EU gives up on "metric Britain"

Just an interesting story I saw this am.

EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Good for us !

Bloody right to. Who buys their weed in units of 28 grams? Thats just stupid, ounces are much better.

I really think we should ,but with America sticking with Imperial too I suppose we never will, When I was young and an apprentice carpenter it was a bit crazy to buy screws “ 10 3and a half “ 10 mm head 3 and a half inch long “for example
The two systems running parallel do tend to mess with your head

Things that will be hard to change
Servers (19 inch)
Wheels and tyres
TV

What a shame. It would have been great to see another nail in the coffin of the monstrosity that is the imperial measurements system.

(Not that Germany is all SI - think horsepower, pressure in bar, the beaufort scale, and calories.)

Don, if you go metric, they'll probably round your baggies up to 30 grams - more in it for you.

Its not a monstrosity, it just perpetuates the mystique that surrounds us Island Monkeys.

Ever done any plumbing here? BSP (British Standard Pipe) threads on the pipes, can't imagine why!

When will England see the one true light of Metric and give up their imperial heathen ways?

I remember in 1980-82 American science classes taught the Metric system. I was in 5th-7th grade at the time. Then by the time I went to high school much of that was downplayed. I wonder why...

Calling it a system is also somewhat too generous.

Good! Screw metric. I don't even know my height or weight in metric measurements If you don't like my "imperial" measurements, get your FOOT off my YARD before I LB your face in

I cannot see what is so difficult about the imperial measurement system atall. If the EU want to homogenise Europe, to make is "easier" for everyone, then how people choose to weigh bananas in Yorkshire is not the place to start. No. If you want to get rid of stupid pointless crap in an effort to harmonise Europe, then the palce to start is with scrapping all languages that are not English, starting with the monstrosity that is German.
I bet the Germans are behind any move to ban imperial stuff anyway, basically becuase they cannot decide whether a yard is a boy, girl or a sexless inbetweeny. Fuckwit krout scum.

thank god for that. Telling women "I have a 24cm penis"* just didn't have the same effect

*on my forehead

Can' t be very comfortable...

it isn't.

would you like to rub it better?

I'm sure you're doing a fine job. Just carry on.

England is the worst of the lot, because it's half metric and half imperial there.. it's ridiculous that things like speed signs on the road are still in miles, at least the government should be making the effort. At least the kids learn only metric in school. As soon as all the old farts die, or at put into nursing homes where they can't be heard any more, there might be a chance of moving over.

Ridiculous because everybody is used to miles, and speeds are shown more prominently in mph on car dashboards?

I'd wager there might be loads of problems, and certainly quite a large cost, in changing miles to km. If miles are so shit, how come no airlines offer you "airkilometres"? Because it sounds gay, thats why.

Canada changed all their road signs to km/h back in the 70s. Everyone moaned and said there would be problems with it. There wasn't of course.

I think it's ridiculous that it's miles on the road but you fill your car up with litres of petrol.

And to top that off, we still work in miles per GALLON.

no you dont you work off miles to the 10 quid I just put in

4!

I don't put litres of shit in my car back home... I PUT GALLONS OF GAS in my car. GALLONS and GAS. You know, the GAS station thats just a 1/4 MILE down the road. Crap, need to get a GALLON of milk while I'm there too.

Bet you any money you can still go to a timberyard in England and buy 2 metres of planed two by two.

No idea what you're on about mate. In England we get gas through pipes stright into our homes* - cars take petrol or diesel, or chip fat if you're a hippy twat. Chips being liberty fries BTW, not crisps.

*Which I don't get here, even thoguh I live well close to Dachau. weird.

I remember that as well, I think we were just too dumb to see the light of an easier system. I recall so much resistance to it, similar to the U.K. now.

Bollocks to metric, imperial much easier. I still think of a pint of beer, a quarter of ham and a gallon of petrol.

If the Europeans are so bleeding clever, why do they still do their wheel sizes in inches? ( Eg tyre size 185/60 13 )

Oh yeah, and the Don is right, Airmiles not bleedin Airklicks is it?

