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How long will it be before it's ditched, will it ever be ditched?
in the UK you'd need to wait until the population becomes reasonable.
Imagine the outrage if we switched to km and km/h? We'd see the roundabout painters out in full force painting out the new signs with the equivalent miles/mph...well, after there is a conversion card issued out on social media...
Bloody forriners from Europe dictating our measurement system. I did not vote for Brexit to have to convert to km..
Mixed use is everywhere. Aviation is another prime example.
Yeah, I jump from 4000m using a rig containing a canopy measured in square feet with limitations on the windspeed in M/s in an exit order that is determined (partially) by exit weight in kilos, but the pilot offsets us from the dropzone in Nautical Miles at a height in feet with a speed in knots.
Gottalove aviation and sport.
pick up 500ml of undercoat and an 8x4' plywood sheet, via the petrol station to fill up with 12 litres of fuel for my bike which does 80mpg. .
That's as maybe, but how are you carrying an 8x4' sheet on your motorbike?
Compare with buying beer in the US, I was once asked “would you like a small or a large?” and I was like WTF does that even mean?
It doesn't matter what it means. Large. The answer is large, always and especially if you're an English bloke drinking in America. We have a reputation to uphold you know!
Ahem.
The railways have entered the building....
they offer small, medium and large pizzas
Non issue. Who orders non largest pizzas
Who orders non largest pizzas
When you need to save space for the post-session kebab...
Yeah, I jump from 4000m
And just to prove your point, I thought "that's not high, I was jumping from almost that as a student parachutist" and then realised my height was 3,200ft...
100 yards might be quite similar but then it's hard for me to picture 17.6 of them.
It's 4 laps of a running track.
I'm old enough to remember lsd and Imperial, and now use a mix but would v happily ditch residual imperial. I'm happy to think km for walking and cycling but we have to use miles and mph for driving. It's just what you do when rolling off the ferry is go to vehicle settings to change one way or the other. I much prefer km as they're shorter.
For body measurements (ooh er Mrs ) it's still mainly imperial for some reason. Stone and pounds but happy with kg. Happy with m for height but would have to do sums to work out my waist in cm.
Tend to be metric for DIY, but depends what feels right (a 20kg bag vs a 2.4m length of 2" by 4") . Metric in the gym.
In France you can still ask for a pinte though it's bigger than one of ours, hence demi for beer. And of course US pints are a different size again. But bollocks to the US. Jesus remember the Johnson joke govt when Rees-Mogg was consulting on reintroducing hog's heads etc? Or was that Cameron?
Cameron had a specific interest in hogs heads
I use miles for distance ridden or driven, happily metric for everything else.
I do seem.to.managentomwinf up the roadies in the club when they announced they've done a metric tonne and I ask if 62 miles sounds as good as a proper ton...never goes down well (and I know it makes me sound like a d!ck).
I’ve never had much of a problem converting… but it’s interesting that when I first moved overseas I would convert from km to m in my head, but at some point it normalised.
Anyway there’s more important measurements to worry about here.
It’s not unreasonable to use miles when all the signposts are in miles. Then again the countdown markers on the motorway are at 100 metre intervals as well as the count down to road works.
I suspect the main problem is that changing all the signs would be expensive and cars might need the speedometer adapting.
Motorway countdown markers are at 100 yard intervals according to the Highway Code (about 2/3rds down this page:
Though I think I have a copy of it from a while back that describes them as being at 97 metre intervals! 😆
I dimly recall that there's statute that states that road signs must be in yards and miles and only yards and miles, so any attempt to change that would not just involve the hassle of changing a lot of signage but also having to get legislation through parliament while Reform, Restore and significant portions of the press whip up as many people as possible into a frenzy to oppose it.
Motorway countdown markers are at 100 yard intervals according to the Highway Code (about 2/3rds down this page:
Only if they're permanent.
Actually, that's not true anyway, regardless of what THC may say. Motorway countdown markers go down in 200m increments. Well, decrements. Aren't they? A motorway exit is 600m / 400m / 200m.
You've got me wondering now. I'd have to go check.
[EDIT: yeah, I'm talking mince, I'm conflating two different things in my head. Ignore me.]
WTF?! Where did that come from? This nurse had never known the imperial system, and the NHS has used SI units since 1975... so about 20 years before this nurse was born! One of the best laughs we ever had around that table!
Didn't someone get skipped ahead of the 2021 covid vacinnation queue as someone had entered their 5'11" height (or something) as 5.11cm, giving them comfortably the worlds highest BMI and therefore a "high risk" category?
