Metric / Imperial

[xotGD]

A quart bottle of milk is just the right quanity for me, if I shope somewhere that sells it by the litre I end up gettign the emergency bottle out of the freezer.

I sometimes get young assistants in butcher's shops confused when they haven't been taught that each link of sausages is nominaly half a pound.

I would just ask for 6 sausages.

Same with fruit. If I want to take an apple to work as part of my lunch every day I'll buy 5 apples. No idea about the weight in either pounds or kilograms.

 

[Ploughman]

I sometimes get young assistants in butcher's shops confused when they haven't been taught that each link of sausages is nominaly half a pound.

Does that still work for Cumberland Sausages?

 

[hexagon789]

A quart bottle of milk is just the right quanity for me, if I shope somewhere that sells it by the litre I end up gettign the emergency bottle out of the freezer.

I sometimes get young assistants in butcher's shops confused when they haven't been taught that each link of sausages is nominaly half a pound.

I've never bought sausages like that tbh, but the milk one is more when people ask for a size of milk in a different measurement to that in which it is nominally bottled. The 'standard' milk is in nominal pints but the more 'specialist' (organic/filtered etc) are in milliletres/litres.

 

[Whistler40145]

I was taught using Imperial measurements, and have used them for the 49 years I've been on this planet

 

[birchesgreen]

Interesting but i thought teaching metric was made compulsory in schools in the 1970s?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

...but the milk one is more when people ask for a size of milk in a different measurement to that in which it is nominally bottled. The 'standard' milk is in nominal pints but the more 'specialist' (organic/filtered etc) are in milliletres/litres.

Wonder whether that's because a pint is 568 ml, whereas the metric "equivalent" is rounded down to 500 ml, which is slightly less for your money

 

[py_megapixel]

Wonder whether that's because a pint is 568 ml, whereas the metric "equivalent" is rounded down to 500 ml, which is slightly less for your miney

Well that's not really a fault with the system itself, more the way it's used... they could equally round up and sell 600ml bottles

 

[Trackman]

Didn't British Leyland (I think) get in trouble by selling imperial buses to metric countries?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

It caused trouble when I worked for Crown Paints in Darwen as a buyer for chemical. American calcined China’s clay came in 50 pound bags but the plant was automated to a degree and sized for 25 kg bags.

 

[hexagon789]

Wonder whether that's because a pint is 568 ml, whereas the metric "equivalent" is rounded down to 500 ml, which is slightly less for your money

That was basically my point. If you keep equating 2 pints with a litre you end up with a considerable difference in reality when you get to the likes of a six pint jug of milk for instance

 

[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!

That was basically my point. If you keep equating 2 pints with a litre you end up with a considerable difference in reality when you get to the likes of a six pint jug of milk for instance

Indeed. I'd previously hinted at this upthread. Somewhat sharp practice, IMO.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Eventually we will order pints in pubs but actually be given 500 ml. Possibly not in my lifetime but it will be a swizz

 

[Bald Rick]

And further to this, the signs are measured in metres, but not to the equivalent of the number of imperial units they purport to represent. For instance a sign warning of roadworks 1 Mile ahead would be placed 1600m from the datum, and a yard is treated as equivalent to a metre.

I was cycling around Norfolk recently, and saw several signs all over the county warning of an up coming give way sign. Every single one of them said “Give Way, 142yds”. Rather specific I thought. Of course 142 yds is also 130 metres, but I was still none the wiser. After a lightbulb moment and some research, 130 metres is the motor industry standard stopping distance for a vehicle travelling at 56mph (90kph). So, an imperial speed limit using the nearest metric standard and converted back to imperial units.

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?

I think that’s the main reason some imperial measures are used in this country. It’s just easier to say miles, yards, feet, inches, than kilometres, metres and centimetres. Interestingly, amongst the cycling and walking community, kilometres is used much more frequently, but of course shortened to ‘k’ or ‘clicks’

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

Only in the tabloids. I don’t know anybody, at all, who uses Fahrenheit. Not even the Brits I know in America.

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

75cl. Don’t leave the last bit!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

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?”

I remember seeing large A2 size versions of that cartoon for sale at Folkestone Ferry Port, while the tunnel was being built beneath!

