I'm 10 stone, 5 foot 9 and l live 25 miles away. My baby is 7 lb 8 oz

Spook_ie

For all those metric heads on here, how come you're not looking for 100 seconds in a minute? 100 minutes in an hour?

I blame the Shed industry.

gozunda

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I blame the Shed industry.

I'm not sure tbh. It didn't seem to help this poster ...

https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=107118906

46 Long

I'm very attached to imperial and don't want to see it die out. Always use it in the butchers. I was helping someone a few years older than me (I'm in me late 30s) install a washing machine recently and I had to stop and explain I hadn't a notion what he meant by 'move it 5 mil to the left'. Looked at me like like I'd just admitted to using a sundial instead of watch.

Guy:Incognito

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I think we should bring back the imperial measurements for everyday ordinary stuff just for the sake of being different to the dullards in mainland Europe. The lab coat crowd can stick to metric though, wouldn't even attempt converting those boys

Yeah, really stick it to them by making yourself divide and multiply things by 12 ,14 or 16 instead of 10. That'll learn em.

Guy:Incognito

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

.

There’s no harm in using both metric and imperial. It does no harm and both have their pros and cons.

What are the pros of imperial over metric? Assuming you were explaining to someone new that didn't know either but needed to learn a system of weights and measures.

Guy:Incognito

cdeb wrote: »

", you can measure off your thumb (inch), foot (foot), etc, and because it helps you with maths. .

Its handy that everyones thumb is an inch long and their foot a foot long. Good to have an accurately calibrated set of instruments on you at all times.........

gozunda

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

What are the pros of imperial over metric? Assuming you were explaining to someone new that didn't know either but needed to learn a system of weights and measures.

I think its something to do with the fact that measurements in imperial generally sound better or something ...

jimmycrackcorm

I still with myself on my scales in stones and lbs. By default stepping on the scales automatically shows kilos, but to get st/lbs I have to press 5 button combinations.
It's very irritating to keep old school

Eduard Khil

The metric system is the tool of the devil

cdeb

Wibbs wrote: »

Cdeb, if your thumb is an inch long I'd be worried. A yard and I'd be calling the authorities.

It's an inch wide. Try it. Then your palm is three inches and your hand is palm + thumb = 4 inches.

(Within suitable tolerance limits of course...and there were no fatties in the olden days)

In many languages (including Irish and Italian), the words for inch and thumb are very closely related, if not the same.

arctictree

Why is height always in feet but never in yards??!

cdeb

Google says it's because a yard isn't a good measure for measuring our own height - I am 1 yard, 2 feet and 7 inches for example. 5 feet 7 is more compact. So once we started measuring our own height in feet, man's innate self-centredness took over and deemed that height was always best expressed in the same terms as his own height.

Beasty

Wibbs wrote: »

I think in metres and millimetres on the one hand

Is that the left 4 inches of the right 4 inches?


:pac:

suicide_circus

The only time i use imperial is for a person's height or when referring to a pint. I think in kilos and kilometres rather than pounds and miles.

Ryertex

Most tyre sizes are a combination of imperial and metric measurements in that the wheel diameter is given in inches and the tyre width is in millimetres. I imagine with so many imperial size wheels in circulation it would be very difficult to convert to metric.

rn

Eleven Benevolent Elephants wrote: »

Midwives automatically say baby's weight in lb/Oz instead of kg.

As the father of a recently born baby, I want to declare this one "fake news". On all the hospital staff and accompanying paperwork and subsequent follow-up with District nurse, the weight is measured and recorded in Kilos and part there of. At least that's how Midlands hospital is doing it.

Of course we then had to convert to pounds and ounces for all grand parents, gran aunts & uncles, because no one asked what the weight was in KG.

ToxicPaddy

rn wrote: »

As the father of a recently born baby, I want to declare this one "fake news". On all the hospital staff and accompanying paperwork and subsequent follow-up with District nurse, the weight is measured and recorded in Kilos and part there of. At least that's how Midlands hospital is doing it.

Of course we then had to convert to pounds and ounces for all grand parents, gran aunts & uncles, because no one asked what the weight was in KG.

