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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.
Is that actually true?
There's an apocryphal tale about why railway gauges are related to the size of a horses' arse, culminating in it being a limiting factor in the design of the Space Shuttle's engines. How true any or all of it is I've mo idea.
Just thought – is this why IKEA mattresses are a weird size? Cos they’re in metric and our king Size is 5 feet?
Ikea seem to be phasing out their metric mattresses and bedding in favour of olde fashioned UK sizes.
Bought new mattress from there last month - I built my bed to fit an ikea mattress but when replacing it they only had one metric mattress left in stock of the one I wanted and only about 10% of the sheets they sell are metric and they don't stock their whole range in those sized.
Shame if you're tall because the metric mattresses are longer.
There’s an apocryphal tale about why railway gauges are related to the size of a horses’ arse,
ID or OD?
I always work out thrusts for the disc springs in our actuator ranges in inches & pounds then convert to Newton’s.
I find there’s less potential for error as the numbers are smaller.
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.
Not forgetting Ireland.
Industrial metal bands fronted by Trent Reznor
Games Workshop games
De la soul album title.
I remember Pfund from holidays in Germany as a lad. I'm surprised they still use it.
At school woodwork and metal work were imperial but physics and chemistry metric. As a civil engineer up until the 90s both were interchangeable even though the bricks, pipes, rebar or whatever were in fact all metric by then. Calculations were metric though - apart from a short period working overseas for an American consultant. Moments in kips feet!
Oh I buy meat at the butchers in pounds, though the scales are metric.
My Systemdek spins either 33 or 45 rpm but I'm guessing the SI unit is just the same but I thought I'd chuck it in and see
Last time I checked there were still 24 hours in day and 3600 seconds in an hour. Up you jacques! 🤪
Strictly speaking that's Babylonian, not imperial. Although I believe the pesky French tried to decimalise the calender after their revolution.
psi
bhp
Jet engines / gas turbines are rated in
lbs thrust.
Why wouldn't you call something a 'Shatments'?
Hair clippers are in increments of 1/16".
If you drive an old school Mustang or own a Shelby Cobra you will brag about your inches to the power of 3
4 1/2" grinder
6" grinder
12" grinder
Shirt collar size.
If you drive an old school Mustang or own a Shelby Cobra you will brag about your inches to the power of 3
See also, Harley Davidson... 😱
6 inch heels
UK Shoe sizes are in increments of one Barley Corn
12″ grinder
Swipes right
btu
I’m pretty cavalier about measurements, I’ll use whatever’s convenient. I was born in 1954, so all my growing up and education was through the 60’s, as a result I automatically think in pints, miles, pounds, feet, inches, etc. However, I spent most of my working life in print and publishing, which was already moving into metric for paper sizes, using international A, B and C sized paper. Except America uses an A-size that’s Imperial, and a completely different size...
So now everything gets mixed and matches, I use Fahrenheit and centigrade, I have a good idea of how they match - my ideal outdoor temperature is around 70℉, about 20℃,
8-10℃ is about 48-50℉, and on the cool side. I can easily extrapolate from there,
30℃ is too sodding hot!
minus 40 is quite cold but the same in C and F.
cruising altitude 35000 feet
threads per inch, tpi
Cockney theft is measure in half inches.
acres
teeth per inch , saws
Brake pipes of machinery ..regularly run into 13mm too small 14mm too big...its 5/8!!! Imperial tools are still neccisary as a lot of Chinese or Japanese vehicles use imperial on brakes and abs systems..umm..ran into a Hyundai with a 5/16 drain plug(not rusted to 5/16) I think this was a mistake and probably replaced..
But yes its highly impractical having to use both imperial and metric together.. worst was a 11mm union on one end and a 5/8 on the other ..I remember one spanner fit both but would round the metric one if used..CONFUSING..especially when your doing 12 connections not all the the same time and your scanners are not stamped with the marking particularly well..
minus 40 is quite cold but the same in C and F.
Minus 32 is where it's the same.
Probably still time to edit that cougar...
There’s an apocryphal tale about why railway gauges are related to the size of a horses’ arse, culminating in it being a limiting factor in the design of the Space Shuttle’s engines. How true any or all of it is I’ve mo idea.
The story about Roman chariots and railway gauge is kind of half true but not for the reasons given in the popular internet legend.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/railroad-gauge-chariots/
Unicol audiovisual equipment stands. Made in Britain.
There is poetry in imperial measurements. Metric is dull
An inch, a foot, a yard, a rod , perch or pole, a chain, a furlong, a mile ( with a surveyors pole fitting in somewhere odd)
An acre being a chain by a furlong
A fathom being 2 yards but only for water depth
Much better than all this multiples of ten nonsense in sizes that mean nothing
Pipework and fittings in the water industry are mainly imperial.
Can be an absolute nightmare when chopping a bit of PVC pipe on a chemical dosing system or other system and assuming its imperial only to discover its a metric equivalent after your imperial fitting wont fit!, 32mm I'm looking at you!
Normally happens when a plant is shutdown for maintenance so quite critical to have all the correct bits to complete the job
Thank god for metric to imperial fittings!
For some reason Occupational Therapists measure everything in inches. I did ask why once but I've forgotten the answer!
( with a surveyors pole fitting in somewhere odd)
Story of my life
An acre being a chain by a furlong
One's yoke of oxen can plough that in a day.
(the traditional Middle Ages definition of an acre).
a furlong
Short for "one furrow long", the distance an ox can plough without resting.
Games Workshop games
@Northwind Not necessarily. I used to play a bit of 40k, and there was a French bloke in the uni club all of whose rulebooks were in metric.
Current project, cost must be well into the tens of billions of dollars. Equipment datasheets are in imperial feet and inches for internal components, but metric for the outer stuff (e.g. a tank is 30150mm high, but the high liquid level is 90ft3inches). Then plot plans are metric. Then the calculation sheets have distances in ft. I've got a post-it note on my desk to convert ft and inches into decimals. The chemistry is in lbmol too, flowrates are in lb mol, ft3, and barrels, all it needs is someone to specify something in scuffs and we've got the full set of measurements no one can visualise.
For some reason Occupational Therapists measure everything in inches. I did ask why once but I’ve forgotten the answer!
Its used for measuring attention span
All my students (16-18 yr olds) know their height in feet/inches and weight in stones/llbs. Only a few also know them in metric too.
Interestingly they struggle to then estimate the length of an inch or a foot but they can hold their fingers up for a cm. Rulers I guess?