Pre metric still in use

[westminster]

GeoffW edit- this has been split off from another thread

Also interesting that peoples' heights, like babies' weights, are almost the last vestiges of the pre metric system still in common use.

Lol! Yup

The other pre metric thing I do is "penny for your thoughts"

 

[Dazz]

Also interesting that peoples' heights, like babies' weights, are almost the last vestiges of the pre metric system still in common use.

Perhaps for another thread....interesting sidetrack though :

• Cricket pitch is still 22 yards long. Approx. 20.117m
• Crude oil is still sold in barrels at 60 deg F. Approx. 158.987295 L
• In fact anything to do with the oil industry, pressures are all still in psi, torque in ft-lbs, volumes in bbls, and all the pipes and casing are all still manufactured in inches.
• Young men still try to skoll beer from a yard glass.
• Definitely heights of adults. The 6 ft mark seems to segregate tall from short.
• Definitely weights of babies. Tell someone a baby weighed 4.3kg and they'll give you a blank look. Tell 'em it was 9 pound 8 ounces and they'll all go - wow - that's big.
• Lots of bolt and nut heads are still in AF.
• Thugs still pick up a 4 by 2, not a 101.6mm x 50.8mm piece of wood.
• Fuel consumption is still spoken about in miles per gallon.

 

[geoffw]

Subway six inch & footlongs?

 

[The Y-man]

Thugs still pick up a 4 by 2, not a 101.6mm x 50.8mm piece of wood.

That is brilliant.

The Y-man

 

[pinkboy]

Gold in ounces!


pinkboy

 

[perthguy]

PSI is still common.

Also, doing some construction at the rental, I am surprised at how much stuff is still imperial... screws, bolts, drill bits etc. I have no idea what 7/32s means. mm is much easier to understand.

 

[marg4000]

I do patchwork and most patterns etc come from America which never went decimal. So it is still inches and yards in most cases.
Marg

 

[geoffw]

Anything aeronautical- altitude and distance- is in imperial.

I was in England some years ago. It appeared then that the switch to metric was rather half hearted. I saw a building under construction with beams marked on one side with an imperial measure and on another in metric.

 

[Tony3008]

Anything aeronautical- altitude and distance- is in imperial.

I was in England some years ago. It appeared then that the switch to metric was rather half hearted. I saw a building under construction with beams marked on one side with an imperial measure and on another in metric.

Half-hearted - car tyres are (say) 165x14 where 165 is IIRC the tread width in millimetres and 14 the rim diameter in inches.

 

[redwing]

Imperial.....Apparently in use by the United States of America, Liberia and Myanmar

And what's with the USA, Month, Day, Year thing

"..my belief, as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won."

US columnist Dave Barry

 

[Dazz]

as an American, is that if I have to start understanding the metric system, then the terrorists have won

....being a French thing, S.I. literally being System Internationale...the Americans are never going to roll over.

I read somewhere decades ago that it would cost the US to convert over way too many tens of Billions of dollars, and for what ?? So they conformed to what the French did, and confused the hell out of the bulk of their population.

I don't think they like the French that much....in fact I don't think they hold them in high regard at all.

Can't ever seeing it happen.

 

[lizzie]

Hubby went thru primary schooling (just) pre-metric - his dad was a builder so always talked in inches and feet for building products, rain, distance ... drives me nuts as I'm a metric gal and half the time have no idea what he's talking about.

 

[Blacky]

I don't mind. My old man always spoke in the old language, then I worked with old school farmers and fishermen - all talking acres, fathoms, feet, miles, etc. now I'm in the oil industry so can convert most things in my head pretty easily. Though have never managed to figure out nut/bolt sizes.

Baby weights are converting nowadays to kgs - I need to convert it back to pounds in order to know if its a big bub or not.

Blacky.

 

[geoffw]

Officially babies are in kg. When our younger was born they weighed her in kg and then looked up the conversion chart to tell us in pounds. I don't know about now though- she's 20yo.

 

[Scott No Mates]

My favourite builder's measurement is neither imperial nor metric, just common sense: the bee's d!kc defined as a very small measurement.

Pneumatics are measured in PSI - it is just simpler (even though we converted to the metric system back in 1970-ish, still taught at Uni in imperial)

I find bolt measurements easier and more common in mm but still will go back to a 3/8 screw

Gunpowder is measured in grains, wtf?

 

[redwing]

My favourite builder's measurement is neither imperial nor metric, just common sense: the bee's d!kc defined as a very small measurement.

How about...
A mickey's hair
A whisker
A country mile
Tad
Dollop
Smidgen
2/5th of F...A..
Heaps


Pneumatics are measured in PSI - it is just simpler (even though we converted to the metric system back in 1970-ish, still taught at Uni in imperial)

I find bolt measurements easier and more common in mm but still will go back to a 3/8 screw

I wouldn't go back to less than a 6

Gunpowder is measured in grains, wtf?

How about pints, pots, schooner,middies, longnecks etc

The height of a horse at its withers (shoulders) is measured in hands?

 

[joeExpat]

The obvious international measure that is stuck in imperial is feet in commercial aviation (not in sport aviation though). Everything else stuck in imperial is more Australian, my kids were born with a kilo weight, no idea about pounds and who cares about miles or farenheit, only a few countries stuck in the past.

 

[lizzie]

Had to laugh when half listening to daughter watching "horrible histories" yesterday.

In ye olde Britain ... the English mile was 6330 yards (or thereabout) whereas the Scottish mile was 7 thousand and something yards ... so when you crossed the boarder, you trip would take less time because it was less miles

Bit like the different gauge train lines across Australia