Bring back the miles signs on the road?

ircoha

EU drops the plan for all metric by 2009: so should we go back to British/American miles.
eg Boston or London or Berlin?

Rob_l

no to return to imperial measures makes no sense at all

should we go back to shillings while we are reverting
back to pounds and ounces too

Tar.Aldarion

No, the miles system makes no sense.

Wossack

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and thats the way I likes it!

JC 2K3

No... where's the sense in that?

I'm 18 and have never been taught anything about the imperial system, same as the rest of my peers. Makes sense for the government to use the measurement system it teaches.

Terry

Just because the British want to be a pain in the hole of the EU, doesn't mean we have to join them.

The metric system is much neater.

Tar.Aldarion

Let's use leagues or wheels.

baztard

Out with the old...

Archeron

Furlongs and bushels for me.

Spyral

people still use it.. for example on clothing and such

seamus

Even if someone decided that it was actually a good idea, most of the country doesn't have any concept on the system. It's not taught in schools and hasn't been taught in schools for at least 20 years.

I know roughly how long a mile is, I know roughly how long a foot is, I know roughly how heavy a stone is. But I don't know how many feet/yards in a mile, how many pounds in a stone, or indeed how heavy a pound is.

Tar.Aldarion

I know all of those things, they make no sense though, they are not even. Still I prefer to measure my weight in stone.

Rob_l

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I know all of those things, they make no sense though, they are not even. Still I prefer to measure my weight in stone.

I also prefer to measure my weight in stone but everything else in kilo's

Terry

seamus wrote:

Even if someone decided that it was actually a good idea, most of the country doesn't have any concept on the system. It's not taught in schools and hasn't been taught in schools for at least 20 years.

I know roughly how long a mile is, I know roughly how long a foot is, I know roughly how heavy a stone is. But I don't know how many feet/yards in a mile, how many pounds in a stone, or indeed how heavy a pound is.

Off the top of my head:
1 mile is a mile long.
1 foot is a foot long or 30 cm.
1 stone is 14 lbs. 16 oz in a pound.
1760 or so yards in a mile. multiply by three for feet.
1 pound in 454 grammes.

For miles to km you divide by 5 and multiply by 8.

Mind you, I went to school way back in the 80's.

There's a site I used to use. I'll see if I can find it.

Remember that some american measurements are different to imperial.

mikemac

Metric system rules.

Afaik a USA gallon and a UK gallon are different so that complicates things.

The UK are stuck in the past and see the introduction of the metric system as a threat to their sovernity (spelling?)

TPD

I dont like the American way of counting liquid volume in ounces. If its actually the wieght theyre counting, then 40 ounces of one beverage could be more than 40 ounces of a thicker drink, which doesnt make sense to me.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

baztard wrote:

Out with the old...

in with the nucleus

Terry

http://convert.french-property.co.uk/

Wossack

Terry wrote:

...
There's a site I used to use. I'll see if I can find it.

...

just searching google aint bad actually, for example

'1 yard in cm'
'1 stone in kg'

etc

I was quite impressed when I just tried it randomly one time looking for a converter (does currency too)

seamus

micmclo wrote:

The UK are stuck in the past and see the introduction of the metric system as a threat to their sovernity (spelling?)

The British have these hilariously steadfast patriots who would in all seriousness rather die than see Britain give up the pound, or use the metric system.

When the debate over the euro came up in the UK, there was a small band of loonies who set up outside the houses of parliament, decked out in Union Jack clothes, with large Union Jacks, and blown up pictures of Sterling tender. "No to the Euro" and all that.

The UK parliament is afraid of upsetting these people for some reason.

Terry

seamus wrote:

The British have these hilariously steadfast patriots who would in all seriousness rather die than see Britain give up the pound, or use the metric system.

When the debate over the euro came up in the UK, there was a small band of loonies who set up outside the houses of parliament, decked out in Union Jack clothes, with large Union Jacks, and blown up pictures of Sterling tender. "No to the Euro" and all that.

