Measurement - Imperial v Metric

Hi all Whilst we have precise conversion rates for larger calculations, as a thumb rule I think of a metre as a yard & 30cm as a foot. Hope that helps.

Funny you should say that Philip. I keep conversions in my head and use them all the time, but a foot to me is 300 millimetres and an 8 x 4 ft sheet of plywood is 2440 x 1220 millimetres. I know a metre is approx. 39 inches and 100 millimetres is 4 inches, 200 is 8 inches etc, so I always convert my height and weight using one kilo equals 2.2 lbs, 14 lbs = one stone, 454 grams = 1 lb. Both my daughters stick their children up against a door post and mark their height and measure them in feet and inches. My son in law is an engineer and works with very fine tolerances, the Americans are still prominent in this field and work in imperial. While I`m not particularly advocating we return to imperial, it will not die and I think we are doing our youngsters a disservice if they don`t learn to use both systems with equal facility.

Sad but funny - am currently listening to a talking book based on the wartime diary of a small grocer. The narrator was obviously reading from a transcript and suddenly said `Mrs Smith came in to buy some bacon and put one ess six dee on the counter`. So sad that our pre-decimal currency has been confined to the dustbin of history so soon.

I found a children's gardening book (Ladybird, I think) which translated every measurement exactly. It read "Plant the potatoes 15.2 cm deep", "The plant usually grows to about 30.5cm in height", etc. Silly people!

Ha ha - I can just imagine kids out in the garden with their plastic rules trying to get a seed buried down to the nearest millimetre!

I hate British culture being flushed down the toilet. One thing with me, I usually think of them large Coke bottles as 2 quart bottles.

Greg, I don`t know if this is uncanny, but I was digging the flower border this morning and picked up an old sixpence. Dated 1941 Remember we used to call them a "tanner"

As having worked in engineering most of my life, being born in 1944, I am quite conversant with either, especially those that are in my field. I worked on industrial gas and boilers, pumps and the like. Could cope with either, but mostly stuck to my imperial and did conversions. Most common ones were always in my head, btu to kw psi to mtrs or kg. Had books of conversion factors, still have them. Was a nerd, always loved doing mental arithmetics. 1 cm of natural gas 35 cf. Happy days.

I spent over a score years learning imperial, how do I get rid of it? I have a broody hen, I want to put a dozen eggs under her how do I tell her to lay a dozen in metric? We have a 24 hour day, but the clock face has not changed to metric - why? We have 8 furlongs a mile, not been changed - why? One could go on.

It is a good job we were not ruled by France during the French revolution when the introduced a decimal calendar. When I worked for Florette, a French company I had to pay the international invoices in decades, ie. every 10 days.

Hi all It gets even more odd, when the two are mixed. The official scale for our model railway is 4 millimetres to the foot. There is logic to the history of that. Long before the UK model industry got going, continental Europe was leading the way with famous named companies, but it was the UK where their biggest market & sales were. All UK railway drawings were in imperial, so crossing feet to millimetres was the easiest conversion.

And why do we buy fuel in litres but fuel efficiency is still calculated as MPG?

Do you think kilometres per litre would actually mean anything to anyone?

Annewiggy, They should have given it the guillotine, probably they could only get ten people in the guillotine cart during the revolution But what nice memories Florette brings back, the blind flower seller girl in City Lights, the music and film Jean de Florette. Going off topic again.

I am afraid Kaga all it reminds me of is lettuce