Metric (European) or Imperial (American) Football?
We need a metric faction, to counter the Imperial
- Thread starter ParanoidNdroid
- Start date
Metric (European) or Imperial (American) Football?
It gets worse. American Football (NFL) or Canadian?
Ah, give the yanks a break. They've only been a nation for just over 200 years. They're new at it.
Arbitrary Rollercoaster ahaha!
Bravo, sir. +1
Typical metricist attitude. Give you a centimeter, you take a kilometer...
Bravo, sir. +1
dayrth
Volunteer Moderator
Those are units of area. We in the UK use Wales.
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I'm pinching that diagram. It's brilliant
USA to England: I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, DAD!
How do you convert all that to pieces of string?
I am sorry to crush the imperial system bandwagon but any and all scientists use the metric system due to it being the used as standard international measurement system. It is not just an European thing. The reason ot is used is because of the even intervals between values e.g. 1 metre is 1000 millimetres and 1 millimetre is 1000 micrometres and so on. You can also replace metres with grams or whatever other SI unit you need to use.
and just when everyone has got it we can throw in Centimeters and Hectares
It's not like we don't know both, and with a small degree of inaccuracy we do use both at the same time. For instance, my laser tape measure I know is accurate to 3mm every 30 yards. I like our measurement system for everyday measurements anyway since the numbers are smaller and neater; f.e. I measure an interior door and find it to be 32", or 2'8ft. Better than saying it's 81.28cm.
Edit: I'm actually curious if there are any insurance adjusters or contractors from other countries on this forum. I've always wondered what estimating software others use, and how accurate they are versus our own.
Edit: I'm actually curious if there are any insurance adjusters or contractors from other countries on this forum. I've always wondered what estimating software others use, and how accurate they are versus our own.
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UK Timber Merchants used to use both systems (simultaneously) -
an 8'X4' sheet of 12mm plywood ?! -
and roughsawn 2"X4" white pine @ 2.4 metre (minimum length)
B&Q being metric (and all prepackaged) has mostly put paid to that though.
Horses still race in furlongs.
22 yards = 1 chain : 10 chains = 1 furlong : 8 furlongs = 1 Mile
an 8'X4' sheet of 12mm plywood ?! -
and roughsawn 2"X4" white pine @ 2.4 metre (minimum length)
B&Q being metric (and all prepackaged) has mostly put paid to that though.
Horses still race in furlongs.
22 yards = 1 chain : 10 chains = 1 furlong : 8 furlongs = 1 Mile
Don't forget furlongs, rods and chains.
"A furlong is a measure of distance in imperial units equal to one-eighth of a mile, equivalent to 660 feet, 220 yards, 40 rods, or 10 chains. Using the international definition of the inch as exactly 25.4 millimetres, one furlong is 201.168 metres."
I had a physics master at school who was always lecturing us about using units in our work, and being consistent, regardless of unit. My mates and I submitted one week's worth of homework with all speed measurements converted to furlongs/fortnight. That showed 'em.
Cheers,
Drew.
Now that's funny!
...My mates and I submitted one week's worth of homework with all speed measurements converted to furlongs/fortnight. That showed 'em.
Quite right too. Worth remembering that c = 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight whilst you're at it!
Edit to mention another favourite of mine being that the "barn yard" is a valid unit of volume*.
BW
* It's just under 2 / 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 ths of a pint. Drink up.
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Because you make things to be for you. In Europe, the standard single bed mattress is 1 x 2 m. Or would you prefer 39.3701 x 78.7402 inches?
The thread made me think of the old Dead Ringers' Star Wars sketch:
John Culshaw, dressed as Obi-Wan in a used car showroom looking for a vessel that could take him as far as Aldershot for himself, the boy and 2 druids. He asked if they had metric speedometers because he "didn't want any imperial entanglements".
I would have posted a youtube link, but it's restricted in the UK for copyright reasons, so I had to use a proxy to watch it myself.
John Culshaw, dressed as Obi-Wan in a used car showroom looking for a vessel that could take him as far as Aldershot for himself, the boy and 2 druids. He asked if they had metric speedometers because he "didn't want any imperial entanglements".
I would have posted a youtube link, but it's restricted in the UK for copyright reasons, so I had to use a proxy to watch it myself.
That would be between a twin and twin-XL size bed for us. I agree 1x2 is neater than 39"x75" or 39"x80" though. I guess it's just what you're used to. Unless your house dimensions are completely different though, ours are probably far more rounded. 8'h ceilings, 12'x12' room size, 9' high elevations, 15' common rafter lengths, etc.
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But forgot what a pint and a gallon are, and substituted for your own version.
Who cares as long as the sheets fit?
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In all seriousness I have no idea how big my bed is, it is king sized, or queen sized, etc. Inches, meters, yards or cubits don't come into it.
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Metric is more convenient and I think most Americans have a decent grasp of it, much better than they actually know (we get all our pop in liters, I've never driven a car or used a ruler that didn't also have the metric scale on it). Length is really quite trivial to convert or get used to and people rarely use a scale for anything other than to depress themselves about their diet. Now if we could only go to a sensible temperature scale, no, not Celsius, that's just as bonkers, I'm talking absolute, I'm talking Kelvins.
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All in all, I think if they made a hard switch from what we call "standard" to metric, it'd take longer to change the road signs than it would for people to adapt.
