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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, brilliantI don't get it: Why don't we have common measurements? While the rest of the world is talking unified units, some places they measure all things outside the metric system.
Can't these countries please start measuring things in proper units (metric system), drive on the right side of the road, and respect the majority of the sane world?
This creates a lot of problems: how far is it from one village to the next, how much water do you need, how hot is it? I do not understand these measures, and I am in the vast majority of the world population. And still I have to translate our logical metric system to those who have no clue.
F.ex. Water freezes at 0 Celsius; 32 F. What is 32? One km. is 1000 metres. 1 step is almost 1 metre. What could be difficult with that?
And how long is a foot? what is an inch? 2.54 cm. What does it MEAN? It is certainly within the metric system... What is an Oz???
In most countries, only drunk drivers drive on the left side of the road. In f.ex. England, I need a few pints before I can drive safely.
An expensive satellite was lost in a cooperation between USA and Europe because US course calculations were done in inches (!?) sic) instead of proper centrimetres, and the next course calculation done by the US went pretty wrong...
We have 10 fingers. 10 toes. the basics of the metric system. Please join us.
Please get it right, leftists...
He, he. In Marocco they have 3 lanes; right, left, and one for you.Ah Alex, you know full well that the distances between two points on this poor benighted planet remain the same no matter how we measure them, even in degrees, minutes & seconds. Though speed will remain a Knot(ty) problem.
And while I plough my acres tomorrow I will give, brief, consideration as to whether I should start on the left or the right. And remember that in the part of England I was raised in we just drove down the middle
Use each one measuring as you like, at your own riskUs Britishers are right it's the rest of the world that's wrong.We're so clever we use both the metric and the imperial system and conversions are worked out in the head.
Most cars produced in the world have the steering wheel on the left side, for right side driving... Literally.Also it would be very difficult to drive on the right hand side of the road because that's the side of the steering wheel.
About the same in Canada. I am happy to be bilingual in that way. In 1975 I started engineering school. We did everything in metric and when a problem was assigned in Imperial units, we all groaned. The professors thought it was funny because every year in the past, the students groaned when a metric problem was assigned.In NZ we only changed officially to the metric system in 1976.
I suppose that dividing the scale into 100 units from freezing point to boiling point is what made it "metric."As an aside, is Celsius really metric? Just because freezing is set for zero doesn’t necessarily mean it’s metric does it?
I come from the States. I wish we’d have gone metric when we had a head of steam moving that direction in the seventies. I have to admit though that I much prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius. 90 degrees Fahrenheit just sounds hot. A funny thing happened to me when I walked the CF in 2015. By about halfway I was thinking in kilometers, not miles. I quit doing the conversions in my head. I’m slowly getting used to kilos and grams, although I still do conversions in my head for those.
As an aside, is Celsius really metric?
[/QUOTE]0 C is melting/freezing point. 100 is vapor point. Pretty metric.
because freezing is set for zero doesn’t necessarily mean it’s metric does it? Come to think of it, does metric even apply to temperature? Other things I’ve wondered about is why don’t we have a metric time system? If you’ve ever had to do time-based math you’ll know how frustrating it can be. Why is the globe divided up into 360 degrees? These are things I wonder about.
I come from the States. I wish we’d have gone metric when we had a head of steam moving that direction in the seventies.
I have to admit though that I much prefer Fahrenheit to Celsius. 90 degrees Fahrenheit just sounds hot.
Apparently it all started with the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians who used the segments of their fingers to count ... leading to a predilection for 12s and 60sOther things I’ve wondered about is why don’t we have a metric time system? If you’ve ever had to do time-based math you’ll know how frustrating it can be. Why is the globe divided up into 360 degrees? These are things I wonder about.
I've never found any of this confusing.
In the US we buy soda in 2 liter bottles, and wine in 750 ml bottles.
But at the movie theater and the drive thru, you buy it in 32 ounce cups.In the US we buy soda in 2 liter bottles, and wine in 750 ml bottles.
