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When will Ireland be fully metric?

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  • 18-02-2014 6:49pm
    #1
    snubbleste
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 31,117 ✭✭✭✭


    Stones, pounds, miles, feet, yards, pints, inches
    are words I hear daily, yet most people under 40 have been educated in the metric system.

    Why isn't Ireland fully metric yet?


«1345

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    #2
    whiskeyman
    Registered Users Posts: 12,564 ✭✭✭✭whiskeyman


    It's not something we talk about over a few 0.568ls with our mates to be honest.


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    #3
    Inspector Coptoor
    Registered Users Posts: 6,818 ✭✭✭Inspector Coptoor


    Sure how about we sit down over a flagon of ale & thrash it out.
    There's a pub 4 furlongs down the road....


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    #4
    mikom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,391 ✭✭✭✭mikom


    snubbleste wrote: »
    Stones, pounds, miles, feet, yards, pints, inches
    are words I hear daily, yet most people under 40 have been educated in the metric system.

    Why isn't Ireland fully metric yet?

    Dunno, it's like we've got one 30.48cm still in the past.


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    #5
    suicide_circus
    Registered Users Posts: 19,802 ✭✭✭✭suicide_circus


    bloody EU, give them a centimetre, take a kilometre!


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    #6
    Fr_Dougal
    Registered Users Posts: 9,167 ✭✭✭Fr_Dougal


    mikom wrote: »
    Dunno, it's like we've got one 30.48cm still in the past.

    I have to 94mm it to you, you have a point.


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    #7
    kneemos
    Registered Users Posts: 20,410 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Don't trust anything with a decimal point in it.


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    #8
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    They still use feet and inches in the building industry, it's probably just easier to say 8ft rather than 243.84cm, or 16" instead of 40.64cm. Just about everything in the home from ceiling heights, to door widths, to the distance between the joists in your attic are in inches.


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    #9
    Cork boy 55
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,324 ✭✭✭Cork boy 55


    In about 850 Ms (megaseconds)


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    #10
    SuperGrover
    Registered Users Posts: 990 ✭✭✭SuperGrover


    I don't know.


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    #11
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Imperial measurements are more applicable to everyday things and are easier to visualise therefore I (hopefully) can't see them dying out for a long time


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    #12
    JuliusCaesar
    Registered Users Posts: 4,882 ✭✭✭JuliusCaesar


    Most stuff is in metric now (main exception being the American style coffee shops with their 15 fl oz drinks - what the feck is a fl oz?? Stupid fecken Americans, the only country in the world not to go metric and look what it did to them Ha Ha)

    It's high time though that tins etc moved over to 250g instead of 239g, just because it's the metric equivalent of whatever the imperial measurement is.


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    #13
    Donkey Oaty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,533 ✭✭✭Donkey Oaty


    Royale with Cheese.

    Or something.


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    #14
    JuliusCaesar
    Registered Users Posts: 4,882 ✭✭✭JuliusCaesar


    Yareli Whining Cruiser wrote: »
    Imperial measurements are more applicable to everyday things and are easier to visualise therefore I (hopefully) can't see them dying out for a long time

    WHA'???

    Easier to visualize if you are over 80!


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    #15
    Turtyturd
    Registered Users Posts: 28,394 ✭✭✭✭Turtyturd


    Just let us get our heads around Opal Fruits first.


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    #16
    ScumLord
    Registered Users Posts: 28,789 ✭✭✭✭ScumLord


    JuliusCaesar wrote: »
    Most stuff is in metric now (main exception being the American style coffee shops with their 15 fl oz drinks - what the feck is a fl oz??
    We use fluid ounces here too, just look at any coffee machine in the petrol stations, I don't think they're American made either.


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    #17
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    Given how hard it is to get a pint out of someone's hand at closing time, what chance do you think there is for getting rid of them altogether?


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    #18
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    JuliusCaesar wrote: »
    WHA'???

    Easier to visualize if you are over 80!

    I'm only 29 and despite being brought up with the metric system and using it every day (Physics research) I still think in miles per hour, distance in miles for journeys, I cant visualise a persons height unless its in feet and inches or their weight unless its in stone and pounds and most of all MPG is the only method of fuel consumption that makes sense.

