Metric or Imperial

[Crona]

Can anyone please clarify which one is the official system that is used today? Metric or Imperial?

Temperature: Celsius or Fahrenheit?

Road signs: Do they display miles or kilometers?

Height: Meters, centimeters or feet, inches?

Weight: Stones, pounds or kilograms?

Some people are using metric, some imperial and some (like me) both

What do they teach at schools these days?

None system is wrong or right (both give the same result). Just curious....

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Don't be ridiculous Crona - imperial of course!

[Crona]

he he...its not a competition

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

But logically, if we admit metric, Napoleon won after all.

[Asset]

metric is being taught in schools: centimetres and metres as measurement; kilos and grammes for weights, celsius for temp, (have you seen the BBC weather giving the equivalent fahrenheit in the last few years?). For some bizarre reason we still have distance measured in miles but not for much longer I'm sure.

I don't really care which one is used as it is all relative (ha ha). Consistency is the thang.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

No one's gonna take my pint from me. Radio London still gives temperature in farenheit and celsius and it's a pretty easy rough calculation anyway: double it and add 30.

Last time I looked horses were still measured in hands and arks in cubits, an eminently manmade measure and still effective.

[EDOldie]

I've got a small number of very old plans of houses in Dulwich where the land is measured in acres, rods and poles.

'Rods, poles, perches and roods were all rather confused. They could all be a measure of length (5.5 yards). Rods, poles and perches could also be a measure of area (5.5 yards square, or 30.25 square yards). So a 10 perch allotment would be 5.5 yards wide by 55 yards long. A rood could be a measure of area (1210 square yards). The dictionary also cheerfully states that this could vary round the country'

Maybe the short guy was right. Vive la France!!

[HonaloochieB]

I say we only use metric, it's what the drug dealers seem to prefer and I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to go upsetting them.

[macroban]

Over the years my 16oz tin of baked beans has shrunk from 454g to 425g.

[EDOldie]

Decimilation means Inflation. Ten into twelve does not go. Well,it does, it's 1.2, but you see what I mean. The duo decimal system had many advantages most of them far too complex for the average forum user to understand. Most forumites have difficulty using more than their ten fingers and some have complications over two. Anyway, we should get back to our imperial (good word that eh?) system. We currently have two systems, does ?5.35 a gallon sound worse than ?1.19 a litre. I think so missus.

[Asset]

Honaloochie - Combustibles = pounds and ounces but class A is always grammes (Kilos if you're wealthy).

[EDOldie]

Exactly what I mean, wouldn't the average druggie prefer an ounce of coke to a gram? Lets bring back imperial.

[HonaloochieB]

I appear to have wandered into a showing of Scarface. Informative though.

[Bellenden Belle]

I only ever think of my weight in terms of stones (too many to mention) but the few times I go to the gym the equipment demands kgs - I always punch any old number in - so sometimes I do a programme for someone sixteen stone; sometimes closer to five stone.

Doesn't make much difference... whatever the programme I'm beetroot within five minutes and collapsed within twenty.

Of course when it's cold I think in minus figures and when it's warm fahrenheit. So I'm fickle - it's a woman's prerogative, right?

[Huguenot]

Base 10. You know it makes sense.

454 to 425 has nothing to do with measurement stylees. You're just being ripped off.

Stones, pounds and ounces are just silly, Base 12, Base 14 and Base 16...?? It's pointlessly complex. Geriatrics are just aggrieved that they spent so long gaining expertise in something that a slightly more intelligent generation waved bye-bye to. ;-)

Miles? Base 1764. Stupid.

Base 10. Base 10.

[macroban]

Don't like "Base 16"?

Get rid of your PC.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I swear I'm going to kill someone with salmonella one day. Twenty mins per pound plus twenty mins is ridiculously easy to calculate for roasting a chook

Similarly, one spoon of tea per person plus one for the pot is simple; or six oz of flour, six of butter, six of sugar and three eggs can make the fluffiest cakes (or 4/4/4/2 for a 7" tin).

Why complicate it with metric?

[And Roger Bannister would be turning in his grave!]

[And "How many miles to Babylon?" would become 112.65380 kilometres! Not a very romantic measurement.]

[OutOfFocus]

My other bete noir is year numbers at school. Year 11 - what's that in proper momey (N'th Form)

[Bellenden Belle]

Oh god yes Andrew- that is so true.... I was teaching earlier this year and it completely stumped me the whole time. My friend "would say he's year 11" and my brain would automatcally go "wow, twenty-one years old and he still can't fathom a pronoun".

I am so stuck in my ways.

[Brendan]

There?s a little place called The Rest of the World where they have been using the metric system very effectively for quite some time now.

Well except in America but personally I think America is just a made up place anyway.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Is that why South Africans can't judge 22 yards?

[Muttley]

AndrewDBlack Wrote:

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> My other bete noir is year numbers at school.

> Year 11 - what's that in proper momey (N'th Form)

Most schools are still 'bilingual', in that they'll refer to Year 11s, but also to the 'sixth form'. A shortcut I use is to add 4 to the Year number to get the age of (most of) the pupils in a class. So Year 11s are 15 (= the fifth form).

[dc]

Peckhamgatecrasher Wrote: And Roger Bannister would be turning in his grave!

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I imagine he would given that he's not dead yet: Dead or Alive? Roger Bannister

On a slightly more serious point, buying petrol in litres allows us to realise that it is now more expensive in France that it is in the UK and that there is therefore no point in 'filling up' before heading home through the tunnel.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Ooh, I'm blushing. Sorry Sir Roger.

(Was obviously thinking of Chris Brasher)

[david_carnell]

Considering I studied metric for all of my school years I still measure my height in feet and inches. I have nooo idea what it might be in centimetres.

Like an earlier poster, hot weather in faranheit (100 degrees = hot) but cold weather in celsius (-anything = bloody cold)

Weight in either - stones or kg. All lower weights in kgs and grams. I've no idea what an ounce is, although an 1/8th was quite common at uni.