1.22 mts (4ft)

[ongolo]

Re: Well for one thing

Wrong on that one,

of the 700 odd Million Europeans, only the british are using the Imperial System plus the 260 or so Million Americans, makes it worldwide less than 400 Million, that is 7% or so of the world population.

Now tell me how do you write 467,89mm +0.37/-0.29mm tolerance? In fractions please. Because thou is a metric bastardisation of the imperial system. When Withworth invented the screw cutting lathe, there were no thou. That came later because better precision was required.

regards ongolo


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[Twister_Ken]

Talking of which (Fahreheit)

I still remember (just) that 32F is the freezing point of water, but what does 0F (the start point of the Fahreheit scale) represent?

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[charles_reed]

Re: Well for one thing

As I pointed out I use both, whichever is more appropriate.

I think we have both overlooked the rest of the "white" ex-Commomwealth adding to the imperial users.

The metric system does make for easier math though.

By the bye what's wrong with good old, rod, pole and perch, never mind the furlong, which is a basic neccessity to understand the acre.

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[sailorman]

Re:Have to show we are playing the game

not any more plaster bd metric 1.2 x 2.4
ply wood still imperial
its a funny ole world

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[charles_reed]

Re: Talking of which (Fahrenheit)

The coldest point a to which the poor misguided german bu**er could get down to, by mixing salt and ice to produce an endothermic reaction.

Boiling point was supposed to be 200 degrees, but his experimental methodology was pretty slapdash. He's usually held up to young scientists as a glowing example of how not to do things.

And people still use the system....

Perhaps it's got something to do with the Brits always having a soft spot for the underdog, or was it that Saxe-Coburg chap coming over here?

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[sailorman]

Re: Well for one thing

charles i to use both in my work but my point is really related to written articles in
i.p.c. mags.
it drives me to distraction & spoiles the flow of the written word.
one would think that after 32 yrs of metrication most of us would have the hang of it.

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[charles_reed]

<<Wether you like it or not, the metric system is far superior. Thank to Napolon, we have it>>
The work was, I think you'll find, done under the Directorate some 14 years before the Corsican started to exploit the poor French to pander to his megalomania.

If anything is useless it will, in due course, fall into desuetude. meanwhile we have far too many telling us what to do and demanding we pay them for the privelege.

An over-governed world will soon become ungovernable.



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[charles_reed]

By now

people should be able to work out how long the peice of string is, without having it spelt out for them.

Couldn't agree more, but I still sometimes find myself working things out in ft/lbs!!!

I think they call them legacy systems?

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[charles_reed]

Le livre

was the pre-revolution measure of weight and was exactly the same as the English one.

When I first went to the marché in Concarneau in the early 60s nearly all the more mature lady stallholders referred to livres (one or two) but seldom if ever to a kilogramme (which was of course a dastardly parisian imposition).

To further cause embarrassment they were still quoting prices in the old franc!!

You should read Fernand Braudel's "L'Identitie de la France", it's a wonderful eyeopener. You'll realise that there's really no such thing as a Frenchman, except in the eye of their politicians.

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[ongolo]

You are probably correct about the 14 years, but I am referring to the rest of Europe, where Napoleon conqured, he said "you are metric".

In Germany at that time, the was the Bavarian Zoll (inch), the Prussian "l, Badische ", Hannoveranische" and many others. the longest Zoll (inch) (quoting from memory) was 31 odd mm long and the shortest 18.6mm long (fairly sure on the last one). Imagine if that had prevailed??

I have an interesting book WEIGHTS AND MEASURES it is scary to read this, technolicical advancement and trade would not exist as we know it today.

good night

ongolo


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[Twister_Ken]

That\'s scary

>good night
ongolo<

How did you know I was about to go to bed?

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[Gunfleet]

Re: Talking of which (Fahreheit)

The freezing point of the wife.

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[ongolo]

Re: That\'s scary

Good morning Ken,

Have you not noticed that I know a lot of things. Sort of. I work for many secret organisations. I also work for the FBI. You know what it stands for?

Female Body Inspector.

Regards ongolo

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[longjohnsadler]

Re: That\'s scary

Well, Kim is head of the dreaded STASI
(Scuttlebutt Team Against Smut and Innuendo).

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[Joe_Cole]

Let's do it properly and metricate Time as well. That'll sort out the rail timetables.

Joe

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[Twister_Ken]

I\'ve always found...

...360 degrees in a circle to be totally non-intuitive as well. Why not 1000 degrees to a kilocircle?

"Steer 4.25 centicircles, helmsperson"

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[ongolo]

Re: I\'ve always found...

Good idea Ken,

But who is going to rewrite all sin/cosine/ tables, reprogram the firmware in all calculators, rewrite all CAD programms etc. Lets do it.

regards ongolo


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[celandine]

Ongolo

The beauty of the Imperial system was/is that you were always able to choose the units appropriate to the task in hand, and by doing so, large unwieldy numbers were easily avoided. For example, you might sell spices by the ounce, cement by the CWT, and coal by the ton. Likewise a joiner would work in inches, but a farmer would measure his fields in yards or furlongs. The result was that the moderately innumerate such as me, would rarely have to deal with numbers more than three figures, i.e. as soon as you have too many furlongs you would switch to miles: result - easy maths.

Talking of maths, the route 10 of the metric system is only divisible by 2 and 5, whereas the route 12 often used in imperial systems is divisible by 2,3,4, and 6.

Has anyone noticed that the scientific community have relatively recently chosen a new unit appropriate to astronomy, and lo and behold it's an imperiel or non-metric unit of distance - the "light-year"; consequently the distance from my desk to the star Alpha Centauri is an easily manageable 4 1/2 light years. What would that be in your awful kilometres. And anyway didn't Napoleon get it wrong, and thus the wretched kilometre is actually based on an erroneous measurment of the Earth's circumference.

Mick

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[Jeremy_W]

An absolute classic

In the current YM they were quoting the rule that Hull speed (knots) = SQRT(2 * LWL (in feet)). They metricated the LWL into metres but didn't change the speed into km/h or alter the constant.
This gave the interesting result 8.33 = SQRT(22)! Shall we give them a smiley face in their maths workbook anyway?

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[Gunfleet]

Re: Le livre

My neighbours in Britanny still talked 'old francs' for major purchases in the 1990s. Something was quoted as so many 'million'.

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