School children of the UK have been taught the metric system for a while now; centimetres, metres etc and yet if you ask anyone under the age of 40 how tall they are 99 percent of them will answer you with a imperial measurement. Will we ever lose our hold of imperial measurements? I hope not because six foot is a damn site easier to say than one point eight three metres.
2007-08-22 12:21:08 · 20 answers · asked by Colin H 3 in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
@donmohan2. A stone is 14lb
2007-08-22 14:00:52 · update #1
@ John M. yeah I can understand your point about LSD. 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound. florins, pennies, ha'pennies, farthings, tanners, thre'penny bits, crowns, half crowns, guinneas....I could go on but I might confuse the younger generation lol
2007-08-22 14:05:45 · update #2
USA!!
2007-08-22 13:04:20 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
At 51 and a keen engineer I have to use both in industry, its now got to the state that I can actually use both systems at the same time i.e. 6' 8 3/4" +1mm where a 1/16 is too much and 1/32 is too little.. I expect it converts directly to SI but I can't be bothered.
Best thing is to go into your local supermarket on pension day, wander up to the sweet counter and say in a loud voice in front of all the OAP's - 'Good Lord nine shillings for a Mars bar'
Suddenly makes you aware of inflation.
2007-08-25 23:06:56 · answer #2 · answered by rookethorne 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
my memory is so bad that when I watch the weather forecast I have to sit there and do mental arithmetic to work out what the temp in Fahrenheit is. Centigrade is nearly meaningless to me. I was at school a long time ago and 6 months from the end of my education the teacher said I had better tell you about the metric system. Years of schooling wasted with fractions and the old money system of LSD, then along comes Metric and I would have been as well not going to school.
2007-08-22 12:30:04 · answer #3 · answered by john m 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great question and interesting thought.
I am 46 and began with imperial. I do not really remember when we went metric in school, but we did.
I then went to work, in architecture. There we did both as I had to work on older buildings that were drafted in imperial and new stuff that was metric.
The crazy thing then, was I moved to the States ( from Manchester UK, and here, I am back to imperial.
I feel like I have been round, and round, and round and round..........~........~........~ I am getting dizzy.
EDIT I love donmohan2's comment on having metric tools.
I am pretty handy for a girl and yes I have to have two socket and wrench sets as we have an American and a European car. And many things are imported and use metric.........now I am even dizzier!!!!!!!!
2007-08-22 13:00:57 · answer #4 · answered by suzy c 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Easy 10 Ltrs is 2.2 gallons 50 miles is 80 Klms 160 Klm Hr is 100 Mph a 2" by" 4 is 50 mm x 100 mm for 60 years i had to use Both prefer Imperial
2016-04-01 09:31:37 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are two things true Americans hate; the metric system and dollar coins. The government made a real push forMetric in the 1970's, but it fizzled. Kilometers have been dropped from road signs long ago.
Which is not to say that mm's don't sneak up on us all the time. To work on even American cars, you need a 10 mm socket wrench. I don't know why 10mm is so popular, but it is. And almost anything imported has metric bolts and such, but we don't have to like it!
And having said all that, my UK friend, What's a stone?
2007-08-22 12:43:05 · answer #6 · answered by donmohan2 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I teach construction here in the US were we still use the Imperial measurements. I can tell you this much, I would love to see us drop the old system and change over to metric. Just try to remember what is was like adding, subtracting measurements in the Imperial system. (16 divisions in an inch, 12 divisions in a foot, and 3 in a yard) How much sense does that make! Not to mention learning 1/16ths,, 1/8ths and so on. I spend weeks and weeks teaching measuring to High School students that are just as confused later in the year as they were in the beginning.
Please give us the metric system!
2007-08-22 12:37:41 · answer #7 · answered by diver0604 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I am an engineer and many of the different organizations like Caltrans have tried diligently to convert from what is "US Customary Units" to the S.I. "System International" system but have been faced with much resistance from the industry.
The main issues for not converting here in the US is COST!!!!
If we were to go to the S.I. System, then all the machines that manufacture things like lumber will have to be replaced to those that produce in mm, cm, m.
Yes, it makes alot of sense in practicality but unlikely to ever happen in the US.
2007-08-22 12:47:40 · answer #8 · answered by BABALOO 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Imperial measurement is much more flexible and accurate than metric. You may disagree but every imperial measure can be halved ... inch, half inch, quarter inch, eight, sixteenth etc. Such cannot be done with centimetres/millimetres. How do you measure half or quarter of a millimetre?
Then there are women. Measurement of 36 24 36 sounds interesting. Now try the same in metric!
2007-08-22 12:37:24 · answer #9 · answered by john 4 · 2⤊ 3⤋
Best to know both as America are imperial.
When you bricklay, kids are taught 75mm times table for height and 225mm times table for length ? Isn't it easier knowing your 3" times table for height and 9" times table for length?
For example, what height is a wall 23 bricks high and 30 bricks long.
75mm x 23 and 225mm x 30 for metric
and
3" x 23 and 9" x 30 for imperial.
2007-08-23 11:00:18 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Seems to be mostly British answerers on this - quite interesting for me. I already know about stones, but am rather curious about this whole LSD business. What exactly were you all doing in school ? Cheeky Monkeys !
2007-08-22 21:45:22 · answer #11 · answered by Martin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