Do you trust the metric system?

pickarooney · 26-05-2010 04:00PM #1

I've never quite been able to get the bottom of Ireland's ambivalent relationship with the metric system.

As far back as I can remember (30+ years) kids have been taught how to measure, weigh and pour in metres, kilos and litres, all the way up through school, from holding your arms out wide for a metre to calculating the acceleration rate of an electron (come on sciene nerds, point out that there is no cause for such a thing!) and yet virtually every Irish person I know will look puzzled if you tell them your height in metres or your weight in kilos and automatically revert to stones and pounds and feet and inches when asked the same question.

We seem to have finally accepted the notion of a litre of milk but there is no chance of us ever recognising an alcoholic drink in non-pint format.

Around about 1980 I think road signs were gradually switched over from miles to kilometres but it was another twenty years before the speed limits followed suit. Petrol has been sold in litres for about the same length of time, yet people still refer to their cars' consumption in miles per gallon.

Golf shots and penalty kicks are referred to in yards although the latter is actually marked out as eleven metres (please correct me if this differs from one place to another) but we've accepted that all running and swimming races take places over hundreds of metres.

I think we've got to the stage where well over half the population has been educated to think metric yet still this seeming distrust of the system persists. It's quite a reliable system by all accounts and has stood the test of time for over two centuries but there seems to be a lingering idea that it might be all a ploy by the EU to rip us off, to make our drinks smaller and our children shorter.

One thing I will say about the imperial system is that it's far more 'poetic' in the sense that feeling '3.05 metres tall' doesn't make you sound particularly happy nor does it really sound frightening if something would make you 'run 1.61 kilometres'.

Do you embrace the metric system or pretend not to understand it?

OutlawPete · 26-05-2010 04:02PM

Not sure, but I know this much - I need a KPH speedometer badly.

The amount of times I have killed innocent pedestrians, while squinting at the dash, trying to do long division in my head, is fecking scandalous.

Cheap Thrills! · 26-05-2010 04:05PM

pickarooney wrote: »

Around about 1980 I think road signs were gradually switched over from miles to kilometres but it was another twenty years before the speed limits followed suit.

I haven't a clue what speed I'm supposed to be doing since they changed the road signs....I see 120...I think 120 mph ...not that I take any notice of speed limits anyway.

pickarooney wrote: »

Petrol has been sold in litres for about the same length of time, yet people still refer to their cars' consumption in miles per gallon.

People who take notice of that stuff have too much time on their hands. I fill up the tank in whatever petrol station has the shortest queue. Could be the most expensive. I wouldn't know!!!

Only tightarses notice that sheeeeeet!

enda1 · 26-05-2010 04:06PM

Metric system all the way!

I weigh 67kg, no idea in stone and pounds.
I am 185cm tall (this I know is 6'1" as I've been this height for ages)
My car goes about 180kmph top speed (something like 110 mph?)
Its about 12km to work (about 7miles?)

I use Newtons for force, pascals for pressure, newton metres for torque, joules for energy, kilowatts for power, ohms for resistance.

BUT

I DRINK PINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

prinz · 26-05-2010 04:07PM

I trust the metric system. I don't trust a system that can't make up it's mind between the two.

molloyjazz · 26-05-2010 04:08PM

pickarooney wrote: »

I've never quite been able to get the bottom of Ireland's ambivalent relationship with the metric system.

As far back as I can remember (30+ years) kids have been taught how to measure, weigh and pour in metres, kilos and litres, all the way up through school, from holding your arms out wide for a metre to calculating the acceleration rate of an electron (come on sciene nerds, point out that there is no cause for such a thing!) and yet virtually every Irish person I know will look puzzled if you tell them your height in metres or your weight in kilos and automatically revert to stones and pounds and feet and inches when asked the same question.

We seem to have finally accepted the notion of a litre of milk but there is no chance of us ever recognising an alcoholic drink in non-pint format.

Around about 1980 I think road signs were gradually switched over from miles to kilometres but it was another twenty years before the speed limits followed suit. Petrol has been sold in litres for about the same length of time, yet people still refer to their cars' consumption in miles per gallon.

Golf shots and penalty kicks are referred to in yards although the latter is actually marked out as eleven metres (please correct me if this differs from one place to another) but we've accepted that all running and swimming races take places over hundreds of metres.

