When will Ireland be fully metric?

snubbleste

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?

whiskeyman

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

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....

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.

suicide_circus

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

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.

kneemos

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

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.

Cork boy 55

In about 850 Ms (megaseconds)

SuperGrover

I don't know.

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

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.

Donkey Oaty

Royale with Cheese.

Or something.

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!

Turtyturd

Just let us get our heads around Opal Fruits first.

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.

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?

JuliusCaesar

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.

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.

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.

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........

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.

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.

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)

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.

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!

zapata

Three fiddy and six pence

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!

Pumpkinseeds

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

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.

MadsL

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

Come on!!

JuliusCaesar

Yareli Whining Cruiser wrote: »

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 to me

Hmm. I'm in my mid 50s and used the old currency £sd till I was 12. I learned the imperial system at school because that's what was used then. Fahrenheit, not Centigrade. Around us, milk was sold in pints, miles used for speed and distance etc etc As we have gradually metricised, so have I. I still translate kilometres into miles in my head, and I know how tall I am in feet and inches. But I weigh myself in kilos. It's just a matter of getting used to it, and using it in everyday life.

Anyone refuse to buy a 500ml carton of milk, on the grounds it's not a pint?

Nemeses

Atari Metric!

Freddie Dodge

MadsL wrote: »

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

Come on!!

Irish website = its a 4x2 not a 2x4, even if you're in the US. Location based argument rocks!!

snubbleste

snubbleste wrote: »

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!

70kg means nothing to me but once you said 11 stone 3 pounds I could immediately relate to it, same for the height you mentioned.

MadsL

Freddie Dodge wrote: »

Irish website = its a 4x2 not a 2x4, even if you're in the US. Location based argument rocks!!

How big is a 4x2 in Ireland?

MadsL

Yareli Whining Cruiser wrote: »

70kg means nothing to me .

Oh, Vienna....

UCDVet

UCDVet wrote: »

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.

If the US goes metric, then everyone else would follow, even the UK which is a lot more metric than the US is currently.

Freddie Dodge

MadsL wrote: »

How big is a 4x2 in Ireland?

About 100mm x 44mm or in your language, 3 and 3/4 by 1 and 3/4.

Difference allows for material removed by resawing down from larger sizes. Also original sizes are pre-kiln-drying.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

If the US goes metric,

From my cold dead slightly differently sized from the rest of the world gloves.

Donkey Oaty

MadsL wrote: »

How big is a 4x2 in Ireland?

Well, Alan Shatter is Minister for Defence.

Freddie Dodge

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.

Is it still the fact that you talk feet & inches to the client but metric to everyone else.

MadsL

Deleted User wrote: »

even the UK which is a lot more metric than the US is currently.

Met a fellow the other day who told me to drive a few more chains down the road when giving directions.

If you think the UK is metric, ask someone how tall they are, what they weigh and what size their feet are.

The US at least does not use 'stones'.

Freddie Dodge

Deleted User wrote: »

Is it still the fact that you talk feet & inches to the client but metric to everyone else.

What?

MadsL

Freddie Dodge wrote: »

What?

Like farmers put spines in a bap.

DazMarz

THE METRIC SYSTEM IS THE TOOL OF THE DEVIL! MY CAR GETS FORTY RODS TO THE HOGSHEAD AND THAT'S JUST THE WAY I LIKES IT!!!

MadsL

MadsL wrote: »

Met a fellow the other day who told me to drive a few more chains down the road when giving directions.

If you think the UK is metric, ask someone how tall they are, what they weigh and what size their feet are.

The US at least does not use 'stones'.

I said more metric than the US, most of the products are sold in metric units, people are still resisting metrication but the signs are there.

Nekarsulm

The most useful aspect of the metric system, to my mind, is the use of millimetres in tool sizing. It is very convenient to be able to simply ask for a 13mm or 17 mm socket/spanner /whatever.
I suppose if there had been only one imperial unit of measurement used instead of 3 or 4, we might not have found it so advantageous to change.
Would you rather have sets of spanners in BSW, BSF, BA,AF,UNC and UNF?

ErnieBert

My cousin Myles says he will never change his name.

SpaceTime

Only remaining use of non-metric in Ireland is for 'traditional' measures and that applies in the food sector in other countries too like France (the home of the metric system) where there are still traditional measures for wine.

We still cling to imperial measures for body height/weight etc, but they're absolutely not used in medicine anymore.

For anything technical it's LONG gone.

I've actually given up using UK shoe sizes as I find the European ones more accurate.
I think what happens is the shoes are actually sized in European sizes and then some manufactures round up, others round down to get UK sizes. Some also erroneously use US sizes as UK sizes which is a bit annoying.

...

In some countries they also just rounded old traditional measures to the nearest round metric figure which kinda makes sense as you can keep the name yet have round numbers.

The logical thing would have been to reclassify the pint as 500ml although no doubt there'd be uproar over the 68ml of beer gone missing!

Capt'n Midnight

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.

only cowboys use imperial at this stage,

everyone else has being using mm to stop ejits rounding things up or down