Metric only tape measures

[deema]

Im hoping that in a few short months we can consider returning to a proper system of weights and measures rather than the metric. There is a very good reason that the day is measured in 24 hours, 60 minutes in each hour and 60 seconds in each minute. For the same reason we had 12” in a foot etc etc. Our forefathers all had ten fingers and choose not to use the unit of ten for a very good reason.

 

[MikeG.]

Im hoping that in a few short months we can consider returning to a proper system of weights and measures rather than the metric........

That would be the most ridiculous retro-grade step imaginable.Here is a mapof the countries on the planet not using the metric system. Do you really think we should be joining Myanmar, Liberia, and the USA? Yep, that's it. All the rest are using the same system.

 

[MattRoberts]

Im hoping that in a few short months we can consider returning to a proper system of weights and measures rather than the metric. There is a very good reason that the day is measured in 24 hours, 60 minutes in each hour and 60 seconds in each minute. For the same reason we had 12” in a foot etc etc. Our forefathers all had ten fingers and choose not to use the unit of ten for a very good reason.

In the hope that we'd develop 12, 24 or 60 fingers?

 

[Tasky]

Our forefathers all had ten fingers and choose not to use the unit of ten for a very good reason.

Most people count to ten with their fingers, and yet each of your four fingers has three 'divisions'... and I've seen people counting on those 'pads' up to 12!!

Do you really think we should be joining Myanmar, Liberia, and the USA? Yep, that's it. All the rest are using the same system.

Does your local serve 568.261ml?
No?
That's why.

 

[MikeG.]

So you'd stuff up our international trade just because pubs sell beer in certain size glasses. I see........

 

[Tasky]

So you'd stuff up our international trade just because pubs sell beer in certain size glasses. I see........

Going to war over beer..... sounds reasonable to me.
But then, most foreign nations speak more than one language - Why should we be any different?

I have several metric-only friends who puppy about Imperial measures... Their capacity to estimate in metric measures is woefully inadequate and inaccurate, despite being older and more experienced in it. But more interesting is how accurate they are when attempting Imperial, especially by accident.

"Oh, it's as long as a six-inch ruler"....
So 15 centimetres, then?
"No no, this long [shows with fingers], see. A six-inch ruler"....
Facepalm.

 

[MikeG.]

.........I have several metric-only friends.. Their capacity to estimate in metric measures is woefully inadequate and inaccurate, despite being older and more experienced in it. But more interesting is how accurate they are when attempting Imperial, especially by accident.

"Oh, it's as long as a six-inch ruler"....
So 15 centimetres, then?
"No no, this long [shows with fingers], see. A six-inch ruler"....
Facepalm.

Don't fall into the trap of building a case on such a small sample. There are plenty of people all over the world who estimate perfectly well in metric. I've just returned from a building site in Spain, where they were estimating perfectly well in metric (centimetres, which was a bit annoying as architects work in milimetres......ho hum.....). I reckon to estimate within 5% accuracy using either Imperial or Metric, and don't forget, I'm an old fogey brought up on Imperial. Who is going to get the following right first, though.....divide a piece of wood 1105mm / 3'-7 1/2" long into 7 even lengths?

 

[Tasky]

Don't fall into the trap of building a case on such a small sample. There are plenty of people all over the world who estimate perfectly well in metric.

I perhaps should have been clearer - These are people who were born into metric and have lived nothing but for 50-75 years.
Many couldn't even tell you how many inches are in a foot... and yet their Imperial estimation is far more precise than their native metric.

Who is going to get the following right first, though.....divide a piece of wood 1105mm / 3'-7 1/2" long into 7 even lengths?

Oh metric is by far the simpler method for that, sure... Roman numerals were excellent for counting, but pretty complex for arithmetic, so they used different systems for different things... and were pretty decent builders as a result.

Imperial still has its place , just as does Roman numerals, the 12hr clock, sheep counting systems, tally marks and many other such things. No need to get rid of them.

 

[MikeJhn]

But wouldn't it be easier if we all stuck to the same system, NASA would not have lost a lander if the vector force's had been clear and not had two different mixed force analysis form two different countries.

 

[transatlantic]

But wouldn't it be easier if we all stuck to the same system, NASA would not have lost a lander if the vector force's had been clear and not had two different mixed force analysis form two different countries.

