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When will Ireland be fully metric?

124

Comments

  • #92
    Andrew_Doran
    Registered Users Posts: 227 ✭✭Andrew_Doran


    Freddie Dodge wrote: »
    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.

    Because half everything is in the metric equivalent. We build to imperial but measure in metric. If we stopped doing that overnight then everything new would look very wrong to the eye.


  • #93
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Andrew_Doran wrote: »
    Because half everything is in the metric equivalent. We build to imperial but measure in metric. If we stopped doing that overnight then everything new would look very wrong to the eye.

    Yeah, central Paris looks awful and totally off to the eye. (to be read in sarcastic tone)

    All the eye (brain) cares about is symmetry and the golden ratio. It has no concept of feet/inches or cm/mm.
    Half the time it gets confused about scale anyway.


  • #94
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    US gallons aren't the same as UK gallons:Gallon
    Niether are fluid ounces nor are pints(568 mL here vs 473 mL in the US)

    I am going to weigh myself tonight to fix kilos in my head.


  • #95
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Deleted User wrote: »
    US gallons aren't the same as UK gallons:Gallon
    Niether are fluid ounces nor are pints(568 mL here vs 473 mL in the US)

    I am going to weigh myself tonight to fix kilos in my head.

    Simple way of thinking about it:

    1 litre of water weighs 1kg.

    So, a litre of milk = 1kg (tiny difference due to suspended fats and solids, but irrelevant really)

    Most of us have a sense of that.


  • #96
    mathepac
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,991 ✭✭✭mathepac


    Inspector Coptoor wrote: »
    ... There's a pub 4 furlongs down the road....
    Have all families named Furlong had their names changed to eh, well something-something metric.

    Lemme see, divide by 8, multiply by 5, add the VAT, carry the 6 ......... :eek:


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  • #97
    pickarooney
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 35,088 Mod ✭✭✭✭pickarooney


    CelticRambler wrote: »
    The French invented the metric system over two hundred years ago and still haven't fully adopted it. If I didn't have my own trees to burn, I'd be buying wood by the corde and stère, the locals measure distance in bornes, drink by the coup and think of prices in ... anciens francs (i.e. the ones they had before the ones they had before the euro :eek:

    Those later ones are still around - my son recently opened a new bank a/c for his uni grant money and was gobsmacked when he saw his opening balance - 21,000-ish :cool: He wasn't so impressed when he saw that that was francs. He doesn't remember ever seeing one in real life so WTF are they doing on his online bank account?

    All things considered, Ireland's doing ok really.

    Cordes (3m cubed), stères (1m cubed) and anciens francs (100 centimes) are all metric though and borne (measuring post) is another word for kilometre.


  • #98
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Is there anything restricting a newly opened pub (for example) selling half liters rather than pints?
    Assuming they were clear about the measures on sale and the price reflected the size and all that.


  • #99
    Nekarsulm
    Registered Users Posts: 11,191 ✭✭✭✭Nekarsulm


    Which is why 1000 litre IBC's are so handy for liquids. They weigh 1000kg, or a Metric Ton.

    When I go over 100kg, I know it's time to get back on the bike.... :)

    I am always impressed by the way the French still insist on having the Franc equilivant still on all price tags. Don't know if they're are preserving their past, giving two fingers to Germany, or just being prepared for the fall of the euro!


  • #100
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    mathepac wrote: »
    Have all families named Furlong had their names changed to eh, well something-something metric.

    Lemme see, divide by 8, multiply by 5, add the VAT, carry the 6 ......... :eek:

    The Duohectometres

    Hectometer = 100 meteres .. Furlong = about 201 meters.. so ...


  • #101
    SpaceTime
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,088 ✭✭✭SpaceTime


    Deleted User wrote: »
    Is there anything restricting a newly opened pub (for example) selling half liters rather than pints?
    Assuming they were clear about the measures on sale and the price reflected the size and all that.

    Oh there'd be chaos with horses eating horses and everything like that time we changed to km/h for speed limits.

    Oh right, yeah .. nothing happened and we all got on grand.


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  • #102
    Skatedude
    Registered Users Posts: 2,674 ✭✭✭Skatedude


    I go out for pints,
    Cars have horsepower, miles per gallon and top speed in miles per hour,
    I'm 6 foot 2,
    We get inches of rain or foot of snow,
    A 50 inch tv is still a big tv,


    And i agree that plans dont use feet and inches, but every builder carpenter i've ever worked with still pulls out the measuring tape with feet, inches when working.

    And it will never be metric while we measure our privates in inches,


  • #103
    Paramite Pie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭Paramite Pie


    snubbleste wrote: »
    Why isn't Ireland fully metric yet?

    Why should we be? Engineers, yes. Ordinary people who don't need that level of precision? No.

    People survived without the metric system for thousands of years. And Engineers today can still not replicate the precision of the pyrimids, even with the metric system.
    JuliusCaesar wrote: »
    WHA'???

    Easier to visualize if you are over 80!

    If I tell you I'm 180cm tall is that easy to visualize? Feet and inches are larger units therefore easier to visualize.


  • #104
    Iwannahurl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,156 ✭✭✭Iwannahurl


    Paramite Pie wrote: »
    Feet and inches are larger units therefore easier to visualize.



    Larger than what? Metres and centimetres?


  • #105
    Iwannahurl
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,156 ✭✭✭Iwannahurl


    Speaking of visualisation, even a brief glimpse of Operation Transformation makes me want to throw a "stone" through the TV.


