Jump to content

Metric?


monkeyhanger

Featured Posts

Over the last couple of days I have travelled the River Trent, Fossdyke and River Witham. I was surprised to see that the distance markers ( I would have preferred to say mileposts) show distances in kilometers, and outside Burton Waters Marina there is a sign saying "speed limit 6kph".  Which clown came up with this idea, I wonder? As far as I am aware, we still use miles in this country, and I wonder if anyone has the ability to judge their maximum speed as 3.72823mph.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've been metric since 1995 with a few exceptions like the mile and the pint.  Even after Brexit it would make no sense to go back to all imperial units as this would knacker our exports and imports.  I'm sure you won't get prosecuted for doing 4mph in a 6kph limit!  Quite a lot of regulations set limits in metric and imperial - fresh water pipes have to be 6" or 150mm above the tank-yop (deck) on a merchant ship for instance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, monkeyhanger said:

Over the last couple of days I have travelled the River Trent, Fossdyke and River Witham. I was surprised to see that the distance markers ( I would have preferred to say mileposts) show distances in kilometers, and outside Burton Waters Marina there is a sign saying "speed limit 6kph".  Which clown came up with this idea, I wonder? As far as I am aware, we still use miles in this country, and I wonder if anyone has the ability to judge their maximum speed as 3.72823mph.

Well many individuals do, but I seem to recall that the law was changed some years ago to require the use of metric measurements for almost all purposes, with some specific exceptions including road signs with distances in miles, speed limits in miles per hour and beer sold in pints. The exceptions for road signs don't apply to pedestrian signs (hence distances are shown in metres) or speed limits on waterways.

But at least a speed limit of 6 kph is more sensible than the 6.437 km/hr sometimes seen (i.e. exactly 4 mph).

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Dalslandia said:

The Metric system is coming to the imperial World, inch by inch.

 

But nautical it should be knots and nautical miles.

When the 6kph sign was first installed outside Burton Waters it just had the number 6.

Several people took this to be 6 knots. It quickly got changed to read 6kph!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In 1969 I started my apprenticeship and went to Poole College. I was told that by 1971 we would be metric and would no longer use imperial measurement.

48 years later and I am still using mostly imperial in the aviation game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, dixi188 said:

In 1969 I started my apprenticeship and went to Poole College. I was told that by 1971 we would be metric and would no longer use imperial measurement.

48 years later and I am still using mostly imperial in the aviation game.

It because the British seem to be slow learners, the metrication of the UK began in 1849 with the introduction of the Florin as the first stage in metricating money.  Here we are 168 years later and people are still fighting it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

56 minutes ago, dixi188 said:

In 1969 I started my apprenticeship and went to Poole College. I was told that by 1971 we would be metric and would no longer use imperial measurement.

48 years later and I am still using mostly imperial in the aviation game.

in aviation I wonder how much of that is due to the americans choosing to ignore the metric system

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Jerra said:

It because the British seem to be slow learners, the metrication of the UK began in 1849 with the introduction of the Florin as the first stage in metricating money.  Here we are 168 years later and people are still fighting it.

Because we dont want or need it, the same wiht the eu and thats why we are giving them it back. I drive my car in mph and over a distance in miles as are the road signposts. I sell beer in halves and pints and when we bake the missus and others measure their stuff out in pounds and ounces or sometimes grammes. If it aint broke it dont need mending.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Because we dont want or need it, the same wiht the eu and thats why we are giving them it back. I drive my car in mph and over a distance in miles as are the road signposts. I sell beer in halves and pints and when we bake the missus and others measure their stuff out in pounds and ounces or sometimes grammes. If it aint broke it dont need mending.

Aren't grammes  a metric measurement ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interestingly, The (international) inch has been exactly 25.4 mm since July 1959.  Before that the British inch and US inch were different.  The maina davantage was that imperial and metric lathes could be used for cutting both styles of threads.  The change wheels on the end of the lathe can be fitted with gears having 127 teeth and 50 teeth.  This gives the exact ratio of 25.4.

Prior to 1959 the ratio of imperial inch to millimetres was different in the US and UK.  In the UK it was about 25.2995mm (from memory).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There have been kph notices on some canals for years .... oddly some of them expressed it as 6.43kph which is rather too exact for a canal (6.43 is 3.995417 mph, 6.44 is 4.00163 mph ... and 0.006 of a mile is 31 feet)

Edited by StephenA
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I  have only ever worked (professionally) in metric units as long as I can remember. I work in the construction industry. But I am relatively young - only 58 .

The km markers (from Nottingham to Gainsborough) on the R.Trent have been in place a long time . I dont know when the km markers were put in but if anyone does know I would be interested. 