Staying on topic, if I'm asked my height I use feet and inches, if I'm baking I use grams and Celsius, if I'm asked my weight, I shrug!

 

[Calthrop]

Interestingly, amongst the cycling and walking community, kilometres is used much more frequently, but of course shortened to ‘k’ or ‘clicks’

"Clicks / klicks" for kilometres, is an abbreviation that I rather like. I first came across it in American thrillers with a military background; it seems that the US armed forces refer as a standard thing in this context, to "klicks", when operating in metric-oriented parts of the world.

 

[edwin_m]

I remember seeing large A2 size versions of that cartoon for sale at Folkestone Ferry Port, while the tunnel was being built beneath!

Ah, but were they A2 or Imperial Double Elephant Quarto?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Ah, but were they A2 or Imperial Double Elephant Quarto?

All I know is, before the tunnel the ferry ports had gift shops!

 

[swt_passenger]

Eventually we will order pints in pubs but actually be given 500 ml. Possibly not in my lifetime but it will be a swizz

Why not solve the “head” problem. Mark a physical pint glass at 500ml, and pour 500ml of beer and add 68ml of head free?

 

[Mojo]

I wondered last year (or was it the year before?) when all supermarkets put up milk prices why they didn’t take it as an opportunity to convert the sizes to become officially litre bottles and freeze the price. I doubt many people would have noticed especially given how shops like Poundland make out that their 2 litre bottles are some kind of bargain because they look like the standard 2272ml (“4 pint”) bottles, even though they actually work out more expensive per ml given the standard price of a 2272ml bottle is £1.09/£1.10 which works out at around 48p per litre).

Some of the “cheaper” shops that sell milk such as Poundland and Farmfoods already sell in litres, as well as many smaller shops.

 

[swt_passenger]

I wondered last year (or was it the year before?) when all supermarkets put up milk prices why they didn’t take it as an opportunity to convert the sizes to become officially litre bottles and freeze the price. I doubt many people would have noticed especially given how shops like Poundland make out that their 2 litre bottles are some kind of bargain because they look like the standard 2272ml (“4 pint”) bottles, even though they actually work out more expensive per ml given the standard price of a 2272ml bottle is £1.09/£1.10 which works out at around 48p per litre).

Some of the “cheaper” shops that sell milk such as Poundland and Farmfoods already sell in litres, as well as many smaller shops.

Is the underlying issue that if the production plant is already set up for one type (or range of sizes) of plastic bottle it’s too expensive to alter?

 

[xotGD]

Why not solve the “head” problem. Mark a physical pint glass at 500ml, and pour 500ml of beer and add 68ml of head free?

Well that would be an improvement on charging us for a pint but only putting half a litre of beer in the glass!

Reminds me of an old joke:

Customer (after being served his pint) 'Do you think you could fit a whisky in there?'
Barman 'I should think so.'
Customer 'Well put some more beer in then!'

 

[Hadders]

I wondered last year (or was it the year before?) when all supermarkets put up milk prices why they didn’t take it as an opportunity to convert the sizes to become officially litre bottles and freeze the price. I doubt many people would have noticed especially given how shops like Poundland make out that their 2 litre bottles are some kind of bargain because they look like the standard 2272ml (“4 pint”) bottles, even though they actually work out more expensive per ml given the standard price of a 2272ml bottle is £1.09/£1.10 which works out at around 48p per litre).

Some of the “cheaper” shops that sell milk such as Poundland and Farmfoods already sell in litres, as well as many smaller shops.

The Daily Mail would have a field day if supermarkets stopped selling milk in 568ml increments. Not worth the hassle.

 

[Zamracene749]

TV sets must be the last non legislated item in the UK to still be sold almost exclusively in Imperial measurements?

The resistance to the decimalisation of our currency baffles me too- why on earth anybody would have preferred the frankly insane pounds shillings and pence to the far simpler 100 pennies in a pound note beats me! Is there another currency, anywhere in the world, that still persists with a monetary system that doesn't use base 10?

