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Topic Originator: sammer
Date: Sat 18 Sep 18:26
I know this topic has been mentioned on the BorisBrave thread but maybe it is worth its own thread. The SNP have understandably called out the suggestion that the UK return to imperial measures as a bit of flag-waving Rule Britannia nonsense, rather like having blue passports.
However Scotland has no more absorbed the metric system than have our neighbours south of the border. In the late 1960s when metric was introduced into schools the theory was that after a generation the population would largely ‘think’ in metric. This has not happened so far as I can see. We still drink beer in pints, judge a person’s height in feet and inches, their weight in stones and pounds, and describe shots at the football as being from 25 yards. In other words we write and understand the metric system, but often still think in imperial. We’ve had half a century to change and haven’t.
sammer
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Topic Originator: DBP
Date: Sat 18 Sep 18:50
So 50 year old here who was born the same year metric wad introduced
I Get your point but i do a lot of work measuring and have never used imperial...
We don't really have a choice when it comes to buying shoes / shirts and those sizes is kinda their 'currency and our sizes in those thing don't really change so are their static.
I buy t shirts in small medium large, so does that mean the imperial and metric systems are both for the bin?
I also do a lot of cycling and running and measure those distances I run /cycle in km and I also record my weight in kg (not sure how many stones that equates to)
PS if you told me someone scored from 35 yards, I wouldn't have a clue where that would roughly be on the pitch but assume it's outside the penalty box?
Post Edited (Sat 18 Sep 18:51)
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Topic Originator: The One Who Knocks
Date: Sat 18 Sep 20:21
You mean you don`t know that the penalty spot is 12 yards out or the edge of the box is the 18 yard line?
And although my eyes were open
They just might as well be closed
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Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Sat 18 Sep 20:33
I find it bizarre that we fill a car in litres then measure the fuel economy in gallons. In the like of Australia they seem to use km/l.
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Topic Originator: DBP
Date: Sat 18 Sep 21:33
TBH, Now you've said 18 yard box it rings a bell, but no, if you'd ask me how many yards the penalty box was from the bye line, i would have had to look it up...
In the same way I used to be a keen dart player and used to do well in competitions, but couldn't tell you exactly how far you throw from
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Topic Originator: sammer
Date: Sat 18 Sep 23:01
We never really absorbed the metric system because it seemed `foreign` to us. This should have changed over the years: it didn`t. Our road signs remained in miles and we talked of cars in mpg whilst filling up in litres. We were never metric really, in our heads at least.
Back in the late 1960s a Maths teacher was sent out to spread the metric gospel in Valleyfield. Aware of the calamitous mistakes that can be made regarding the decimal point he explained that if you were dividing, you moved the decimal point towards the door. If you were multiplying, you moved the point to the window. Good solid teaching. Except a pupil came to DHS and found the rooms were set the other way round! He is now a highly regarded coach of rugby in London.
If you want imperial measures, go down to Guildhall Street. Although I think that pub no longer exists unfortunately. It had cheaper beer as I recall?
sammer
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Topic Originator: wee eck
Date: Sat 18 Sep 23:49
They`ll be scrapping decimal currency next. I`m sure it caused inflation when it was introduced so reversing it should bring prices down.
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Topic Originator: Wotsit
Date: Sun 19 Sep 03:03
Imperial units of measurement are archaic and deserve to be a slightly amusing piece of historical whimsy rather than a serious method of measuring the world. Fine for the Grand National but not so handy for space science basically.
Whose stride is a yard? It used to be the monarch's, although presumably we don't fancy changing our entire measurement system when the queen snuffs it? What will be base our standards on basically?
How will we establish the level of elegance present in the metric system? Something which helps with understand the way the different units are linked? For example, that one litre of water weighs one kilogram.
And are we suggesting that folk know what a gill is more than a millilitre? I'm 50 and there are imperial units that I have no clue about what they measure, let alone how much of it they are supposed to represent.
The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy.
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Topic Originator: Berry
Date: Sun 19 Sep 09:30
Excuse my ignorance in advance….but…what’s the point and where’s the benefit?
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Topic Originator: wee eck
Date: Sun 19 Sep 09:54
Presumably it`s another illustration of British exceptionalism - just to show we`re different.