I think we've got to the stage where well over half the population has been educated to think metric yet still this seeming distrust of the system persists. It's quite a reliable system by all accounts and has stood the test of time for over two centuries but there seems to be a lingering idea that it might be all a ploy by the EU to rip us off, to make our drinks smaller and our children shorter.

One thing I will say about the imperial system is that it's far more 'poetic' in the sense that feeling '3.05 metres tall' doesn't make you sound particularly happy nor does it really sound frightening if something would make you 'run 1.61 kilometres'.

Do you embrace the metric system or pretend not to understand it?

i embrace it, its more exact and better for science (SI units and all).. only american don't have it afaik.. maybe the fact that it was designed by the british is why alot of irish don't like it.

Captain Chaos · 26-05-2010 04:10PM

OutlawPete wrote: »

Not sure, but I know this much - I need a KPH speedometer badly.

and trying to do long division in my head,

Divide by 5, then multiply by 8. Works for me.:pac: mi -km. km - mi, divide by 8 then x5.

The only things I can't handle in metric is speed and altitude, I still use miles and feet. But distances and weight etc, metric all the way.

Mr.Applepie · 26-05-2010 04:11PM

OutlawPete wrote: »

Not sure, but I know this much - I need a KPH speedometer badly.

The amount of times I have killed innocent pedestrians while I squinting and trying to do long division in my head, is fecking scandalous.

Dividing by 8 is not long divison. Other than that I agree with you completely

pickarooney · 26-05-2010 04:14PM

molloyjazz wrote: »

i embrace it, its more exact and better for science (SI units and all).. only american don't have it afaik.. maybe the fact that it was designed by the british is why alot of irish don't like it.

The British designed the metric system?

OutlawPete wrote: »

Not sure, but I know this much - I need a KPH speedometer badly.

You don't have kph in smaller writing inside the gauge line?

prinz · 26-05-2010 04:18PM

pickarooney wrote: »

The British designed the metric system?

Apparently the Royal Society in London first thought of a definitive metric system in theory. The French perfected it and adopted it first.

Osgoodisgood · 26-05-2010 04:22PM

enda1 wrote: »

Metric system all the way!

I way 67kg, no idea in stone and pounds.
I am 185cm tall (this I know is 6'1" as I've been this height for ages)
My car goes about 180kmph top speed (something like 110 mph?)
Its about 12km to work (about 7miles?)

I use Newtons for force, pascals for pressure, newton metres for torque, joules for energy, kilowatts for power, ohms for resistance.

BUT

I DRINK PINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next time you're ordering one of those pints you might consider getting some bacon fries as well.

El Tarangu · 26-05-2010 04:23PM

Switch to metric time, too.

(posted at 6:82:91)

bonerm · 26-05-2010 04:25PM

enda1 wrote: »

I way 67kg

No way!

Banned Account · 26-05-2010 04:28PM

I don't trust any system that is based on a number not capable of being divided equally by three - fcuk 10, 12 all the way, you can half it, quarter it and divide it by three without having to leave a tip.

Flying Abruptly · 26-05-2010 04:30PM

I'm 22 and I use both but usually just for estimating things - its easier to visualise a foot, probably because everyone has used 12inch/30cm ruler in school rather than a metre stick, but i'd use cm/mm for anything smaller.

I do a good bit of running but I always measure the distances as miles rather than kilometres. I know what paces are like (i.e. 6 min/mile, 7min/mile) but wouldnt have a clue in km - i think its because I consider it too short to measuring a time over. This is only for running though, for driving its km all the way.

OutlawPete · 26-05-2010 04:30PM

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Divide by 5, then multiply by 8. Works for me.:pac: .

Mr.Applepie wrote: »

Dividing by 8 is not long divison.

pickarooney wrote: »

You don't have kph in smaller writing inside the gauge line?

*flashes comedic licence*

It's okay folks, professional jokeologist here.

As you were now ..

opinion guy · 26-05-2010 04:31PM

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Divide by 5, then multiply by 8. Works for me.:pac: mi -km. km - mi, divide by 8 then x5.

The only things I can't handle in metric is speed and altitude, I still use miles and feet. But distances and weight etc, metric all the way.

I really hope you are not a pilot....

RustySpoon · 26-05-2010 04:33PM

10001110111100111110001110001111000111100011100

......oh wait you said metric right?

ScumLord · 26-05-2010 04:35PM

It's the builders fault, they all deal in backwards inches, feet and yards. The yanks are obviously to blame for dumbing down the planet as well, I don't understand how they can do engineering in inches, it's crazy.

pickarooney · 26-05-2010 04:36PM

prinz wrote: »

Apparently the Royal Society in London first thought of a definitive metric system in theory. The French perfected it and adopted it first.