The UK parliament is afraid of upsetting these people for some reason.

I remember seeing that on the news.

There were also some interviews with old people who didn't want it changed because they were afraid of being ripped off.
I never understood why they couldn't just phase it in slowly like they have done here.

The main example used in the interviews was butcher shops. They wanted to buy their sausages by the lb. Over here we had both units displayed for years and still do in some places.
Even today sausages are still sold in lbs, but they are just marked 454 G.

Same people who complain about tv shows really. Nothing better to do.

Mahatma coat

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations , rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

giveth

Mahatma coat wrote:

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations , rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

That's why we should do away with the 24 hour clock and have a metric time system...
100 hours in a day, 100 minutes in an hour, etc.

Then, 100kmph speed would be 1 km every minute!

On second thoughts, maybe not!

Wossack

Mahatma coat wrote:

the one handy thing about the old system is that the speedlimit is 1 mile a minute, easy calculations , rest of the base systems made no feckin sense tho

geez, I just used my speedometer to work out my speed - the stopwatch and odometer combo just seemed so clunky to me

kevmy

The English are just purely and utterly afraid of change.

IMO if there is one thing that separates our way of thinking from their way of thinking at the present moment in time it is that. WE have embraced change over the last 20 years and found it to be good for us so we like change and associate it with progress. The English on the other hand over the past 50 years have associated change with a lessening of their voice in the world (downfall of imperialism, enlargement of Europe etc.) They see change as unerringly bad.

Dyr

Miles are better than kilometers and I'm not drinking ein .57 liter of brau thanks very much, I'll stick to me pints

Still we're good little europeans and we do like to roll over and let the EU rub our belly with it's jackbooted fist

watna

I don't think there'd be much of a point putting the signs in miles per hour when distances on signposts are in km.... unless you want that changed though, which is pretty pointless. Europeans can be wierd about measurements too. In Austria we use packets of sauces that say add 3/8 of a litre of water. How on earth do you do that? The point of litres is that it's in tens! In the end my dad converted it to ml... was very strange though!

E92

You should never go backwards. Putting up miles on the roads is exactly that - going backwards. What should happen is that the UK, well at least Northern Ireland should adopt km/h for speed limits asap. I think it was very stupid of the Government to change over to km/h while Northern Ireland stuck with mph.(as cars in kilometres don't have mph on the speedo, whereas cars in miles do have km/h).

I measure my height in feet and inches and weigh myself in stones and pounds.

And I always use miles per gallon too. I measure distances in miles too(but speeds are a mixture of mph and km/h, at least I know that 5 miles=8 km). Usually if its something to do with cars, its imperial(wherever the Brits use imperial, I will follow suit, except when they measure cars in inches), and no one orders 568 mls of Beer, its always a pint.

Other than that, I always go with the flow, eg a horse races are measured in miles and furlongs, so thats what I'd use, but races are always done in metres, so I'd always use metres; on the other hand Golf is done in yards, so I always use yards for Golf.

When you go abroad, its so much easier if you know the metric system(bar the US and UK, but as most of us know the old fashioned system, this is hardly a problem).
When people announce that its 80 degress I always tell them that the hottest place in the world is only 50(or even 45), so how is that possible.(I know they are using Fahrenheit but time has to move on and we all use Celsius these days, actually I dont ever remember temperatures being measured in Fahrenheit here ever).

And now, I'm after reading that our gallons are different to American gallons, at least a litre is a litre everywhere so that is definately another reason not to use old fashioned measurements where possible.

On a personal level, I'm delighted with the news that old fashioned measurements will last a bit longer than 2009, for 2 reasons.

The first is that as a car enthusiast, I'd have to know what litres per 100 km are(and I don't), so I can still use mpg, which is good:D .

The second is that at least I can still ask for a pint and not say, 'I'd like 568 mls of Millers please'.:D

anotherlostie

It would be crazy to go back; at least now we have a consistent system with both the distance signs and the speed limits in km/hr, whereas for years you were told it was 200km to Dublin, but the speed limit was 60mph (although if you had to hit the M50 on the way, that should be 6mph). And I was educated in the 80's too, and know that multiply by 1.6 will convert miles to kms, but still it was ridiculous.