My car has 285mm wide tyres that fit onto a 17" rim. It does miles/gallon but I pay in litres. It goes up hills that can be 1 in4- or 25%. I pay for my gas in therms, and my electricity in KwHours. My food is measured in calories. My beer comes in a pint unless it's in a can or bottle, in which case it comes in 568, 500, 440 or 330ml. It's strength is measured in ABV, but If I have a Brandy, it's in %proof. My size 11 shoes are size 12 in other countries, yet 40 something in some more. I'm 6 foot tall and 163Kg. I'm listening to music on a system that puts out 200 watts. Fair enough. But is that RMS, DIN, PMPO or should it be in dB? Aaaaargh! lol

(Yawn alert) At work in the UK chemical industry, we use a mixture of metric and imperial- all of our process pipework is to ASA (American) standards so is in inches (as are the studs that hold it together, although the gaskets used are measured in imperial width and metric thickness!), some instrumentation pipework is metric. Temperatures are all degree C, flows, volumes and weights are mostly metric, but pressures come in all varieties, including PSI, BAR, ATM, mmHg, Inches Water Gauge.

Did somebody mention standardisation?

 

[Springs Branch]

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

75cl. Don’t leave the last bit!

Certainly true for wine but, oddly, spirits seem to come in 70 cl bottles.
Those canny Scotch distillers diddle you out of more than a wee dram in every bottle.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Certainly true for wine but, oddly, spirits seem to come in 70 cl bottles.
Those canny Scotch distillers diddle you out of more than a wee dram in every bottle.

Yes sorry I was getting confused

 

[Westcountryman]

Temperatures are all degree C, flows, volumes and weights are mostly metric, but pressures come in all varieties, including PSI, BAR, ATM, mmHg, Inches Water Gauge.

I used to work in the chemical industry, and the problem we had was that some of the was in barg and some in bara. This was certainly a potential cause of confusion. To explain (yawn) normal atmospheric pressure is 0 barg, 1 bara , so this is how you measure your car tyre pressures. A perfect vacuum is -1barg, 0 bara.

 

[xotGD]

I used to work in the chemical industry, and the problem we had was that some of the was in barg and some in bara. This was certainly a potential cause of confusion. To explain (yawn) normal atmospheric pressure is 0 barg, 1 bara , so this is how you measure your car tyre pressures. A perfect vacuum is -1barg, 0 bara.

To be pedantic, 1.013 bara!

Bara tends to be used in the power industry because the condensers on the back of steam turbines run at subatmospheric pressure.

But the fuel gas supply pressure will probably be stated in barg.

Offshore gas industry, million standard cubic feet. Onshore gas industry, million standard cubic metres - or normal cubic metres.

 

[SteveP29]

I'd love the UK to switch to metric as like you i can conceptualise metric measures, imperial mean very little to me. Unfortunately the UK seems stuck in a half-way house, maybe if we had stayed in the EU it would have been different.

I'm 48 just in case anyone thinks i am a yoof.

I'm 48 in 3 weeks time and am much the same.
As I always say in posts about this subject, I was taught at school in metric, but I also understand and perceive imperial units better.
I can imagine 6ft, but not if someone were to say 1.8* metres
I can imagine 3 miles, but not 4.8* kilometres
I can imagine 16 stone, but not 101* kilos
(*approximately, nobody takes things to 3 or 4 decimal places)

I get litres, as being a former barman in my youth, I know its 1.75 pints

Is imperial really a "system," or more a random assortment of units?

As someone who went to first, middle and junior school in the 1990s and started secondary school in the year 2000, I have no concept or understanding of imperial units, as we were simply not taught these at school.

Reluctance to use Metric is usually made up of gibberish, nonsensical arguments.


I'm surprised by that too, as our settings are to give times for posts and similar in the 24 hour format (except for recent postings which will display things for example like "4 minutes ago"). Would be interested to know where you've seen this?

IIRC I read somewhere that imperial measurements are so random because they were invented before they were quantified in for example a ruler, hence we have hands, spans, yards etc.

 

[birchesgreen]

I'm 48 in 3 weeks time and am much the same.

Same in what way? You seem to be the complete opposite!

 

[SteveP29]

Same in what way? You seem to be the complete opposite!

Sorry, yes, that'll teach me for trying to post quickly while working.

I did mean we seem to be the same because we recognise we're stuck in this halfway house as you called it.

I have a 3 year old grandson and I suspect feet and inches will be very much a mystery to him by the time he's old enough to have to think about it