I find it quite hard to believe that highly accurate scientific equipment is being designed in imperial. Baffling

 

[MikeJhn]

Transatlantic

There not, it was just an analogy to demonstrate what happens when two different companies work in different units i.e. m/sec vs m/min, or was it m/hr can't quite remember the unit mix up, but it happened and caused the loss of a multi million dollar space lander, if I remember it was supposed to land on Saturn.

Mike

 

[MikeG.]

........ if I remember it was supposed to land on Saturn........

Not Saturn. It was Mars.

 

[novocaine]

it was the Mars climate orbiter and it wasn't meant to land. the lockheed produced guidance system output in non SI units even though NASA had stipulated SI in the contract.
lb/s instead of N/s of thrust. it ran to close to the planet and was pulled in to the atmosphere. lockheed got a roasting for it, but NASA is who is remembered.

I'd suggest that those who can't estimate in metric but are fine in imperial are quite likely not working in trade and base their size estimates on what their parents used as they grew up, things like 6" is from thumb to fore finger tip, 12" is a span, thumb tip is 1" etc.. I work in both, I'm better in metric because my dad was a fitter and welder and had to work in both. my wife can't judge in metric because her dad was a history teacher who presents everything in imperial.

 

[Jacob]

Im hoping that in a few short months we can consider returning to a proper system of weights and measures rather than the metric. There is a very good reason that the day is measured in 24 hours, 60 minutes in each hour and 60 seconds in each minute. For the same reason we had 12” in a foot etc etc. Our forefathers all had ten fingers and choose not to use the unit of ten for a very good reason.

Absolutely.
The duodecimal system evolved for the convenience of people who make and measure things, with a pair of dividers as the key precision tool before measurements were standardised.
Decimal system was evolved from people who count things (a.k.a. accountants) originally with their fingers and toes for reference.
We shouldn't have let the accountants win the argument.
Wouldn't have been a problem if accountants had had 12 fingers instead of ten, but that only happens in Norfolk.
Roll on Brexit and we can dump the metric system at long last!
Apparently Farage has 6 toes on each hand. This could explain a lot.

 

[sickasapike]

So you'd stuff up our international trade just because pubs sell beer in certain size glasses. I see........

Yeah, you'd think so but... I went to a modern bar the other day, one that used to be a nice pub but was done up with the usual process of remove all personality, add small square tabkes and dining chairs in regimented columns, chuck a leather chair or two in the corners and switch the food menu to one with words like 'jus' and 'medeley', with nothing under 8 quid.

They had beers with prices on a blackboard, fiver or so each. I ordered a pint of something and was asked 'would you like a full pint ?', odd I thought... maybe she didn't catch the most common word spoken over a bar counter... yes please I said, and was told it was 7 quid something - they aparrently serve 2/3rd pints as standard, and that's what the fiver price was for.

We left and went to a proper pub. I'm all for the metric system but since we still use pints, posting the 2/3rd pint price as the headline is just downright underhand!

 

[MikeJhn]

Not sure of my ground here, but I think that is against the trading standard laws, you have to display the cost of any beverage being sold as the standard measure is a pint the displayed price should be for that measure, are they selling spirits in 1/12 of a gill?

Mike

 

[MikeG.]

........Roll on Brexit and we can dump the metric system at long last!..........

I'll bet your house that this doesn't happen. No chance. Nobody in their right mind is advocating it.

 

[MikeJhn]

It will be the other way around, in the US the adoption of the metric system has already gone through the Senate, just google it all the information is there.

Mike

 

[novocaine]

Not sure of my ground here, but I think that is against the trading standard laws, you have to display the cost of any beverage being sold as the standard measure is a pint the displayed price should be for that measure, are they selling spirits in 1/12 of a gill?

Mike

nope, 1/3 1/2 or multiple there of.

 

[Tasky]

Not sure of my ground here, but I think that is against the trading standard laws, you have to display the cost of any beverage being sold as the standard measure is a pint the displayed price should be for that measure, are they selling spirits in 1/12 of a gill?
Mike

Things like a Pint and a Quarter-Pounder are regarded more like brand names than actual measures.

However, you can sell a Pint as two half-pints...
https://www.gov.uk/weights-measures-and ... quantities