Mind you, I have been driving my car in Norn Iron recently, and the mph signs with the speedometer in km/hr made me slow down more than I would normally have done previously! So hopefully Big Ian Paisley will announce that they are going to convert the signage up there to create a united Ireland in that sense:D .

cornbb

Metric system ftw

(except when it comes to measuring beer)

The Brits like things like the Imperial system and pounds sterling because it reminds them of better times.

Stephen

Three cheers for metric \o/

Also, Bambi: They wear boots on their fists? :eek:

6th

I dont miss them at all.

thelordofcheese

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

Let's use leagues or wheels.

We'll use cubits and you'll damn well like it, whippersnapper!

monkeyfudge

What's the longest word in the dictionary?

biko

Pah, I use time to measure distance anyway.
"Sure, it's about 40 minutes drive towards Ennis. How many miles? F*cked if I know..."

seamus

watna wrote:

Europeans can be wierd about measurements too. In Austria we use packets of sauces that say add 3/8 of a litre of water. How on earth do you do that?

Actually, decimalisation does lead to some odd things when people start to bring in fractions.

It was only a couple of years ago that I realised that many (if not most) people don't know the decimal equivalent of common fractions by rote (like knowing your five times tables). An eighth is a common fraction, so in the same way that you know that 1/4 is equal to 0.25, it should be drilled into you in school that 1/8 is 0.125 and 3/8 is 0.375, and 1/20 is 0.05 and 1/25 is 0.04. And so on.

Won't someone please think of the drug dealers.

It BeeMee

I'm sure if you asked nicely, the barman would give you a half-litre of your favourite tipple, and "only" charge the the price of a normal pint....

smemon

hell no!

and give up that extra 2/3mph we get on the 60mph conversion into 100km/hr?


100km/hr = 62mph

So our national roads are moving 2mph faster under the current system

We do lose out though on the 50/60/80 km/hr limits :cool:

Mellor

TPD wrote:

I dont like the American way of counting liquid volume in ounces. If its actually the wieght theyre counting, then 40 ounces of one beverage could be more than 40 ounces of a thicker drink, which doesnt make sense to me.

Its nothing to do with weight, they're fluid oz
Our imperial system is the same


The problem is that US fl.oz and imperial fl.oz are different
So because of this pints are different (16 fl.oz), and then gallons are different (8 pints)

Zaph

We definitely shouldn't change back because I've just bought a new car and the speedo is in km/h

Here's an excellent site for all your conversion needs www.convert-me.com

As for the fluid ounces thing, an Imperial fluid ounce is 28.41 millilitres and a US one is 29.57 milliliters.

E92

I love the way people don't want to use the old fashioned system 'because the Brits use it'. Are those people seriously saying that if the Brits said in the morning 'we're going to do everthing metric from now on' that we should now go back and use feet, pounds, degrees Fahrenheit etc?

The Brits and the US are by far and away our biggest trading partners. It therefore makes sense to know their systems of measurement, where necessary.

I've yet to hear someone tell me 'such and such a place is X km away'. People always say its so many hours or miles away.

27 years on from when the EU told us to do so(43:eek: in the Brit's case, the Commonwealth decided to change in 1964 I think, and Britain was the first country to start the changeover:eek: ),we still use the old fashioned system in lots of places: Golf(Yards; I know some courses, including the one where I usually play use metres), Horses(heads, hands, Furlongs, miles,stone), when we weigh ourselves(stones and pounds), measure our heights(feet and inches), Fuel Consumption(miles per gallon), going to the pub(Pints), buying certain items(Pounds of sausages, Rashers etc), Cars/Roads(plenty of people still use mph and miles[especially miles], used cars before 05 will have the mileage displayed in miles), dog races(Yards again), when we go to try on clothes, the size of the waist,leg etc is in inches, Houses(Square Feet), Room diameter(feet and inches), talking about vehicles' power(bhp/hp, kilowatts is the metric unit).

