooden boards (8x4ft), and so on.
Also, fuel goes into the car in litres, which is fine. However, I can only comprehend (and compare!) economy in mpg!

Personally, I'm happy using a mixture of both. What annoys me is when people say things like "metric is soooooooo much better because you simply say 'it's about 1m' rather than 'about 3.281ft'" (and vice versa) because, in this example, you would say "about 3ft", rather than to 3dp.
Also, Imperial is good because cm is a bit small to be a good measure. For example, one foot (2 syllables) is quicker to say and easier to immediately comprehend (if you understand feet!) than thirty centimetres (6 syllables), so perhaps Imperial is safer as it can get the message across quicker?
Incedentally, one of my friends, who is predominantly metric, uses feet when directing reversing vehicles.
I'm 18, so was only ever taught metric at school.

 

[Westcountryman]

• Short(ish) distances in metres (eg: 30m); I have no comprehension of yards!

Yards are easy. For most purposes a yard is close enough to a metre for them to be almost interchangeable. A road sign saying 200 metres or 200 yards make no practical difference when driving. Just make sure that you use one or the other for measuring, say, for building as there is a difference of ~10%.

 

[DelW]

I've never known of a preference for pounds for honey, but I agree with pints of beer; less so pints of milk I'd say that's a 40/60 split pints vs litres.

Though nearly all bottled beer is now in 0.5 or 0.33 litre bottles, rather than pints or half pints.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Grocery outlets that sell two litre bottles of milk at the same price at which four pint bottles are sold elsewhere (hoping that you won't notice) are somewhat annoying!

 

[JonasB]

Switching to full metric in this country would be fairly straightforward, with the elephant in the room being motor vehicles, with all of them having speedo's and (especially) odometers in miles.

Doesn't most british cars have speedometers with both mph and km/h? And with modern cars with digital speedometers it is probably just a quick software update to change it.

But it is pretty interesting to compare the British "half-way house" as somebody called it to Australia and New Zealand and other countries that managed to switch pretty quick.

But, a question for everyone: Do you measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I have the impression that Fahrenheit is almost only used in newspaper headlines during heat waves and some older people. Is that correct?

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

I use both C and F for temperature, it is a bit confusing, I remember at school when 70°F was very hot
Looking forward to single figures C soon, at last

 

[najaB]

But, a question for everyone: Do you measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I have the impression that Fahrenheit is almost only used in newspaper headlines during heat waves and some older people. Is that correct

The "convention" is high temperatures in °F, low in °C.

 

[birchesgreen]

I find Fahrenheit complete nonsense.

 

[Domh245]

Doesn't most british cars have speedometers with both mph and km/h? And with modern cars with digital speedometers it is probably just a quick software update to change it.

My 2007 mini has it as a flag in the vehicle settings menu, I can change it over from imperial everything (speed/odo/distances in the navigation) to km from a screen in the infotainment. The actual speedo itself is marked in mph only, but I ignore that one (as it's in the middle of the car and out of line of sight) and use the digital read out in front of me. Will be handy if I ever take it into europe on a trip! Most (older) cars tend to have dual printed speedos though, and I expect that with modern screen based dashes it's as simple as changing the setting like you say

But, a question for everyone: Do you measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I have the impression that Fahrenheit is almost only used in newspaper headlines during heat waves and some older people. Is that correct?

Always c for me. Was never taught farenheit and it continues to make no sense (and be utterly meaningless) to me!

 

[DelW]

Doesn't most british cars have speedometers with both mph and km/h? And with modern cars with digital speedometers it is probably just a quick software update to change it.

But it is pretty interesting to compare the British "half-way house" as somebody called it to Australia and New Zealand and other countries that managed to switch pretty quick.

But, a question for everyone: Do you measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I have the impression that Fahrenheit is almost only used in newspaper headlines during heat waves and some older people. Is that correct?

For many years I drove company cars which were all Fords, and which had both mph and kph as far back as I can remember. But having recently retired, I've bought a Mini, which to my surprise only has mph calibration on the (analogue) speedometer. The odometer is electronic so presumably could be converted via software.

Despite having been brought up with Fahrenheit, I now always think of temperature in Celsius, though you're right that tabloid "phew what a scorcher" headlines still revert to Fahrenheit for added effect.

 

[MotCO]

But, a question for everyone: Do you measure temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I have the impression that Fahrenheit is almost only used in newspaper headlines during heat waves and some older people. Is that correct?

