StugeronSteve
Well-Known Member
Re: Brendan - n\'est ce pas!
Or was he just a cunning linguist?
<hr width=100% size=1>Semper Bufo
Or was he just a cunning linguist?
<hr width=100% size=1>Semper Bufo
Metrication
- Thread starter BlueSkyNick
- Start date
extravert
Well-Known Member
I think we should all have boats that are measured in metres as well, made compulsary in the RCD. None of this 302, 36, 38, 442 etc. tomfoolery. I've never owned an imperial boat, and proud to be nautically metric. My metric boats...
Extravert 7
X99
Dragonfly 920
It shoud be applied retrospectively as well. All Bavaria 38's now to be known as Bavaria 115824's. Puff, rant.
<hr width=100% size=1>One day, I want to be a real sailor. In the mean time I'll just keep tri-ing.
Extravert 7
X99
Dragonfly 920
It shoud be applied retrospectively as well. All Bavaria 38's now to be known as Bavaria 115824's. Puff, rant.
<hr width=100% size=1>One day, I want to be a real sailor. In the mean time I'll just keep tri-ing.
DJE
Well-Known Member
I think it started as a fraction of the the distance from the equator to the pole. These days it is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second.
<hr width=100% size=1>Better to keep one's mouth shut and be considered a fool than open it and remove all possible doubt.
<hr width=100% size=1>Better to keep one's mouth shut and be considered a fool than open it and remove all possible doubt.
Gunfleet
Well-Known Member
How logical. How I wish I were of a superior intellect, like a Frenchman or even Lord Howe. The decimal system is so much better than boring old fractions. Who counts the 1/299792458ths of a second? And would it be more logical to express it as a co-efficient of a second, or a log? After all we don't want to get trapped into using stupid old fashioned fractions like 1/299792458!
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mirabriani
Well-Known Member
Despite metrication for umpteen years I still hear of building inspectors refer to a piece of 4 by 2 and similar.
It was the same with a road which the local council, in their infinite wisdom, decided to rename, was still known locally as "The Avenue" 20 years later.
Or Harty Ferry on the Swale. There has been no ferry since before the war.
It must be an English quirk.
Briani
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It was the same with a road which the local council, in their infinite wisdom, decided to rename, was still known locally as "The Avenue" 20 years later.
Or Harty Ferry on the Swale. There has been no ferry since before the war.
It must be an English quirk.
Briani
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Scaramoosh
Well-Known Member
The mix between metric and imperial can often lead to red faces:
Nasa's Mars Climate Orbitor mission went down in style,
Stunned mission managers were forced to admit that a math error had been made. While engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) had used metric measurements (newtons), engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, the prime contractor for the mission, had used English units (pounds) to measure the strength of Climate Orbiter thruster firings. Result new Crater on Planet surface and I think a little more than value of all the boats in Port Solent (both the Raggie and Stinkpot varieties) down the drain.
Still they were Rocket Scientists not Boaters after all!
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Nasa's Mars Climate Orbitor mission went down in style,
Stunned mission managers were forced to admit that a math error had been made. While engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) had used metric measurements (newtons), engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, the prime contractor for the mission, had used English units (pounds) to measure the strength of Climate Orbiter thruster firings. Result new Crater on Planet surface and I think a little more than value of all the boats in Port Solent (both the Raggie and Stinkpot varieties) down the drain.
Still they were Rocket Scientists not Boaters after all!
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robp
Well-Known Member
S'intrestin then that the all metric country's boatbuilders use 362, 38, 40.7 etc? If Tesco's sold them I spose it would be 9.99 etc., or with Asda it would be "rolled back" to 9.87!
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Gunfleet
Well-Known Member
There is a place in Jamaica Road, Bermondsey which was called until abt 1970 'Millpond Bridge'. There had been a millpond there in the 1750s - 1850s, but by my childhood in the 1950s there was no millpond, no bridge and it wasn't marked as such on a map. But Millpond Bridge it remained! I think you're right, we just don't like change.
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davidhand
Well-Known Member
Yes why do Europeans give their boats in ft? I have a Beneteau 375 (oh bad luck says you) which is 37'-5" long.
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