I think the EU has historically been blamed for converting the UK to metric.
Half my socket consists of useless fractions - please don't tell me I am going to have understand these? I am already terrible at guessing volumes and weights but at least mls, litres, and grams and kgs are divisible by 10. Surely we wont need to start working in flagons, gallons and 14th's of a stone. Please don't confuse me further with fathoms, yards, foots and 12th's thereof.
Buying bike spares is already complicated enough !
We'll go further back, bring back rods, chains, furlongs and so on!
Doesn't matter. In 2021 we'll be back to bartering.
trade you four toilet rolls for a quart of goats milk?
We won't have any manufacturing so it will be irrelevant.
If you're only sources of national income are fish exports, raspberry jam, Stilton cheese and backhanders from Russian oligarchs, you don't need precise or logical measurement.
Now's not the time to get bogged down in detail and practicality like measurements. Just wait for the latest non threatening northern voiced radio advert telling us how we've left Europe and how we'll have to pay attention now going on our hols rather than coming and going as we pleased.
Bumble. Bluster. Bluff.
Give 'em an inch and they'll take a m...
I'll get my cloak...
I think the EU has historically been blamed for converting the UK to metric.
Except that’s bollocks, and we adopted the metric system in 1968, I gather encouraging the Commonwealth and Ireland to do likewise. They’ve all completed the job, we bottled it.
The Quitters can come and take SI units from my cold, dead hands.
@crikey Useless fact: the formal definition of an inch is 25.4mm and has been since at least the 1960s…
We're all joking, but at every turn the Tories surprise with their stupidity & Populist barrel scraping
FTFY - Give ’em an inch and they’ll take a m…....63360 of them
I love metric BUT.
Fractions aren't as daft as they sound. Dead easy add and subtract without getting into the o.oooo1 precision.
@joshvegas There’s nothing wrong with fractions, but plenty wrong with units that change subdivisions as you go from one to the next.
Plus, as a child of 1980s Scotland I wasn’t taught imperial measurements at school. I know what a kg looks like (as it’s about the same as a litre of Hartmann’s) but have no frame of reference for a lb, nor how many oz there are in it.
Didn't JRM tell his office personnel to only use imperial or something once The Party came to power?
Anyway, if you believe in imperial enough it will still be world beating and ultimately lead us to that great Moon Shot moment.
You must just believe.
JRM did, and I would suggest that anything he does should be used as an example of what not to do.
No.
Next question?
The irony is that the Cabinet is full of people in the age groups that never learnt Imperial units.
Imagine Priti Vacant trying to explain that 30cm is longer than 11 3/4 inches but shorter than 11 7/8th inches?
Bring back the groat; best unit of currency we ever had.
Closely followed by the Widow's Mite.
I have a very old 'ready reckoner' from my grandfather, I think, and in there is an approximate weight calculator for animals going to market based on height/length/girth.
The tax calculators are great - but slightly outdated.
I have a very old ‘ready reckoner’ from my grandfather, I think, and in there is an approximate weight calculator for animals going to market based on height/length/girth.
Ooh, I've got something similar for gestation periods.
There’s nothing wrong with fractions, but plenty wrong with units that change subdivisions as you go from one to the next.
Oh aye totally.
That dial reminds me of being a kid, when we used to go visit my grandparents we used to drive past a factory that made 'animal identification systems'
I later learned it was ear tags and the like, but my Dad convinced me it was flow charts for farmers - does it have 4 legs? Is it as big as a big dog? Does it have wool? It's a sheep.
I couldn't fathom that men whose job it was to rear livestock didn't know horse from chicken without a system but it was my Dad telling me and therefore to a four year old, gospel.
Just putting this out here, but the biggest use of imperial* measurement is that there United States.
* obviously half of the US units are different sizes or amounts of volumes or whatever, when compared to original UK units.
but it was my Dad telling me and therefore to a four year old, gospel.
Top child rearing! Love it.
@Cougar - that looks well used. Did you use it to impress the ladies in pubs?
I couldn’t fathom...
Excellent work, Sir, well done
Just putting this out here, but the biggest use of imperial* measurement is that there United States.
Yeah but even they don't use it completely. Science is still in SI and engineering is a mix.
Anyway which imperial system? When in Hong Kong there were some old ladies still sell some green veg in an old Chinese imperial measure.
my Dad again, but when he bought a new adjustable spanner justified it to me by claiming this one was his metric adjustable, the old one was imperial.
I can't fathom why anyone would plumb the depths by using imperial units. There's no mileage in it.
Being more serious, most of the world uses metric now including most of US industry so machine tools are (mainly) metric. That'll make it rather hard to go back to imperial units for proper work. I really don't want to have to dig out my 3/4 inch spanner rather than my 19mm on. I certainly don't want to start adding a few though to 3/8 inch for clearance.
I couldn’t fathom…
Excellent work, Sir, well done
That’s deep.