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Topic Originator: Wotsit
Date: Sun 19 Sep 10:17
Things like this are why public spending gets out of control under the Tories. Obviously they gaslight us by blaming the other mob but it's clear from historical data that right wing governments lead to increased spending defecit. They gaslight us by pointing out that we are getting less for our money and we assume that we must be spending less. More fool us.
They somehow managed to increase public debt as they were destroying public services.
With that in mind: how much is this folly going to skin us? Which Tory donor just bought shares in Salter?
The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy.
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Topic Originator: Berry
Date: Sun 19 Sep 10:35
Quote:
wee eck, Sun 19 Sep 09:54
Presumably it`s another illustration of British exceptionalism - just to show we`re different.
Money well spent then…..
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Topic Originator: ianbd6
Date: Thu 23 Sep 21:08
I work for a Timber Merchants and both sets of measurements are used. European timber is metric and American and far Eastern timber is imperial. Most customers ask for things in imperial metric seems to confuse them.
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Topic Originator: The One Who Knocks
Date: Thu 23 Sep 23:56
The Proclaimers will be glad about this. `I would walk 804.67 kilometres and I would 804.67 kilometres more` just doesn`t sound as good does it?
And although my eyes were open
They just might as well be closed
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Topic Originator: Wotsit
Date: Fri 24 Sep 05:28
Quote:
The One Who Knocks, Thu 23 Sep 23:56
The Proclaimers will be glad about this. `I would walk 804.67 kilometres and I would 804.67 kilometres more` just doesn`t sound as good does it?
Seems to me that if they are smart about it they can walk 9.34km less and still walk a romantically impressive distance.
The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy.
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Topic Originator: aaaaaaaaaargh
Date: Fri 24 Sep 06:55
It would be impressive, but then they would be 9.34km from your door, which is clearly too far for romantic involvement which would leave them red-faced and ashamed that they made such a basic mathematical error.
In order to avoid this, they could use alternative modes of transport for the first part, but "I would cycle 2.23km to the train station then take a train for 7.11km then walk 800km and 800km more except on Sundays where I would need to use the replacement bus service due to engineering works" doesn`t have the same metric (or should that be imperial?) structure as the original version.
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Topic Originator: Buspasspar
Date: Fri 24 Sep 08:31
Topic Originator: ianbd6
Date: Thu 23 Sep 21:08
I work for a Timber Merchants and both sets of measurements are used. European timber is metric and American and far Eastern timber is imperial. Most customers ask for things in imperial metric seems to confuse them.
Aye ianbd6 theres nothing to compare to cutting a piece of wood to 9 and 13/16th
We are forever shaped by the Children we once were
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Topic Originator: Wotsit
Date: Fri 24 Sep 09:31
Quote:
aaaaaaaaaargh, Fri 24 Sep 06:55
It would be impressive, but then they would be 9.34km from your door, which is clearly too far for romantic involvement which would leave them red-faced and ashamed that they made such a basic mathematical error.
In order to avoid this, they could use alternative modes of transport for the first part, but "I would cycle 2.23km to the train station then take a train for 7.11km then walk 800km and 800km more except on Sundays where I would need to use the replacement bus service due to engineering works" doesn`t have the same metric (or should that be imperial?) structure as the original version.
I was thinking they could just start 9.34km closer to the door at which they intend to fall down?
The enemy travels by private jet, not by dinghy.
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Topic Originator: DBP
Date: Fri 24 Sep 10:26
Again, that's Woods "currency"
I will ask for lengths of 2 by 4 at the timber merchant because it's easier, but all measures and cuts I apply to that wood are in mm
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Topic Originator: Parboiled
Date: Fri 24 Sep 13:34
Us Rosythers still ask for a pound of mince, half a pound of bacon etc at the butcher and half a dozen rolls at the adjacent baker.
Mind you the Swingin’ Sixties didn’t reach here till 1982 …
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Topic Originator: jake89
Date: Fri 24 Sep 17:38
Still rocking Nokia phones in Rosyth. Single charge lasts over a week and that snake game is the business.
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Topic Originator: Malcolm Canmore
Date: Tue 28 Sep 18:40
Car tyres! Width measured in millimetres and radius in inches!
My dog eats meat
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