EU gives up on metric Britain

[Purple & Green]

BBC NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Is it really that big a deal whether we use imperial or metric?

[Brainwrong]

Originally Posted by Purple & Green

BBC NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Is it really that big a deal whether we use imperial or metric?

I have absolutely no idea how to guage things in metric terms. I can only remember imperial from school, not metric. I assume this is due to the fact that all the adults I knew/know explained every measurment to me in imperial so I had/have no concept of metric.

[SG7nil]

Originally Posted by Purple & Green

BBC NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Is it really that big a deal whether we use imperial or metric?

Nope, should make no difference, however I think that Metric systems are far easier to use. They would therefore be easier for kids to understand at school and in a few generations time I can't see old imperial units being used much.

The old units were randomly assigned and did not readily convert into units of different types, whereas the SI units were designed to be far more easliy used by industry and science without the need for physical constants to be used to create the new unit.

For example, make a box 10cm x 10cm x 10cm... fill it with water.. that's a litre... it weighs a Kilogram... couldn't be easier...

Try and do that with inches, Pints and ounces/pounds/stones.... I remember vaguely from my old primary school days trying to do division of things in Pounds and Ounces.. nightmare.. and counting currency when there's 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound! Madness.

As for miles...(who cares how far an old roman legion could march using 1000 (mille in Latin) double paces!) they had their uses and I'd certainly not be spending a lot of money changing signs just for the sake of it, but I'd make sure that all new signs had the distances in both Miles and Kilometres.

[Brainwrong]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Nope, should make no difference, however I think that Metric systems are far easier to use. They would therefore be easier for kids to understand at school and in a few generations time I can't see old imperial units being used much.

The old units were randomly assigned and did not readily convert into units of different types, whereas the SI units were designed to be far more easliy used by industry and science without the need for physical constants to be used to create the new unit.

For example, make a box 10cm x 10cm... fill it with water.. that's a litre... it weighs a Kilogram... couldn't be easier...

Try and do that with inches, Pints and ounces/pounds/stones.... I remember vaguely from my old primary school days trying to do division of things in Pounds and Ounces.. nightmare.. and counting currency when there's 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound! Madness.

As for miles...(who cares how far an old roman legion could march using 1000 (mille in Latin) double paces!) they had their uses and I'd certainly not be spending a lot of money changing signs just for the sake of it, but I'd make sure that all new signs had the distances in both Miles and Kilometres.

Wasn't that what was supposed to start happening in the 70s?

[Colr]

Prefer metric. I was educated in metric. The building industry went across to metric in the late 1960s. The property industry still used imperial. This has just been myopic political inertia. The road signs could have been gradually replaced with metric and imperial over the last 40 odd years. People aren't going to get used to it unless they use it.

[Briant]

Originally Posted by Purple & Green

BBC NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Is it really that big a deal whether we use imperial or metric?

Do what the BBC does and use both.

I think it was Michaels Owen's goal last weekend that the graphic measured as being hit from 21 metres (ie just outside the 18 yard box) and travelling at a speed of 51 MPH (cant remember the speed so I just made one up, but it was definitely in MPH)

[Colr]

Originally Posted by Briant

Do what the BBC does and use both.

I think it was Michaels Owen's goal last weekend that the graphic measured as being hit from 21 metres (ie just outside the 18 yard box) and travelling at a speed of 51 MPH (cant remember the speed so I just made one up, but it was definitely in MPH)

I've heard joiners asking for a couple of metres of 4 by 2.

[SG7nil]

Part of my previous job was using large industrial laser printers... roll feeds of paper that had to be loaded using fork lift type equipment etc.

Did you know that paper sizes are in inches (for the paper height) and in millimetres for the width? It's to do with the sprocket holes down the side of the paper which have always been spaced at 1/2 inch intervals.. to change these to a round size in millimetres would involve re jigging millions of machines worldwide, so the paper sizes are likely ro remain in a combination of both unit types for the foreseable future.

[Briant]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

Part of my previous job was using large industrial laser printers... roll feeds of paper that had to be loaded using fork lift type equipment etc.

Did you know that paper sizes are in inches (for the paper height) and in millimetres for the width? It's to do with the sprocket holes down the side of the paper which have always been spaced at 1/2 inch intervals.. to change these to a round size in millimetres would involve re jigging millions of machines worldwide, so the paper sizes are likely ro remain in a combination of both unit types for the foreseable future.

That's just paper talk






I'll get my coat

[Peevemor]

Originally Posted by Colr

Prefer metric. I was educated in metric. The building industry went across to metric in the late 1960s. The property industry still used imperial. This has just been myopic political inertia. The road signs could have been gradually replaced with metric and imperial over the last 40 odd years. People aren't going to get used to it unless they use it.

Not really.

Dimensions may be noted in metres/millimetres, but the components themselves remain largely imperial, ie. standard internal door - 762 x 1981mm (2'6" x 6'6"), sheet of plasterboard - 1220 X 2440mm (4'0" x 8'0"), standard drainage pipes - 32mm, 38mm, 50mm, 62mm, 102mm (1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 4"). The list is endless.

If things are changing at all, it's mainly due to imported goods and materials, though even now, by way of an example, plumbers still make a huge song and dance about fitting sanitaryware from outwith the UK.

[Colr]

Originally Posted by Peevemor

Not really.

Dimensions may be noted in metres/millimetres, but the components themselves remain largely imperial, ie. standard internal door - 762 x 1981mm (2'6" x 6'6"), sheet of plasterboard - 1220 X 2440mm (4'0" x 8'0"), standard drainage pipes - 32mm, 38mm, 50mm, 62mm, 102mm (1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 4"). The list is endless.