Yep, recent newborn addition to the family, weight firstly in kgs and then in lbs and oz

dennyire

46 Long wrote: »

I'm very attached to imperial and don't want to see it die out. Always use it in the butchers. I was helping someone a few years older than me (I'm in me late 30s) install a washing machine recently and I had to stop and explain I hadn't a notion what he meant by 'move it 5 mil to the left'. Looked at me like like I'd just admitted to using a sundial instead of watch.

Do Sundials go forward in Spring and back in Winter?

How?

CelticRambler

cdeb wrote: »

Google says it's because a yard isn't a good measure for measuring our own height - I am 1 yard, 2 feet and 7 inches for example. 5 feet 7 is more compact. So once we started measuring our own height in feet, man's innate self-centredness took over and deemed that height was always best expressed in the same terms as his own height.

Why, then, does imperial man continue to use stones and pounds for his weight if he's on this side of the Atlantic, while the 'Mercians have opted for the more compact pounds-alone system?

Which I find very much more sensible - you can see straight away that a 220-pounder is 100kg, instead of trying to first multiply up stones by 12 ... or is it 16? No wait, that's those ozzy-things, and 12 is for thumb-widths and shillings, so it's ... 14 ... ?

When all is said and done, some people are good at visualising heights, weights, length and time; and some aren't. The formerMrsCR could make a set of curtains with a drop correct to within 1mm of where she wanted them to be, but ask her to estimate the width of the window and she could be out by 100% regardless of whether it was measured in metric or imperial. :pac:

Pauliedragon

I'll have to get the abacus out to figure out al the numbers on this thread.

cdeb

CelticRambler wrote: »

Why, then, does imperial man continue to use stones and pounds for his weight if he's on this side of the Atlantic, while the 'Mercians have opted for the more compact pounds-alone system?

For the same reason I don't say I'm 67 inches tall. You use the most convenient scale for the measurement; keeping the numbers small aids calculation and understanding.

It's all perfectly straightforward if you're used to it. Of course, many people aren't used to it, but are equating this as it being too complicated to use, when they're not the same things at all.

Like if the Chinese can learn to speak and write Chinese, anyone can learn to use feet and inches if they want.

Ubbquittious

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Yeah, really stick it to them by making yourself divide and multiply things by 12 ,14 or 16 instead of 10. That'll learn em.

Divide by 16 is easy, just shift to the right by a few bits

Capt'n Midnight

littlevillage wrote: »

I'm 10 stone, 5 foot 9 and l live 25 miles away. My baby is 7 lb 8 oz. and there's a bear outside the door.....what colour is the bear?

Brown.

Capt'n Midnight

dennyire wrote: »

Do Sundials go forward in Spring and back in Winter?

How?

It's the Equation Of Time

3d4life

That some people can no longer cope with numbering systems that are not base 10 is a poor reflection on the secondary education system in this country.

Bases 4, 7, 12 and 16 used to be common and well understood.

I wonder how any of you would feel about a number system using the base 'e' * ?

* - e (mathematical constant)

Wibbs

Ryertex wrote: »

Most tyre sizes are a combination of imperial and metric measurements in that the wheel diameter is given in inches and the tyre width is in millimetres. I imagine with so many imperial size wheels in circulation it would be very difficult to convert to metric.

A few car manufacturers tried to go metric with wheel widths years ago(BMW was one IIRC) but it died a death pretty quickly. It's become so embedded now I can't see it changing any time soon.

tampopo

o1s1n wrote: »

It's especially evident when measuring height. I'm 5'10 .. which is 1.8 metres. How does a brain even begin to visualise 1.8 metres? You need a measurement between M and CM.

Look in a mirror, for crying out loud

Charles Babbage

I have nothing but contempt for imperialists.

dxhound2005

Aviation and Air Traffic Control are great fun. In weather reports and forecasts temperature is given in Celsius, but the height of clouds is in feet. Wind speed is given in knots (nautical miles) per hour.

Airspeed is in a decimal of Mach (the speed of sound), altitude is in thousands of feet. Separation between planes at the same altitude is in knots. Fuel on board is measured in metric tonnes.