Milk in a UK supermarket is labelled in litres but milk delivered to your doorstep is bottled in pints. Draught beer in a pub is sold by the pint but bottled beers are marked in ml. Isn't that the obvious way to do it?
Yeah we beat him to the South Pole in 1911. But that is another story. Maybe Metric...with ever so grateful thanks to Herbert George Ponting. He who, thankfully, got along with Norwegians far better than his Captain: Scott.
This thread is making my head spin, and you're not helping any!We measure distances in miles. Petrol/Diesel in Litres. Do that in your head when the car lot salesman is talking mpg (miles per gallon).
We drink our beer in pints though we buy our Malt in Tonnes and our Hops in Kilos and brew using Bushels and Quarts.
We buy our 4/4 (4 inch by 4 inch) timber in metre length and our suiting fabric by the yard.
We weigh ourselves in Stones and Pounds, assess our rucksack capacity in Litres and get out the pocket conversion tables towork out 10% of overload.
I've never found any of this confusing.
And, as anyone who has consumed 10% more good English beer than they should have will know, it may be a mile to the pub but its a mile-and-a-half back
Not at all. Metric is easy - that is the whole point.....It's all worse than I ever thought!
Maybe, but I see a lot of "mix and match" going on!Not at all. Metric is easy - that is the whole point.
"Stone" is a unit not used in the US.
An inch was three barleycorns. A yard was the length of an arm. A rod was the length from fingertip to fingertip. (All very natural units.) Mile comes from Roman usage. Did you know there were two different kinds of ounces?
The metric system is a gift from the French, who also tried to impose a metric week (the day off coming once every ten days rather than every seven). Fortunately that innovation failed to take hold.
Let's go metric, please. Forget about yards, inches, miles, pounds, stones, and all other irrelevant and stoneage measures. Go metric.! I am so pleased you all (most non-fossils) agree!Maybe, but I see a lot of "mix and match" going on!
Hehe. My mathematics teacher did that too ...My engineering class had to do calculations in furlongs per fortnight.
I love metric and think all non-users should be conversant with it if they travel, but let's have some respect for the art form and quaintness of Imperial. Shall we perhaps debate the term "Imperial"?? Idiotic measures
I have two feet. Not 0.6096 meters, not even one full meter when, besides thermo meters, I have three actual meters at home: gas, water and electric.We have 10 fingers. 10 toes.
Well, I think of the USC and Imperial measurement systems as science rather than art, but I agree that people's emotional connection with the old units is a major reason for the difficulty in moving to the metric system. Especially in this populist era, people get really wound up over news stories that some foreign entity will require them to use unfamiliar units.Art form and quaintness
What do you think of the nautical mile? Not metric, but the NM corresponds to 1 minute of arc on any meridian, which is handy when you're in charge of a boat or a plane.What's a stone? What's a foot? What's an inch? A mile? How long is a foot? Idiotic measures...
What do you think of the nautical mile? Not metric, but the NM corresponds to 1 minute of arc on any meridian, which is handy when you're in charge of a boat or a plane.
I'm grateful that you put the smiley icons. Without them, I might assume that you're taking this too seriously.
Nothing we can't handle.Very interesting stuff coming through. I hadn’t realised Canada used kilometres! It must be confusing crossing the border to USA. ?
Measurements based on 12 have the advantage of being evenly divisible by 2, 3, and 4. Those based on 60 are evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 5.Apparently it all started with the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians who used the segments of their fingers to count ... leading to a predilection for 12s and 60s
I'm curious to know if this influenced the Chinese, who also had 12 hours and 12 months. Chinese astrology, for example, has a sixty year cycle (12 animal signs X 5 elements).
https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-are-there-24-hours-in-a-day-and-60-minutes-in-an-hour.html
There was an attempt to introduce decimal time, following the French Revolution. It didn't stick:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_time
My guess would be because very few of us are fluent in Aramaic.Why are we communicating in English about a Spanish saint who never spoke either language?