All that being said I'd rather have to crawl 10 kilometres than 10 miles.

You never hear about nautical kilometres. Why is that?

yeah and you don't hear Special K adverts asking if you can pinch a centimeter..it doesn't rhyme AND if you can pinch a centimeter you don't need to de-lard.

If the British are so bleeding clever, why do they do their tyre sizes in metric ? ( Eg tyre size 185/60 13 )

I'm not talking about your home mate, I'm talking about this semi-civilized country I live in.

That's just because you're old Dave

Yup i know and therefore us old farts should be given some respect and let us keep useable units.

Thats because you need to be on the high seas, that measurement is/was used by sailors

Why is the American Pint (@16 fl oz) smaller than the English pint (@20 fl oz)

And contains significantly less alcohol

So next time i go back I can buy a quarter of sweets again?

Being in my mid to late 30's I'm of the generation that is confused as we got taught a bit of each. I still struggle to remember my height and weight in metric. Every time I get asked my height I still answer 6ft 3 and the germans just look at you and smile.

I haven't used feet and inches since I was eleven years old, started to use the metric system as soon as I started in the grammar school, only used metric as an apprentice and continue to use it to this day. You'll be telling us next that you still design planes on a drawing board, because you're too old to use a computer. (I'm a fair bit older than Bluedave by the way)

Same here. I have gotten used to the metric system, use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, but I still find height and a person's weight much easier to figure out in feet, inches and pounds. I still use feet, yards and miles when discussing distance, however everything is "pre-convereted" from metric beforehand.

"My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it."
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/Abraham_Abe_J._Simpson.JPG[/img]

A few years ago my little brother asked a Welsh guy whether they also used the metric system in Wales. His response was: "We use what?!? We hardly use the bus!!!"

After using metric now for so long I could never go back to imperial. Metric is simple and logical ,they messed with our heads in the 70 s with both systems as they did with that all new singing and dancing writing system ITA ( remember that ? its amazing I can write this after learning that rubbish ?)Why do people think because its British it has to be good .Remember the old currency in the UK? What a nightmare that was, 240 pennies to the pound 2 shillings is a bob half a crown 12 and a half pence?? Hello! what the bloody hell was that then, thank god I was only 4 when we got rid of it ? , and while I’m on the point of money it’s about time we got the Euro over there too !

This may shock and amaze some of you but some people have the mental capacity to use both!

WHY ?

I'm guessing that the logistics in Britain in the 21st C and Canada in the 70s may be on a different scale. Of course it is doable - I don't think there would be huge problems - maybe considerable expense though.


as distances and volumes are fairly unrelated I don't particularly see the problem with that.

Nope, 2 shillings is two bob or a florin in even older money. Half a crown was indeed converted to 12 and a half of your new pence, not of the old money.

Bah, kids today, can't tell 'em nothing.

Hey come on Dave I was only 4 the most money I had then was the thripp'ny bit

Id like to see the multi talented Eleanor Rigby work in old money though

Boomtown Rat, distance and volume are very related when it comes to calculating fuel economy. And as Tom17 points out, this is still calculated in gallons, a unit that isn't even used!

I have no problems with decimalising everything, and because our every-day use of numbers is decimal (I'm a programmer so I do also frequently use binary, hex and octal, but then I'm not normal!) doesn't it make sense to do all measurements in the same base, the one we normally calculate with, rather than try and mix them?

Alternatively, we could retain the old imperial duo-decimal system, which has its advantages in that 12 has more factors (2, 3, 4 and 6 compared to just 2 and 5 for 10) and therefore easier to sub-divide quantities, but that would be better utilised if we switched to calculating in base 12 as well, and I'm not sure that would go down well (except, perhaps, amongst polydactyls who can count up to 12 on their fingers!).

Anyway, with most consumer produce nowadays increasingly coming pre-packaged, who ever asks for half a stone of potatoes and a pound of carrots anymore, never mind if they know the metric equivalents or not?

Be that roight, me hearty?

By 'eck, I remember when a packet of crisps were thruppence ha'penny, and a big bottle of dandelion & burdock pop was sixpence (with a penny deposit).