If things are changing at all, it's mainly due to imported goods and materials, though even now, by way of an example, plumbers still make a huge song and dance about fitting sanitaryware from outwith the UK.

This is true. hence the incredably useful Metric Handbook which is sitting on my desk at the moment.

[hibs1986]

Originally Posted by SG7nil

For example, make a box 10cm x 10cm x 10cm... fill it with water.. that's a litre... it weighs a Kilogram... couldn't be easier... Try and do that with inches, Pints and ounces/pounds/stones.... I remember vaguely from my old primary school days trying to do division of things in Pounds and Ounces.. nightmare.. and counting currency when there's 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound! Madness.

.

I never knew that. Thanks! I can reassure myself that the Bounce is an educational tool, instead of agonising about the length of time I waste.....

On the OP, the half-arsed way that metric has been introduced is a nuisace IMO - like the poster above (don't know how to multi-quote), although I was taught exclusively in metric, my life took place in imperial. The result is that metric measurements mean little to me (in real terms), and the calculations for imperial don't come naturally. So I don't have full grasp of either system.

If it had been done properly 3 decades ago, we'd all be comfortable with it now. Those of you with jobs involving maths / measurement etc...are probably sorted with this already, but the rest of us have been let down by the failure to seize the bull by the horns. That's what I think, anyway.

[TariqE]

Originally Posted by hibs1986

I never knew that. Thanks! I can reassure myself that the Bounce is an educational tool, instead of agonising about the length of time I waste.....

It gets better.....1ml of water (which is 1 cubic centimetre of water and weighs 1 gram) requires 1 joule of heat energy to increase it's temperature by 1 degree centigrade.....

[greencol]

Originally Posted by Peevemor

Not really.

Dimensions may be noted in metres/millimetres, but the components themselves remain largely imperial, ie. standard internal door - 762 x 1981mm (2'6" x 6'6"), sheet of plasterboard - 1220 X 2440mm (4'0" x 8'0"), standard drainage pipes - 32mm, 38mm, 50mm, 62mm, 102mm (1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2", 2 1/2", 4"). The list is endless.

If things are changing at all, it's mainly due to imported goods and materials, though even now, by way of an example, plumbers still make a huge song and dance about fitting sanitaryware from outwith the UK.

Plumbers make a huge song & dance about fitting 'foreign' sanitaryware because it is inferior shite!

& the stuff that isn't inferior shite is usually double the price of british 'ware' of similar quality.

Back to the metric/imperial debate.
I was schooled in imperial & find the metric system quite hard, probably because i find myself [even after all these years] trying to convert one to the other.
After you spend 12 years at school where you are told there are 240 pennies in a pound, 1,760 yards in a mile etc, counting in tens seems hard.
I still say 'half inch copper' & 1" 1/4 waste pipe.
Silly i know but thats how it is for some.

[Peevemor]

Originally Posted by Colr

This is true. hence the incredably useful Metric Handbook which is sitting on my desk at the moment.

The worst of it is, living and working in metric Franceland as I do, is that the feckers use feckin' centimetres all the time. Some drawings you see have dimensions in m, cm and mm, total feckin' bordel as they say.

In the UK talking about feet and inches is fine, but using centimetres is definitely, and quite rightly, a sackable offence.

[Peevemor]

Originally Posted by greencol

Plumbers make a huge song & dance about fitting 'foreign' sanitaryware because it is inferior shite!

& the stuff that isn't inferior shite is usually double the price of british 'ware' of similar quality.

Back to the metric/imperial debate.
I was schooled in imperial & find the metric system quite hard, probably because i find myself [even after all these years] trying to convert one to the other.
After you spend 12 years at school where you are told there are 240 pennies in a pound, 1,760 yards in a mile etc, counting in tens seems hard.
I still say 'half inch copper' & 1" 1/4 waste pipe.
Silly i know but thats how it is for some.

What are your thoughts on fitting a shower tray with a 2" waste?

Nah, in fact I agree with you.

Although i was schooled in metric, I think in imperial. I think that the inch is a far more natural size than say a mm or a cm. If you ask someone to hold their thumb and forefinger an inch apart, most people can do it pretty accurately straight away. When doing the same thing for a centimetre, a lot of people will get there in the end, but only after adjusting their initial estimate a couple of times.

No smutty responses please guys!

[persevered]

Originally Posted by Peevemor

The worst of it is, living and working in metric Franceland as I do, is that the feckers use feckin' centimetres all the time. Some drawings you see have dimensions in m, cm and mm, total feckin' bordel as they say.

In the UK talking about feet and inches is fine, but using centimetres is definitely, and quite rightly, a sackable offence.

Imperial measurements should be phased out. They are don't really make much sense.

[brianmac]

The railway uses miles and yards (maybe chains in part of England) then measures jobs in metres.

Have also been on jobs on the railway which are, along the lines of, 1 mile and 45 metres long.

[Colr]

Originally Posted by Peevemor

The worst of it is, living and working in metric Franceland as I do, is that the feckers use feckin' centimetres all the time. Some drawings you see have dimensions in m, cm and mm, total feckin' bordel as they say.

In the UK talking about feet and inches is fine, but using centimetres is definitely, and quite rightly, a sackable offence.

Alway mm and m in design but people in the real world seem to mprefer centimeters - maybe because thats how we are brought up.

[Colr]

Originally Posted by persevered

Imperial measurements should be phased out. They are don't really make much sense.

I'd go with that.

[Peevemor]

Originally Posted by Colr

Alway mm and m in design but people in the real world seem to mprefer centimeters - maybe because thats how we are brought up.

I work in design and the feckers use cm too.