I was taught imperial (so I'm an 'older'); by the way there are 1,760yards in a mile, and I can probably remember all the imperial weight comparisons as well! I use miles rather than kilometers, ditto mpg, but have no idea of the cost per gallon of petrol - I would probably faint if I found out!

I interchange yards and meters, but probably use inches more than cms, and probably use pints more than litres ("A litre of water is a pint and three-quarters"). Bizzarely, I am converted to Celsius rater than Fahrenheit.

I also find it strange that jam is still sold in 454g and not 500g.

 

[JonasB]

Thank you all for your answers!

I use both C and F for temperature

Is there any "system" to your use? Like Celsius for cooking and Fahrenheit for weather?

I also find it strange that jam is still sold in 454g and not 500g.

That would require the jam producers to add 46 g more jam to each jar, and deal with customers complaining about the jam being 10% more expensive. On the other hand, US wine producers were quick to adopt the 750 ml standard wine bottle instead of their earlier 757 ml bottle.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Thank you all for your answers!



Is there any "system" to your use? Like Celsius for cooking and Fahrenheit for weather?

Dunno, I think I am just confused

 

[Mcr Warrior]

... have no idea of the cost per gallon of petrol - I would probably faint if I found out!

Got to be just North of a fiver a gallon, I would have thought!

 

[Peter Sarf]

I am 60, brought up on Metric at School.

I had a Saturday job at Tescos in the mid 1970s and got ridiculed for not knowing how many ounces there were in a pound. I reckoned it was 12 or 16 and I still have not bothered to learn it.

For length I use metric unless just getting a rough idea in which case it imperial (one foot and one inch are such handy sizes).

For weight and volume I use metric - cannot be bothered with imperial TBH. Except body weight.

For temperature I use Centigrade (now called Celsius) - cannot cope with Fahrenheit. I seem to remember Kelvin is the uber correct unit (1 Kelvin = 1 degree C but 0 is at -273 and a bit degrees C).

Speed mph which involves the only imperial length I use accurately.

It is ironic that many metric sizes are still just the metric number for the original imperial round number. So for length decades later we work in 1830mm (6feet), 2440mm (8feet). For weight it is one pound but in grammes.

As for time :-
How many hours are there in a day ?. WELL THEN !.
And how many people remember that 12am is one hour after 11pm and so 12pm is one hour before 1pm !. I see that got wrong a lot.

Still waiting for the UK go get there.

 

[PeterY]

Being in my 60's now, I tend to use both imperial and metric but favour imperial especially for distance.
I agree in the UK we do have some quirky measurements. I assume land is still measured in acres, depth in fathoms and horse racing in furlongs etc . To a certain extent aviation uses imperial especially knots (2,000 yards??)
If I talk in imperial to my daughter, it's like another language to her but strangely she cooks in pounds and ounces because that's how I taught her.

 

[MotCO]

And how many people remember that 12am is one hour after 11pm and so 12pm is one hour before 1pm !. I see that got wrong a lot.

There is no such thing as 12am and 12pm. The 'm' in am and pm is 'meridium', meaning mid-day, so anything up to 11.59 is before midday and anything after is after midday. 12.00 is either midday or midnight; it can't be before or after midday. The correct terminology is 12 midday (or noon) and 12 midnight.

Rant over .

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There is no such thing as 12am and 12pm. The 'm' in am and pm is 'meridium', meaning mid-day, so anything up to 11.59 is before midday and anything after is after midday. 12.00 is either midday or midnight; it can't be before or after midday. The correct terminology is 12 midday (or noon) and 12 midnight.

Rant over

Well said that man!

 

[hst43102]

I think, in general, the British have the best of both worlds. You can travel to America or the continent and use whatever measurements they use over there!
Until we get to Fahrenheit temperatures....

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Though nearly all bottled beer is now in 0.5 or 0.33 litre bottles, rather than pints or half pints.

And wine has been metric as long as I can remember. 70 cl and 1.5 liters

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

What about that popular unit to measure land use, the football field? Anyone know how big that is?
Used to use miles for cycling, did a hundred in a day, upgraded to kilometres now

 

[birchesgreen]

A popular unit of measurement used to be the London bus. Is that still true since the demise of the Routemaster?

 

[Ploughman]

What about that popular unit to measure land use, the football field? Anyone know how big that is?
Used to use miles for cycling, did a hundred in a day, upgraded to kilometres now

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the maximum width of a football field the same as the minimum lenegth?
Going by the laid down standards.