I dimly recall that there's statute that states that road signs must be in yards and miles and only yards and miles, so any attempt to change that would not just involve the hassle of changing a lot of signage but also having to get legislation through parliament while Reform, Restore and significant portions of the press whip up as many people as possible into a frenzy to oppose it.
The thing is,
Aside from the expense and the people who want to bring back shillings, what would be the point anyway? It doesn't really gain us anything. We can readily just use miles for long distances, there's no real downsides other than confusing foreigners (and I hear we like that sort of thing these days anyway).
For yards we can quietly switch to metres. No-one would notice if a sign read "100yds" or "100m" outwith the Professionally Outraged, everyone is just looking at the numbers which won't change. (I read somewhere ages back that signage has to be within a tolerance of 10%, hence 100yds signs already measuring 100m in actuality. How true that is, I don't know.)
I'm 54 and totally metric. I've no idea of my height and weight in chains or fluid ounces or whatever it is. I'm 72kg and 1.82m it's really not hard.
A while back one of our librarians asked for a shelf to be fitted inside a drawer. I asked her for the dimensions so I could cut it at base where I have a table saw before bringing it to the site to fit it. I got back "25.7 inches". When I queried this she said she couldn't work metric. She is 45. So what is 22.7 inches? Is it 22 and 7/10ths, 7/8ths, 7/16ths? She said she didn't understand so I asked her to send me a pic of the tape measure with a pencil pointing at the correct measurement. Turns out it was 58cm. Grrrrrrrrrr.
Motorway countdown markers are at 100 yard intervals
That sounds right to me too, perhaps because the first motorways were being built in the late 50s, long before metrification was widely adopted in the UK. Likewise, I seem to recall the emergency phones are generally a mile apart (unless there's an inconveniently placed junction) and that these marker posts are 100 yards apart to direct you to the nearest emergency phone.
But, then how do they get 17.6 of those little posts between phones? Odd.
Aviation and shipping all use nautical miles as 1 minute of latitude equals 1 nautical mile, 1852 metres.
This is used globally. It allows you to quickly measure distances using the latitude scale.
I am happy to measure distances in miles on land for driving but metres and km make more sense when using OS maps for walking or cycling, for the same reasons as above.
Be honest who knows how many yards or m is a mile without googling?
Probably plenty. A mile = 5280 feet or 1760 yards. That's about 1609 meters. A quarter mile, which is the traditional drag racing distance, is 440 yards, which is slightly longer than 400 meters.
I’ve seen small pizzas the size of a drinks coaster and large ones that had to be tipped at an angle just to fit through the door
Both sizes have too many calories.
Get with le programme.
Non?
It doesn't help that professional sports use smaller metres than the rest of us. That's why their times are impossibly fast.
I suspect you are correct but it still drives me nuts when I join a group ride and ask how far we are going to be told 45miles or something...what even is that? When I say ok 70km?
I'm 57, I've never measured a long distance in kilometres. My kids (19 and 23) talk about driving and distance between places in miles, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Does it actually matter? Audax rides are in km and I can roughly convert in my head to what that is in miles through practice. Is the actual problem that some people can't cope with two systems for longer distances and how to convert between them.
1 Barleycorn -Equal to 1/3 of an inch
Digit and Palm -A digit was 3/4 of an inch, and a palm was equal to 3 inches
Foot -4 palms or 12 thumbs
Yard -3 feet or 12 Palms
Rod (Perch or Pole) -Defined as 16.5 feet (5.5 yards)
Chain -Equal to 4 linear rods (66 feet)
Furlong -40 rods(660 feet)
An acre was 4 rods × 40 rods
My kids (19 and 23) talk about driving and distance between places in miles, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Which is insane ..why?
And my final question is why do men measure their dicks in inches? Surely cm would sound better?
Mine is 228600 micro meters
I'm old enough to remember the mnemonics put out by the government when we allegedly metricated in 1973.
- A metre measures three foot three - it's longer than a yard, you see (that one's for you , @anagallis_arvensis)
- A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters
- Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram
I also remember that the denizens of uk.rec.sheds were quite keen on the micro-fortnight as a unit of time.
And a barn (symbol: b) is a non-SI unit of area equal to 10^-28m^2 , used in nuclear and particle physics to measure the cross-sectional area of atomic nuclei - as in 'you couldn't hit a barn door'.
I was educated at around the crossover point and as a consequence I fail to understand either...
then realised my height was 3,200ft...
Gosh, you're quite a tall chap...