BrilliantI don't get it: Why don't we have common measurements? While the rest of the world is talking unified units, some places they measure all things outside the metric system.
Can't these countries please start measuring things in proper units (metric system), drive on the right side of the road, and respect the majority of the sane world?
This creates a lot of problems: how far is it from one village to the next, how much water do you need, how hot is it? I do not understand these measures, and I am in the vast majority of the world population. And still I have to translate our logical metric system to those who have no clue.
F.ex. Water freezes at 0 Celsius; 32 F. What is 32?
30F sounds hot to me. But it is 2 below the freezing point of water, so a little chilly... Snow in the air...
One km. is 1000 metres. 1 step is almost 1 metre. What could be difficult with that?
And how long is a foot? what is an inch? 2.54 cm. What does it MEAN? It is certainly within the metric system... What is an Oz???
In most countries, only drunk drivers drive on the left side of the road. In f.ex. England, I need a few pints before I can drive safely.
An expensive satellite was lost in a cooperation between USA and Europe because US course calculations were done in inches (!?) sic) instead of proper centrimetres, and the next course calculation done by the US went pretty wrong...
We have 10 fingers. 10 toes. the basics of the metric system. Please join us.
Please get it right, leftists...
You can by a car with the steering wheel at the other side .Also it would be very difficult to drive on the right hand side of the road because that's the side of the steering wheel.
A Spanish saint?Now, let's complain some more. Why are we communicating in English about a Spanish saint who never spoke either language?
Let's go metric, please. Forget about yards, inches, miles, pounds, stones, and all other irrelevant and stoneage measures. Go metric.! I am so pleased you all (most non-fossils) agree!
Hi ClareNothing we can't handle.
But if we go metric everyone can get their kicks by driving at 100 kph.Ahem.
Americans can not go metric.
If we Americans go metric we will also explode. For instance: 150 pounds becomes 68 kilograms. A visual weight lose of great proportion. Bring on the snacks and more and more until gosh darn it I’m back to original weight:150?
I’m keeping my pounds while losing those grams.
AbsolutelyBut, on Route 66?
There are probably more of us Yanks going the other direction.Nothing we can't handle.
I don't want to meet the person who has an arm span of 5 and half yards. A rod pole and perch is 5.5 yds or 1/4 of a chain, as everyone knows a cricket wicket is 22 yds longs or a chain, which is 1 tenth 0f a furlong. There you have it decimal amounts in the imperial system. There are 20 hundredweight in a ton obviously a hundredweight is not 100 of anything but actually 112 Pound or 8 stone. This means a UK ton is 2240lbs where as a metric tonne is 100Kg or 2204 lbs the US ton is only 2000 lbs. That seems like an easy number so they tend to use 40 000 lbs 8nstead of 20.tons. odd. Don't get me started on using cups for cooking. How can you use a volume measurement for some thing like cheese. The recipe called for 1 cup of cheddar grated. Does that I measure the cheese in a solid block is 300g and then grate it or do I grate some cheese to fill the cup about 50 g. Why are US pints only 80% of a normal pint. 8 pints in a gallon a gallon of water weighs 10 lbs therefore a pint weighs 1.25 lbs or 20 OZ.Count your blessings. My engineering class had to do calculations in furlongs per fortnight. "Stone" is a unit not used in the US.
An inch was three barleycorns. A yard was the length of an arm. A rod was the length from fingertip to fingertip. (All very natural units.) Mile comes from Roman usage. Did you know there were two different kinds of ounces?
The metric system is a gift from the French, who also tried to impose a metric week (the day off coming once every ten days rather than every seven). Fortunately that innovation failed to take hold.
