Adverts in Square Yards??

Tipsy Mac

Are companies still allowed to advertise solely tiles, carpets etc in Square Yards? Right Price Tiles seem to have adverts suitable circa 1971.

I as school goer of the 80's have never been familiarised with this and wonder how the hell they can be allowed with all the metricisation we are sopposed to be in. Next some clowns will be advertising sugar in hundred weights.

RevBlueJeans

I agree with you TMc,

The next thing they will be quoting speed limits in 'furlongs per fortnight'!

Why not offer to buy their tiles in bundles of ten shilling notes, half crowns and gunneas!

All the rest of the world has moved on and are using the SI system for Science, Engineering, Medicine and Commerce.

Rev BJ

barra79

>>I as school goer of the 80's have never been familiarised with this and wonder how the hell they can be allowed with all the metricisation we are sopposed to be in. Next some clowns will be advertising sugar in hundred weights.

Me too, but I still know what a yard is - its about the same as a meter. The metric system is good for maths and science but the imperial system is often more practical because its units divide easily. For example, 60 can be divided easily by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12 etc. Image having to say its 33.33 metric minutes past the hour. It's not practical. This is why the Eurocrats haven't attempted to interfere with our clocks yet. Nor is it practicle to expect people who lay carpets (the vast majority of whom have always used the imperial system) to suddenly adopt a new system simply so that all of Europe can be the same. Next they'll have us all speaking German and ordering 500ml glasses of Guinness. Having said all this, surely your measuring tape has both an imperial and a metric scale on it, no?

jimmycrackcorm

As someone who deals in tile shops IT, I can shed some light on this practice.

Shops are obliged to price in Metres - it's a legal requirement especially for shelf labelling.
They can price also in yards / moon steps if they wish.
Most customers still ask for dimensions by foot.
Very few tile shops show only metric prices - but I've come across them.
But primarily - prices per sq yard are cheaper than per sq Metre, and you sell more tiles.

Tipsy Mac

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

As someone who deals in tile shops IT, I can shed some light on this practice.

Shops are obliged to price in Metres - it's a legal requirement especially for shelf labelling.
They can price also in yards / moon steps if they wish.
QUOTE]

How do they than get away with solely advertising on the radio in yards?

MrPudding

barra79 wrote:

The metric system is good for maths and science but the imperial system is often more practical because its units divide easily. For example, 60 can be divided easily by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12 etc. Image having to say its 33.33 metric minutes past the hour. It's not practical. This is why the Eurocrats haven't attempted to interfere with our clocks yet.

Yeah, cos it is soooo hard to find numbers you can divide 100 by. :rolleyes:

How many feet in half a mile? How many yards? Yeah so much easier to make calulations in the imperial system.

I don't think the evil "eurocrats" will be targetting the clock anytime soon, that is just stupid.

MrP

parsi

This is a prime example of the ideal way we in Ireland deal with such issues as metrication (?). In the UK they went metric for a lot of things but the local authorities or whoever decided to implement the change very strictly so they immediately made heroes of the John Bulls who said "I'll sell my pheasants by hundredweight because thats what made england strong" etc etc. Cue the usual xenophobia about Europe.

Over here the whole thing is given face value - we're all used to litres for petrol now but a lot of tiling/carpets are still given in square yards because that's what people are used to. We have metric signs but imperial measures in our heads and it seems to work out. Look at the changeover of speed limits - as far as some commentators were concerned the world was going to end but at teh end of the day it made no difference - the auld biddy who drove at 30 in a 60 zone now just dries at 50 in a 100....

D-Generate

The new generation coming through also has no problem with metric units. When driving I work off of the kilometers on the display even though the imperial units are bigger.
I use kilograms for my bodyweight and metre/centimetres for my height.

jm2k

parsi wrote:

...In the UK they went metric for a lot of things but the local authorities or whoever decided to implement the change very strictly so they immediately made heroes of the John Bulls who said "I'll sell my pheasants by hundredweight because thats what made england strong" etc etc. Cue the usual xenophobia about Europe...

I think you're spot on with your comments there. I wonder if that might have been the overall plan. Enforce metrification so vigorously that nobody will like it (...or maybe I've just been watching a little too much of "Yes Minister" )

barra79

Yeah, cos it is soooo hard to find numbers you can divide 100 by

Whats a 100 divided by 6 of the top of your head... As I have said, why not divide the day into 1000 units, and call it millidays? Because its not practicle. There are 36 inches in a yard, and 36 is can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and so on.

>> How many feet in half a mile? How many yards?

Whats practicle about knowing how many feet in a mile? If your tiling a floor you don't use miles, if your driving you car you don't use feet. You don't need to convert between the two for most circumstances.

>> We have metric signs but imperial measures in our heads and it seems to work out.

Exactly, why fix what isn't broken.

D-Generate

barra79 wrote:

Whats a 100 divided by 6 of the top of your head...

It is easy to divide by 100 not divide 100 by something else.

Pythia

barra79 wrote:

Whats a 100 divided by 6 of the top of your head... As I have said, why not divide the day into 1000 units, and call it millidays? Because its not practicle. There are 36 inches in a yard, and 36 is can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and so on.

.

Not by 8 it can't!

muffler

barra79 wrote:

There are 36 inches in a yard, and 36 is can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and so on. .

And which school taught you that 36 can be divided evenly by 8

muffler

barra79 wrote:

The metric system is good for maths and science but the imperial system is often more practical because its units divide easily.

When everything is in multiples of 10 I cant understand how you figure that the imperial system is easier.