For yards we can quietly switch to metres. No-one would notice if a sign read "100yds" or "100m" outwith the Professionally Outraged
How - on a road sign - do you then distinguish between something thats 100m away and something thats 100m away? 🙂
TL;DR – Here Be Dragons. Use Metric. Hope this helps.
This is in no way a comprehensive list, where are the Whales (Wales), Tennis courts and double-decker buses?
Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram
This is genuinely, and completely pointless. I'm in awe that this was a thing...
i still use miles and feet for distance (just makes sense to my old brain than km and meters). the good thing is we have choice on cycle computers (admittedly not for road signs in the uk).
A South African friend was bemoaning that she found the differences between American and British English really confusing, particularly around weights and measures
That's another can of worms, since the USAn pint is different from a proper pint.
Two and a quarter pounds of jam weighs about a kilogram
What does two and a quarter pounds of feathers weight?
What does two and a quarter pounds of feathers weight?
9.8N on Earth
What does two and a quarter pounds of feathers weight?
I remember at secondary school, a teacher trying to be clever around weights and measures saying that a pound of feathers weighed the same as a pound of gold until someone in the class pointed out that gold was measured in troy ounces and there were 12 of those to the pound, whereas there are 16 normal ounces to the pound.
I can work across most aspects of imperial and metric. I measure my rides in miles distance but climbing in metres. Cycling is a hot mess of random imperial and metric anyway. Plus a few "sizes" that actually don't mean a lot like 700c or 650b.
There's a (to 67 year old me) surprisingly large number of folk still using miles and minutes-per-mile in our running club. We've organised the club by pace groups, all calculated at mins-per-km and I'm regularly asked to do the conversion for them. Now I just refuse 😂
Your in the wrong you heathen
Motorway countdown markers are at 100 yard intervals according to the Highway Code
This is correct, if you're talking about the 3, 2, 1 markers on exits
Actually, that's not true anyway, regardless of what THC may say. Motorway countdown markers go down in 200m increments. Well, decrements. Aren't they? A motorway exit is 600m / 400m / 200m.
Countdowns to disappearing lanes (e.g. four lanes to three) and roadworks are in 200 YARD increments and are numbered, e.g. 600yds, 400yds, 200yds, preceded by a 1 mile triangular "roadworks" warning sign
The distance between temporary signs, cones, etc is otherwise measured in metres on plans by the traffic management company, just to confuse matters (yes, roadworks are sometimes planned!)
I seem to recall the emergency phones are generally a mile apart (unless there's an inconveniently placed junction) and that these marker posts are 100 yards apart to direct you to the nearest emergency phone.
Yes. Phones are at one mile intervals unless you have to cross an exit carriageway to get to the nearest phone, or otherwise walk on the carriageway (so-called smart motorways without hard shoulders)
And no. Marker posts are at 100 metre intervals, starting from the beginning of the motorway. MP 123.4 is 123.4km from the start of the motorway to give a precise location. Both carriageways have a 123.4 at the same location, one northbound and one southbound (or whatever).
Except when one motorway branches off another when they both count from the beginning of the original motorway. That means that you can get several 123.4km locations.
To get around that the phones nearest to 123.4 are marked with an identifier. Some are straightforward like A9 135 (see below) and some are coded into the four-figure number.
Sorry, getting a bit carried away 🤣
For yards we can quietly switch to metres. No-one would notice if a sign read "100yds" or "100m" outwith the Professionally Outraged
How - on a road sign - do you then distinguish between something thats 100m away and something thats 100m away? 🙂
If you can safely stop from 70mph (96m according the HC) then we're good. 96m is about 105yds, not so good! It's just as well that stopping distances are massively out of date
And no. Marker posts are at 100 metre intervals, starting from the beginning of the motorway. MP 123.4 is 123.4km from the start of the motorway to give a precise location. Both carriageways have a 123.4 at the same location, one northbound and one southbound (or whatever).
Except when one motorway branches off another when they both count from the beginning of the original motorway. That means that you can get several 123.4km locations.
The railway would like a word.
Miles and chains thank you very much. 80 chains to a mile (a chain is 22yds and can be split into 4 rods or 100 links).
Born in the 60s, I went metric in the 70s for two reasons.
OS maps went metric and going skiing, they wanted to know your weight and height.
I detest how sat navs count down a distance in miles, then yards and then change to feet, so the car satnav is metric as well.
I have absolutely zero concept of the weight units, and how many things are in the next bigger thing.
Always been grumpy and obstinate about imperial units and still am !