    I also worked in construction during the summers and everyone used feet and inches etc so for all that sort of thing I understand it in imperial. It will be a sad day if the imperial system is lost.


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    #19
    UCDVet
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,894 ✭✭✭UCDVet


    Fully metric? Probably never.

    It won't happen until the US gets on-board with the metric system and that won't happen for a long time. Longer still, you'll have non-metric references in common phrases.

    Pint comes to mind. I don't think anyone will ever say, 'I'd like to go get myself a .56ths of a liter!' or whatever it'd be.


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    #20
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    Get up the yard, OP, we're inching towards being the same as everyone else as it is. Furlong as I can remember we've had our little differences to keep us interesting for tourists. If we go fully metric, we'll just be a wetter version of Belgium, without the good roads. It's miles better being different.


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    #21
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    Turtyturd wrote: »
    Just let us get our heads around Opal Fruits first.

    ...and Snickers.


    Try being educated in the heady days of the mid 70s with the headlong rush to all things metric and European. Out with your oz and lbs, and your pounds shillings and pence. Shiny blocks of 10, 100 and 1000 counting blocks showing how easy it all is.

    Then move to the US in later life. Head melted.

    Is it 1/4" line or 5/16th" line...? Agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........


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    #22
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Well if the publicans would simply agree to start serving 1L of beer for the price of 1 pint we'd be 100% metric by Monday morning.


    Ireland's a *LOT* more metric than the UK though.
    Still a lot of products being sold in non-metric base units in the UK with metric conversions so you end up with ridiculous packs with weird numbers of grams in them and this leads to a conclusion that the metric system must be very alien and complex.


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    #23
    Donkey Oaty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,533 ✭✭✭Donkey Oaty


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    Get up the yard, OP, we're inching towards being the same as everyone else as it is. Furlong as I can remember we've had our little differences to keep us interesting for tourists. If we go fully metric, we'll just be a wetter version of Belgium, without the good roads. It's miles better being different.

    Thank you for your measured response.


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    #24
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Stavros Murphy wrote: »
    If we go fully metric, we'll just be a wetter version of Belgium, without the good roads. It's miles better being different.

    Belgium has good roads?!

    News to me! They were awful last time i was there. Ancient motorways with the worst designed junctions I've experienced anywhere. Potholes and bad surfaces on minor roads etc and highest road traffic accident rate in Northern Europe (way higher than Ireland)


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    #25
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    SpaceTime wrote: »
    Belgium has good roads?!

    News to me! They were awful last time i was there. Ancient motorways with the worst designed junctions I've experienced anywhere. Potholes and bad surfaces on minor roads etc and highest road traffic accident rate in Northern Europe (way higher than Ireland)

    Beer. He meant to say good beer.


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    #26
    snubbleste
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 31,117 ✭✭✭✭snubbleste


    But why, why do we cling on to a nonsensical method rather than a logical method?

    Easier to say 70kg versus eleven stone three pounds and 180cm versus five feet and eleven inches.
    Och!


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    #27
    zapata
    Registered Users Posts: 895 ✭✭✭zapata


    Three fiddy and six pence


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    #28
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    MadsL wrote: »
    Beer. He meant to say good beer.

    You need the beer for getting over the trauma of having driven on their roads!!
    There are junctions that would definitely need a few pints/litres after using!


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    #29
    Pumpkinseeds
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,635 ✭✭✭Pumpkinseeds


    Never I tells ya *shakes fist in rage at the thought of it:p


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    #30
    Freddie Dodge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 194 ✭✭Freddie Dodge


    ScumLord wrote: »
    They still use feet and inches in the building industry, it's probably just easier to say 8ft rather than 243.84cm, or 16" instead of 40.64cm. Just about everything in the home from ceiling heights, to door widths, to the distance between the joists in your attic are in inches.

    No. No they are not and haven't been for quite a while.

    Dont spout nonsense when you've obviously never seen a set of plans in your life.

    21 years in the trades and I've NEVER seen a set of plans in feet and inches.


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    #31
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    Never understood why a 2x4 doesn't actually measure 2" by 4" inches.

    Come on!!


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