I don't want to meet the person who has an arm span of 5 and half yards. A rod pole and perch is 5.5 yds or 1/4 of a chain, as everyone knows a cricket wicket is 22 yds longs or a chain, which is 1 tenth 0f a furlong. There you have it decimal amounts in the imperial system. There are 20 hundredweight in a ton obviously a hundredweight is not 100 of anything but actually 112 Pound or 8 stone. This means a UK ton is 2240lbs where as a metric tonne is 100Kg or 2204 lbs the US ton is only 2000 lbs. That seems like an easy number so they tend to use 40 000 lbs 8nstead of 20.tons. odd. Don't get me started on using cups for cooking. How can you use a volume measurement for some thing like cheese. The recipe called for 1 cup of cheddar grated. Does that I measure the cheese in a solid block is 300g and then grate it or do I grate some cheese to fill the cup about 50 g. Why are US pints only 80% of a normal pint. 8 pints in a gallon a gallon of water weighs 10 lbs therefore a pint weighs 1.25 lbs or 20 OZ.
This puzzled me on my first trip to the US until I realised that a US pint weighs 16 ounces, or one Imperial pound. Why an Imperial pint weighs 20 ounces is a mystery to me, but doubtless someone on this forum knows the answer!Why are US pints only 80% of a normal pint
And allotments are measured in rodsWe measure distances in miles. Petrol/Diesel in Litres. Do that in your head when the car lot salesman is talking mpg (miles per gallon).
We drink our beer in pints though we buy our Malt in Tonnes and our Hops in Kilos and brew using Bushels and Quarts.
We buy our 4/4 (4 inch by 4 inch) timber in metre length and our suiting fabric by the yard.
We weigh ourselves in Stones and Pounds, assess our rucksack capacity in Litres and get out the pocket conversion tables to work out 10% of overload.
I've never found any of this confusing.
And, as anyone who has consumed 10% more good English beer than they should have will know, it may be a mile to the pub but its a mile-and-a-half back
My question: Is it right that walkers should walk on the left side in Spain?
This is a question about safety for pilgrims.
Hi waka...think of the capital cost. All traffic lights and road signs would have to be changed almost immediately or swapped.Before I start I will apologise to out friends from Southern Ireland.
When we joined the EU there was talk about SI changing the the side of the road they drove on to fit in with the rest of the EU. It was announced that on the week of the change cars wold change sides on the Friday with lorries changing on there Saturday. I'm not sure why but this change never happened.
I live close to an airport where travellers hire cars...I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve met a vehicle travelling the wrong way after picking up a hire car!
We have 10 fingers. 10 toes. the basics of the metric system. Please join us.
Thats because in Aus we know 38’s not really hot we all know it has to be over 40 to be “really hot”.I agree. I remember spending a lot of time learning the metric system in 8th grade, because we were told that the switch was imminent.
Agreed. Likewise 100 degrees sounds a lot hotter than 38 degrees.
Everything over 40 is really hot!Thats because in Aus we know 38’s not really hot we all know it has to be over 40 to be “really hot”.
You must be a math whiz to have that little tidbit come to your mind!Measurements based on 12 have the advantage of being evenly divisible by 2, 3, and 4. Those based on 60 are evenly divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Who dem???Too many posts here to read them all carefully.. But let's face it..there are only two non-metric countries in the world, and seeing who they are and their attitude to the rest of us, clearly the rest of us are all either wrong or uncivilised.
Yup I grew up with the metric system and arrived in Canada in 1973. All my cookbooks were a challenge. I quickly attapted and stopped converting. My head was a jumble of 3 languages so why add more to it. Numbers is a language too. And then I go and marry a guy who loves to quote temperature in Kelvin.About the same in Canada. I am happy to be bilingual in that way. In 1975 I started engineering school. We did everything in metric and when a problem was assigned in Imperial units, we all groaned. The professors thought it was funny because every year in the past, the students groaned when a metric problem was assigned.
Now, over 40 years later, we still have a mixture. We use feet and pounds to measure our bodies, km on the road, Celsius for the weather, a mix for various other items. The conversion is slow but steady. It required a major government commitment.