  • #106
    Nekarsulm
    Registered Users Posts: 11,191 ✭✭✭✭Nekarsulm


    interesting info on the French use of corde for firewood. I always thought that the American cord was eight foot by four foot by four foot. Another American unit of measure which always intrigued me was the "bushel weight" used for measuring grain quality. the weight of an eight gallon (presumably a US gallon) can full of grain.


  • #107
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    jimgoose wrote: »
    Ah, Fahrenheit. The one unit that utterly baffles me! :D

    I think weirdly about F and C. 107F is hot, but I have no clue if 32F is cold, I need to hear it in C.
    SpaceTime wrote: »
    They're *AMERICAN* volts! Each time you see one you have to sing the star spangled banner.

    I *saw* the star spangled banner a couple of times whilst rewiring sockets the other day. I was very grateful for 110V not 240V.

    I find it funny that sites run 110V and the switch to 240V when people move in. Let's make it less safe when we finish the job :D


  • #108
    Eeden
    Registered Users Posts: 17,912 ✭✭✭✭Eeden


    It's frustrating when you look up a recipe on th'internet. You usually find an American one, where the measurements are in cups and fractions of cups. And fruit like strawberries are measured in pints. And their pint size is different from our pint size anyway. I think even our ounces are different! :confused:


  • #109
    Stavros Murphy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,442 ✭✭✭Stavros Murphy


    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)

    Ahh stop with your metric imperialism. Belgium/Poland, whatever, pick somwhere with good roads, and insert. Albania, for example.


  • #110
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,695 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    pickarooney wrote: »
    stères (1m cubed) ...

    Not necessarily - it's only 0.8m² if the wood is cut to 50cm lengths, which is one of the reasons why it's illegal: L'unité de mesure "le stère" est une unité interdite par le Décret 75-1200 du 4 décembre 1975 publié le 1er janvier 1978

    But since when did the French worry about the finer points of the Law. :cool:

    The auld folks around here often measure flour and other foodstuffs in livres (pounds) and the pouce (inch) is still alive and well too.


  • #111
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,684 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Feet and inches have been metric for ages.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_yard_and_pound
    In 1866 the United States legalized the use of the metric system,
    ..
    the Mendenhall Order of 1893 reversed the definitions of 1866, defining the yard and pound in terms of the meter and kilogram
    ..
    In 1930 the British Standards Institution adopted an inch of exactly 25.4 mm based on the 1927 light-wave definition of the meter. The American Standards Association followed suit in 1933.

    BTW Survey Feet as used on maps are different again
    the international foot is defined to be equal to exactly 0.3048 meters
    The United States survey foot is defined as exactly 1200⁄3937 meter, approximately 0.3048006096 m.
    The Indian survey foot is defined as exactly 0.3047996 m
    pre-1959 foot in the UK of 0.304799 m.


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  • #112
    MadsL
    Registered Users Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭MadsL


    Eeden wrote: »
    It's frustrating when you look up a recipe on th'internet. You usually find an American one, where the measurements are in cups and fractions of cups. And fruit like strawberries are measured in pints. And their pint size is different from our pint size anyway. I think even our ounces are different! :confused:

    1 cup is about the size of a bee sting cute boobie, 2 cups is a decent boobie, and a quart is huge boob!


  • #113
    MonsterCookie
    Registered Users Posts: 957 ✭✭✭MonsterCookie


    snubbleste wrote: »

    Why isn't Ireland fully metric yet?

    I'd say we're miles off being fully metric.


  • #114
    Sir Arthur Daley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    They will have to stop selling the measuring tapes with imperial measurements on them.


  • #115
    Shenshen
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 9,453 Mod ✭✭✭✭Shenshen


    Well, I suppose that since the Irish don't have a space program, it'll only really be happening once you have a plane run out of fuel half-way to its destination due to the pilots using metric and ground crews using imperial system before any real change will happen...

    It must really be the bane of some people's lives, though. I remember years ago we were buying curtains, and I had all the measurements written down in cm, as you would. The husband insisted on converting them into feet and inches as well, just in case.
    When we got to the shop, the poor girl there STILL had to take out the calculator, as they could order the material in inches only, not feet and inches.

    Converting meters to cm would have taken seconds, but as it was we spent the better part of 15 minutes over this. :(


  • #116
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,684 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Shenshen wrote: »
    Well, I suppose that since the Irish don't have a space program,
    actually we're a part of ESA


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


    This MH370 search for the past fortnight..
    In one news report you have a mix of kilometres, miles, nautical miles, feet & metres. Then they said the Indian Ocean's deepest point is X metres, almost as deep as Everest is tall at X feet! Confusing.

    Even the BBC world service is at it. They translate Chinese provided metric data to imperial data. Why!?


  • #118
    Sir Arthur Daley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    snubbleste wrote: »
    They translate Chinese provided metric data to imperial data. Why!?

    Because imperial units are officially used to specify certain data in alot of countries.


  • #119
    JustAddWater
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,990 ✭✭✭JustAddWater


    MonsterCookie wrote: »
    I'd say we're miles off being fully metric.

    Get up the yard


  • #120
    snubbleste
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 31,117 ✭✭✭✭snubbleste


    WikiHow wrote: »
    Because imperial units are officially used to specify certain data in alot of countries.
    We already had it in 'proper' terminology, why convert it?
    The plane crash is occurring in a metric 'region' of the world etc etc


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  • #121
    Roger_007
    Registered Users Posts: 21,886 ✭✭✭✭Roger_007


    I can't fathom any of this!


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