On the other hand, practically everything else we buy is in metric, we buy petrol by the litre, virtually everything in a shop is in kilos and litres, cars are weighed in kilos, measured in some version of metres, cars go from 0-100 instead of 0-60 these days, top speeds are in km/h, road signs post distances in kilometres, our BMI is calculated by the metric system, anything remotely connected with science or engineering has been metric for so long, nobody would remember the old fashioned way.

Definately metric system ftw,but theres still(plenty of) life in the old fashioned system yet.:D

Captain Chaos

Keep it. In my work I use metres and kilos all day every day and have done before we went metric. To an adult of average height, a metre is from: extend one arm fully out to one side, its from the tips of those fingers to your opposite shoulder, or one good pace, heel to toe.

BTW, remember that probe tht was sent to Mars a fews years ago and got lost. It was built with parts from the EU and US. The EU systems worked off metric units and US from imperial units. NASA told the US contractors to use the metric system as thats the standard NASA use in space.

Just get your metres, kilos and litres and your sorted. None of this mile, foot, inches, ounces, pounds lark, where nothing directly relates to anything else.

JIZZLORD

Myth wrote:

Won't someone please think of the drug dealers.

exactly what i thought

murphaph

I used to work on a lot of american machinery and it was all built in US 'inch' or as the yanks say 'english' measurements (the americans don't say 'imperial' as that was the british term). The machines had tolerances down to '1 thou' or 0.001". It became intuitive despite my schooling exclusively in metric like most people born on the 70's. The only difficult concepts were tools in imperial sizes-a 4mm allen key is an easy concept to handle but 5/32 of an inch (which is almost the same) is a bit more abstract. Then of course the actual screws (bolts) were all Unified Coarse/Fine/Extra Fine standards as opposed to the much more convenient Mx (ISO) system used in pretty much the rest of the world. Only the US/Canada still resists the ISO thread standard. For roadsigns I thonk it makes absolutely no difference for an island nation like ourselves as to what system we use. It'd be different if say, Switzerland opted to go imperial. That would confuse a lot of people needlessly. It's interesting to note that UK roads are designed and built in METRIC! They don't use feet and inches in the designs. Indeed, many signs (like motorway exit countdown markers) are spaced in metres but signed in yards, so are slightly inaccurate. Strange but true! The UK switched to teaching eclusively in metric a bit later than us I believe, but I epect resistance to metric to fall away completely as this generation grows up. Remember-there was massive opposition to decimalisation in the 70's too.

murphaph

Captain Chaos wrote:

BTW, remember that probe tht was sent to Mars a fews years ago and got lost. It was built with parts from the EU and US. The EU systems worked off metric units and US from imperial units. NASA told the US contractors to use the metric system as thats the standard NASA use in space.

It was Lockheed Martin, an american subcontractor who reused software from a previous mars explorer mission which coverted from lbs-seconds to newtons-seconds. It was a complicated mix up not easily expained (or understood!) but if they hadn't resused code it wouldn't have been a problem. Interestingly the Ariane rocket that was destroyed just after takeoff was also du to reused control software not being fully tested! I think these two were some of the most expensive computer software failures in history.

Wishbone Ash

monkeyfudge wrote:

What's the longest word in the dictionary?

'Smiles'

liberty 2007

Finally the british have done something for us. Its about freedom of choice. Say these words out loud, pound, foot, inch, yard, pint, mile, how easy to they role of the tongue, now try say the euro equivalent.

JoeB-

monkeyfudge wrote: »

What's the longest word in the dictionary?

I see wishbone got here before me with 'Smiles'..

I reckon 'taut' is longer... ... only by about 92 million times mind you...

monkeyfudge

Marmalade is another pretty long word.

deaddonkey

despite being taught metric in school, kilometres away, kilometres per hour, he weighs 85 kg, none of it makes sense to me. It wouldn't even occur to me to measure a small distance in cm or mm either. Imperial all the way.