"Let's see chaps, ninety... six centimetres to the metre, that ought to do it!"

ScumLord wrote:

It's the builders fault, they all deal in backwards inches, feet and yards. The yanks are obviously to blame for dumbing down the planet as well, I don't understand how they can do engineering in inches, it's crazy.

It's not really dumbing down though, it's deliberately obfuscating things.

massdebater · 26-05-2010 04:39PM

I don't trust imperial measurements. Bloody hate them!! :mad:

Metric makes sense - everything is is multiples of 10, 100 or 1000 etc.

Bloody imperial measurements are in multiples of 2, 14, 16, 220 etc... - weird numbers like these. How the hell am I supposed to remember all this??

I still drink "pints" tho

peasant · 26-05-2010 04:41PM

enda1 wrote: »

Metric system all the way!

I way 67kg, no idea in stone and pounds.
I am 185cm tall (this I know is 6'1" as I've been this height for ages)

You're a skinny little runt, that's for sure

(because I've got 30 kgs more at 186 cm and I ain't fat, no sir

)

pickarooney · 26-05-2010 04:42PM

I remember being 67 kgs for 1m85. And I haven't got any taller...

henryporter · 26-05-2010 04:42PM

Considering that the metre is based on the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1⁄299792458 of a second, I'd be asking who thinks of these things and why??

IvyTheTerrible · 26-05-2010 04:43PM

My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead and that's the way I likes it...

sponsoredwalk · 26-05-2010 04:49PM

For me I've always naturally thought of things metrically, (maybe it was those school rulers!), it was a pleasant shock for me to learn that all of physics is based on the metric (or can be through some basic algebra).

The most ridiculous measurement is the slug, wtf? A real slug! Surely this is some Aristotelian concept of species uniformity gone mad!

pickarooney wrote: »

and yet virtually every Irish person I know will look puzzled if you tell them your height in metres or your weight in kilos and automatically revert to stones and pounds and feet and inches when asked the same question.

Tbh I've never noticed this about other people but then again I don't ask people can I measure their height or if they'd like a pint of milk

Maybe I haven't lived...

Furlong's per fortnigt ftw!

thirtythirty · 26-05-2010 04:50PM

Zero idea of speed in Km/h.

I know 80km/h is 50mph, and 120 is 70mph, so then i just kinda guestimate anything inbetween those values.

Zero idea of my weight in kg as well - i'll always work in stone. If someone asks me what i weigh in kilo's i just say around 75kg cuz i know I saw around about that when I stood on scales once.

I think it's because the units are larger. Conceptually they "mean more". So when someone says "its about 40 miles away", you know what that "feels" like in a car no matter what your speed is. But say it's 55 or 60km away? Means nothing to me. I know kilometres are shorter than miles, so they'll fly past. "It'll prob take me 20 minutes at 40 miles an hour or something"

Similarily with weight. Someone says theyre 16 stone, you know that's heavy cuz it's 4 or 5 "more than you", and you're only "11". But the difference between 75 and 89 kilos? Nah, sure kilo's are only small compared to stone - someone could be carrying loads more than you and only weigh "a bit more".

I doubt anyone will understand where im coming from, but thats how i'd think in those situations anyway!

enda1 · 26-05-2010 04:51PM

bonerm wrote: »

No way!

Wow, that was pretty shocking by me

massdebater · 26-05-2010 04:54PM

If someone asked me what weight I was, I would say 715.4 Newtons

If they asked me what mass I was I'd say 73kg.

:cool:

bonerm · 26-05-2010 04:56PM

massdebater wrote: »

If someone asked me what weight I was, I would say 715.4 Newtons

If they asked me what mass I was I'd say 73kg.

:cool:

715.4? Fat bastard! You should go live on the moon.

fontanalis · 26-05-2010 05:01PM

massdebater wrote: »

I don't trust imperial measurements. Bloody hate them!! :mad:

Metric makes sense - everything is is multiples of 10, 100 or 1000 etc.

Bloody imperial measurements are in multiples of 2, 14, 16, 220 etc... - weird numbers like these. How the hell am I supposed to remember all this??

I still drink "pints" tho

Metric makes more sense. Ten fingers on both hands, multiply by ten you get a hundred.

Do you trust the metric system?

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