However the roads are still signed miles and in MPH. Therefore any  speed limit sign in km/hr in the UK does seem a bit odd. I know what the speed limits are so don't really take any notice of the speed limit signs. I have my boat speed gauges set in yet another unit -  knots !

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I noticed a signpost (I think on the T&M) this last week marked in kilometres.  Looked like it had been there some time, but I've not noticed it before.

Seen a couple near Market Harbourogh

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jess-- said:

in aviation I wonder how much of that is due to the americans choosing to ignore the metric system

A similar thing with the electronics industry. Working for, or with American companies you get quiet adroit at mental on the fly metric - imperial conversions. Most Americans firmly believe that if they go metric then the terrorists have won. It is changing, but very slowly.

Jen

Except of course the Americans don't call it the Imperial system, but the English system.

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm in France at the moment, helping my son with some plumbing.  Now in the UK I would buy say 32mm waste pipe and fittings.  Here in the French equivalent of B&Q it seems I have to buy fittings marked 1 1/4".

so who's metric then?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, MartynG said:

I  have only ever worked (professionally) in metric units as long as I can remember. I work in the construction industry. But I am relatively young - only 58 .

The km markers (from Nottingham to Gainsborough) on the R.Trent have been in place a long time . I dont know when the km markers were put in but if anyone does know I would be interested. 

However the roads are still signed miles and in MPH. Therefore any  speed limit sign in km/hr in the UK does seem a bit odd. I know what the speed limits are so don't really take any notice of the speed limit signs. I have my boat speed gauges set in yet another unit -  knots !

 

The 1km markers are spaced every km from Trent bridge. to Gainsborough  for working craft in case they needed to give their location to other river users or bw staff etc. I have used them myself for the police on three occasions twice when I found dead bodies and once a lady who had attempted suicide as we knew the location of each and could give a good indication of location within so many yards ( ok metres ) if you must though I always said yards and they new what I meant either up or downstream of the markers. The one nearest Holme lock was overpainted in imperial some years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Because we dont want or need it, the same wiht the eu and thats why we are giving them it back. I drive my car in mph and over a distance in miles as are the road signposts. I sell beer in halves and pints and when we bake the missus and others measure their stuff out in pounds and ounces or sometimes grammes. If it aint broke it dont need mending.

You only drive your car in mph because the government realised that most of the oldies are too slow and they refuse to change and so have kept miles.  The same is true for selling drought beer looking at the bottle I was just drinking at our BBQ it was 500cc.  Pint kept because of the refusal to learn by some parts of the people.

Your missus only uses pounds and ounces for one of a few reasons.  1) she refuses to change.  2) the recipes she uses are so old they were originally in imperial 3) She has converted them because of 1.  Most modern (all?) recipe books and the internet give metric measures unless they are yankee who seem to do everything in cups or part cups.

And as already pointed out to you when she uses grammes she is using metric.

I was taught in metric at school (nearly 50 years ago) and science has used metric for donkeys.  It is like saying you still use the ell as a measure or work in bushels.  Those systems weren't broken but they were (in your words) fixed/mended).

 

A final thought do you sell your spirits in part gills or ccs?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Jerra said:

 

I was taught in metric at school (nearly 50 years ago) and science has used metric for donkeys.  It is like saying you still use the ell as a measure or work in bushels.  Those systems weren't broken but they were (in your words) fixed/mended).

And do you remember when exercise books always had those tables of conversions on the back cover, including rods, poles and perches?

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A lot of the choice of units is to do with what you are used to and how they have meaning. If you say a car is travelling at 70mph, for most British people that means something. Say a car is going at 110kph, then most Brits will need to do a mental 2/3rds conversion before it has meaning to them. Units that have meaning can be weird. Mine change over the range. Distances these days I am pretty much interchangable between metric and imperial all the way from nanometres and angstroms up to miles and km. Temperatures are only meaningful to me in centigrade, except for Fahrenheit over a range from around 20 to 100F because that was how weather forecasts used to be presented! Kelvin I have to convert to C. Kg and lb in weight I still think of in terms of bags of sugar! Getting a new set of units to have meaning takes a long time and people are very resistant and resentful of having to put in the effort.

Jen

Jen

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Because we dont want or need it, the same wiht the eu and thats why we are giving them it back. I drive my car in mph and over a distance in miles as are the road signposts. I sell beer in halves and pints and when we bake the missus and others measure their stuff out in pounds and ounces or sometimes grammes. If it aint broke it dont need mending.

 

Ok then, I challenge you to work out the 20% VAT to charge on, say, a sale of £17 13s 4d in your head using mental arithmetic. 

Such calcs are easy with metric money.  

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.