Yeah but even they don’t use it completely. Science is still in SI and engineering is a mix.
https://www.simscale.com/blog/2017/12/nasa-mars-climate-orbiter-metric/
I wouldn't put it past the shysters that brought us blue passports to go for some sort of re-imperialisation. Easy win in the culture wars era to make a big thing about "bring back the pound" or some such.
"Metric after Brexit" is a very satisfying title
"God on a quad" is equally pleasing
Considering the UK didn't fully adopt the full metric system, we still use many imperial units take the roads for instance, everything is still in miles. Do you think if we went back to imperial system everything would be changed, or we would end up with an even more mismatched system?
Even on the roads it's mixed. Speed limits and distances are in miles but other signs such as width restrictions and bridge heights vary seemingly on which way the wind blows.
We should completely ditch imperial and adopt metric. There are now 2 generations who don't understand the differences and use metric most of the time anyway
most of US industry
No, sadly. Or maybe you could explain to my colleagues in NJ why they should adopt the metric system in order to process the materials we do that are exclusively measured in microns. F knows I've been trying for the past 20 years... 🙄
After Brexit we'll have a new measurement system, it's called the Boris, but no one will understand how it works.
I weigh individual bike components in grams and then quote the overall bike weight in lbs for some reason.
I also run in KM and ride in miles. Weird huh?
“Metric after Brexit” is a very satisfying title
“God on a quad” is equally pleasing
One sends my anxiety levels up to 11
The other puts me one notch (a metric notch) above hibernation
Ogmios for me (and for PM).
@Cougar - that Silcock Gestation Table; 'date of service' isn't the last time it was calibrated is it??
After Brexit we’ll have a new measurement system, it’s called the Boris, but no one will understand how it works.
Especially Boris.
After Brexit we’ll have a new measurement system, it’s called the Boris, but no one will understand how it works.
It won't work.
Or if it does, only in a half assed part time kind of way.
Aside from all that, I'd propose a new unit,
"The Boris"
being an amount of work, say, equal to around 1mJ.
I'm sure the rose tinted Spitfires over the white cliffs lot wold love it... even if they didn't have much of a clue what it was. I think most rational people would think that going back to teaching imperial measurements in schools now would laughable, but then again... with this lot.
Was it 1974 when they actually stopped teaching imperial? Just as JRB was starting school then, so if he uses Imperial it's for some faux nostalgic reason (or more likely he's just a **** who knows his audience). That's not to say that schools had taught imperial up to 74 and then made the change over-night, most had switched much earlier. Most people who were taught imperial are now reaching retirement and have 2 generations coming after them who think metric, that tide has loooong turned.
No, I think the thick as mince Sun readers will get all giddy about being able to buy "pintas" in glass bottles again, "pints of beer" and bendy Bananas because the EU banned all those things didn't they?
As for our Yank friends, don't think they haven't got a clue what Metric is, the ones I know use both, they're not an insular as you might think. They don't have a full understanding - weirdly it's Temp they seem to struggle with, my SIL just couldn't get that 0c was freezing, 100c was boiling and a decent guess in between. To her 30c was cold, but she understood litres and had a better grasp of Kms than I do. Also, if you think you'll need an Imperial socket set to work on an American car, you'd be wrong. They've used metric fixings for years and I'm not just talking about the ones they sell here, but cars they sell in the US as well.
There's actually a good argument why Fahrenheit is easier for the general public to understand. If you say today it will be sunny with low 70s, or high 70s, that's easy to grasp and there isn't a huge difference between them. One is pleasant, the other is a bit hotter.
If you use deg C, then say today it will be in the 20s, it doesn't work as well. 20C is nice, 29C is chuffin hot. People are simple, deg F is easier for most people to understand for weather. For other stuff it gets less useful very quickly!
Go do some work in the oil industry in the US (all imperial) then go to Canada and see the horrible miss mash they have. Deca Newton for force, sacks for powered goods, bar for some pressures psi for others. Barrels for fluid volumes (of course this the oil industry) litre for other fluid volumes.
easier for the general public to understand
which is often the reasoning behind old units, I think
inches were handily close to fingertip/knuckle
yard, average stride
foot, your imagination can run riot
agricultural units
how much field can you plough with an ox in one day, that's an acre
one ox goes for one furlong before it needs rest, 220 yards
one oxgang, that's a limit on your farm size if you have just one ox, about 15 acres
and there's a bazillion* more of those
* not an imperial measure
If you say today it will be sunny with low 70s, or high 70s
If you use deg C, then say today it will be in the 20s, it doesn’t work as well
Er... taking you first example... "low 20s", "mid 20s" or "high 20s"... or... now you may think this is crazy... "about 22", or a more real example... "temperatures could reach as high as 28 degrees today in some areas, with night time lows of about 6 degrees". And why include the helpful "sunny" in the F example, and no similar qualitative language in the C example?