I don't get it: Why don't we have common measurements? While the rest of the world is talking unified units, some places they measure all things outside the metric system.
Can't these countries please start measuring things in proper units (metric system), drive on the right side of the road, and respect the majority of the sane world?
This creates a lot of problems: how far is it from one village to the next, how much water do you need, how hot is it? I do not understand these measures, and I am in the vast majority of the world population. And still I have to translate our logical metric system to those who have no clue.
F.ex. Water freezes at 0 Celsius; 32 F. What is 32?
30F sounds hot to me. But it is 2 below the freezing point of water, so a little chilly... Snow in the air...
One km. is 1000 metres. 1 step is almost 1 metre. What could be difficult with that?
And how long is a foot? what is an inch? 2.54 cm. What does it MEAN? It is certainly within the metric system... What is an Oz???
In most countries, only drunk drivers drive on the left side of the road. In f.ex. England, I need a few pints before I can drive safely.
An expensive satellite was lost in a cooperation between USA and Europe because US course calculations were done in inches (!?) sic) instead of proper centrimetres, and the next course calculation done by the US went pretty wrong...
We have 10 fingers. 10 toes. the basics of the metric system. Please join us.
Please get it right, leftists...
Minus 33...wow!I love it and AGREE 100%. Canada established the metric system officially in 1971. It created a lot of issues with manufacturing machinery and tools for the US customers. I don’t know what 72F even feels like but this morning when I saw that it was -33C in Ottawa I knew my dog walk would be very short.
It was minus 3 here in Holland, the other 3 was blown away.Minus 33...wow!
Minus 33...wow!
We don’t talk mileage but kilomilageWhat word do those who measure distance in kilometres use when they talk ‘mileage’?
It was minus 3 here in Holland, the other 3 was blown away.
Sorry could not resist it .
What word do those who measure distance in kilometres use when they talk ‘mileage’?
Or how about how Subway is mostly about vegetarian, whether you want it or not! You have to ask for lots of the veggies to your sandwich, as they are real cheapskates when it comes to adding the meat...maybe just a piddly ounceAnd lets not even talk about Subway ripping us off with their 'foot long' ..which isn't, or their '6 inch'.. which also isn't! Taking advantage of the metric generations?!
I know, Kirkie! This is becoming almost as much fun as the "Not Serious" thread...the serious and the UNserious all blended together here!if you can't beat them...
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I did read the first 40 attentively. Then I saw there were 75. If I post this before someone else posts, that will be 95. OP, you picked a winner.
Is the answer similar to "Why does the chicken cross the road?"What word do those who measure distance in kilometres use when they talk ‘mileage’?
That might be considered cheating on an icy winter camino...no wonder we get so many crazy pilgrims claiming they love starting in January! In order to get their compostela, they have to prove they have not hidden ice skates in their backpacks!...or maybe not, as there is no one volunteering in the pilgrim office anyway so a stack is left on the counter and you just write in what you want...I wrote in 500 MILES on mine! Oops, I mean 799 kilometers!Ottawa is apparently the coldest “capital” city in the world (only the 3rd or 4th coldest city on earth) .....hence why i only visit a Ottawa for short periods. BTW Ottawa people skate on the 9 km long Rideau Canal in this weather
My brother-in-law was part of that group and he's from Chicago. He told me he golfed the worst game of his life in Scotland because although he's a right handed guy, they forced him to play left handed and his final score was a measly 13!I worked for a few months in a hotel in Scotland whose main customers were golfers from the USA. Part of their package deal was a hire car from Prestwick airport. Surprise number 1 was that the steering wheel was on the wrong side. Number 2 was that it had manual gears and a clutch which few of the guests had ever used. Then they had to leave the airport on the wrong side of the road. Where they met a roundabout - quite rare in the USA apparently - and had to work out whether to circle it clockwise or anti-clockwise. They did not always make the right choice. After a while the hotel staff learned to recognise from the bruises which guests had found adjusting to driving in the UK too difficult.
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