Forum menu
And of course with Whitworth, yer 7/8 Whit spanner won't fit a 7/8 bolt. Something to do with making nuts smaller during the war but not changing the spanner sizes.
Bike chains are still imperial, a tip is to measure from the centre of a pin to one 12" away. If it comes in right on the 12 your chain is fine, if not you can gauge the wear by how far out it is. Anything over a 1/16 and you'd want to replace it.
Wheel/tyre bead diameter on cars
Car wheels and tyres a hotbed of Imperial v Metric nonsense.
Wheels, Imperial diameter, Imperial width with a Metric offset.
Tyres, Imperial diameter, metric width and a metric profile (a % of the width rather than a fraction)
clothing...waist/leg I still work in inches, and shirt collars
What we are all looking at now - screens.
Spine deflection in archery arrows (that's a measure of how bendy they are) - Hang a two pound weight in the middle of an arrow shaft resting on two pegs 28 inches apart. The actual deflection is most often expressed in decimals of an inch. eg 1.25 instead of 1 1/4.
What we are all looking at now – screens.
Only for us Muppets.
A lot of 22" monitors (which is pretty standard now) are actually 55cm and 24" are 60cm. Interestingly (okay, not interestingly) when they do sell them accurately they sell them as 21.5" not 21 1/2".
As for JRM, he’s a phoney anachronism, he couldn’t be less authentic if he were bought from AliExpress
Bookmarked for future use in discussions with Pater.
I was schooled in the early 80’s and it was all SI units and metric and on the first week of my apprenticeship we were introduced to imperial measurements!
Forgot one: Vegetables bought by goose-stepping pensioners in Jackie White’s market in Sunderland.
Do people still go in there?
Spine deflection in archery arrows
Arrow shafts also. Wooden arrows are typically 5/16" or 11/32" (and weighed in grains...!)
Whitworth spanners are identified by the thread diameter hence a half inch whitworth spanner refers to the thread diameter and not across the flats of the head.
Also British Association Screw Threads
That is a cracking clip some real characters and the motorized buggy looks just the same as the ones zippin down the high st today
Builders merchants, “2m of 4x2 please” why use just one system of measurement 🤯
Love that clip Cougar, especially the guy at the end that apparently thinks he fought in a war to prevent the introduction of them killimeter things.
Vox Pops like that remind me why democracy is a terrible idea 😉
Canoes: feet
Canoe paddles: cm.
Surfboards are imperial too,
I’ll normally ask the timber merchant for a 2 inch board, at 250 millimetres wide and 2 metres long.
To which he'll respond: "Do you want me to cut down a 2.4?"
The only 'round' metric timber lengths at the local merchant are 3m (10') and 6m (20'). All the others are metric equivalents of imperial feet: 1.8m - 6', 2.4m - 8', 3.6m - 12', etc.
Are the distance for time trials (10 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles, etc) just a British thing?
Marathons (running, nor chocolate bars)
I had to look up how many yards to the mile there were and I still can’t remember it (1240?) what a stupid system it was.
There are 1760 yds to a mile*. I'm not sure it's quite fair to call the system stupid.
Being a child of the 60's I am comfortable using both Imperial and Metric for most things, and favour them both for different uses.
Most people seem to mix Imperial and Metric time quite comfortably (I think).
* When did it become a thing not to know that?
I was schooled in the early 80’s and it was all SI units and metric
This. And I use metric at work. I have no frame of reference for imperial measurements but I know that a litre bag of Hartmann’s is approx 1 kg.
I don’t really understand why we didn’t complete metrication like the rest of the Commonwealth, and indeed Ireland.
Wouldn’t that be seconds of angle, minutes being a 60th?
Yep, rush of blood. It’s 1/60.
I believe air rifles went metric round about the 50s to 60s. If you buy a tin of old .22 pellets they won’t fit a modern barrel. Not sure if this is to do with parity with metric 5.56mm barrels as opposed to old 5.5mm IIRC.
Old BSA barrels were 5.6mm in .22. Modern pellets are indeed 5.56mm, which don’t seal as well so lose power and potentially accuracy. Eley Wasps were available in both so you could choose. Just to confuse matters you can also get Air Arms pellets with different skirt measurements as some match barrels can be pellet fussy.
ein pfund
une livre
Interesting that the German Pfund is 500g or half a kilo!
Most Hydraulic fittings on british machines are still BSP (British Standard Pipe) while stuff bought from the continent uses metric fittings. Can be a real struggle to get stuff to mix and match. Fertilizer is sold n 600 kilo bags and put down at a rate of x kgs /acre by most farmers!
Medical needles for injections are imperial in length with diameter given as a gauge number that has no direct relationship to any sensible size, neither imperial or metric
Interesting that the German Pfund is 500g or half a kilo!
Well yes, but not surprising. Before the Europeans went metric, I would imagine they needed to have comparative weights to trade in. So a German Pfund, a French Livre and an Italian Libra would be the same as an English pound.
Interesting to know when they all went metric. ....
Wire gauge...
Marathons (running, nor chocolate bars)
Now I thought that Marathons in any other part of the world were 40km long, but I could definately be wrong.
What did the Romans ever do for us?
pond Netherland
pund Sweden
lb UK
1/2" pitch chain
TV screens
6 inch nails
10 oz steak
12 inch pizza
21 foot scaffold tube
Last time I checked there were still 24 hours in day and 3600 seconds in an hour. Up you jacques! 🤪
Pipes are weird. Screwed MS (heating) pipe is listed in mm dia but is just the internal diameter in inches converted. As valves, etc, have screwed (BSP) conns are in inches... so, 50mm pipe, 2” valve...
Copper pipe (Table X) is all mm and is the external dia...
Also, my favourite velocity is furlongs per fortnight, that’s a proper measure now...
8' x 4' sheet of MDF / Plywwod / OSB
I thought that Marathons in any other part of the world were 40km
42
tuppenny rice and treacle. Resolutely imperial.
One measure I’ve always ****ing detested is Btu’s...
Makes my bleeding blood boil so it does.
1973 is when we went metric, grrrrr.
Old BSA barrels were 5.6mm in .22. Modern pellets are indeed 5.56mm, which don’t seal as well so lose power and potentially accuracy. Eley Wasps were available in both so you could choose. Just to confuse matters you can also get Air Arms pellets with different skirt measurements as some match barrels can be pellet fussy.
That's the one I was thinking of. I have a Diana 52 with a really fussy barrel, slack as a slack thing for some reason. JSB Exacts come in 0.01mm increments as well (though seemingly have as much spread as the next tin depending on the die).
Cougar it could well be Nm depending on if its the force or energy you are measuring.
Railway track gauges. It’s mainly 4’ 8 1/2”. The Russians, Fins, Indians and Spanish have their own standards though again these are imperial.
Interestingly (no really), 4’ 8 1/2” is also Roman chariot gauge.
When constructing a Death Star
One measure I’ve always **** detested is Btu’s…
I was just about to say that. One and a bit kJ innit? That really shouldn't be hard to move away from.
8′ x 4′ sheet of MDF / Plywwod / OSB
Except when its not - especially OSB. OSB varies between an Imperial equivalent 2444mm and and Metric 2400mm depending on what thickness and grade. I imagine in some instances its sized to be paired with plasterboard which is also a dead 2400mm on the same framing.
A handy way to learn his is to have built all your framing before the truck with 50 sheets of OSB turns up and find non of it fits 🙂