When I worked at westside coal preparation plant. A colleague built a frame. Measured In ft instead of mts. . Then Eg built it. 1.5 mts instead of 1.5 ft lol. Peed ourselves laughing when he went to fit the bugger. (Didn't fit btw) As an old bugger missen. I do all the things you do. I haven't a clue what I get in miles (or should it be kilometers) to the litre. And when you think about it. Most. if not all car sales give miles to the gallon.
I was born in MCMLV1. I Haven't had to look it up btw. Chuffbags changed it from 240 pence to the pound to 100 pence to the pound. Bugger when playing slot machines. Grandkids run out of pence quicker.
I'm a bit bi - I can work in both. Though when it comes to lengths, I can't cope with owt smaller than 16ths of an inch, owt less and it's a conversion to good old froggy millimeters. 25/32 nds ", WTF
If I remember rightly. There were arguments by some at the time. That folk were worse off under the change. Especially by the older end. Decimalisation of currency made complete sense to me. My dad was not in agreement lol.
I'm with many of the above. Born in 1960 I use a combination of metric and imperial. I still, while driving in Ireland, convert kilometres to miles in my head to see how far I have to go and how long it will take me. Let's be right though, for anyone younger than about 50 the imperial system is just plain stupid but then that should suit your average Tory voter to a tee.
Coincidentally someone told me that mathematically we’d be better working in base 12 because whole numbers are then divisible by more numbers. But I really don’t know what I’m talking about so I don’t know if that is true
As ever with the UK we have our own, unique way of doing things. Despite officially adopting the metric system we still use a weird mix of both metric and imperial. We buy milk and beer in pints, but water and soft drinks come in litres. We measure speed and road distance in miles, but short distances are measured in metres and centimetres. We buy petrol by the litre, but measure the efficiency of it by the gallon. Go figure.
I remember a time when I used to know milk as pints (probably back when the milkman brought them) but I’ve only ever referred to it as litres since. I’d call it a pint of beer at the pub but bottles are ml and so are cans at the supermarket. I’ve got a weird mix between the two in my head but, with the exception of miles, I know the metric for everything that it’s popular to use imperial for (e.g. my height and weight). I don’t have a clue what gallons or efficiency is I do like to hypermile though and my car’s not a guzzler so I presume I do well.
They have a point or even better still base 16. But for decades and even centuries we have used base 10 so are really stuck with it. It makes less sense to use a base 10 number system then use 12 inches, 14 pounds 16 ounces etc
Well I have always been labour through & through & I use the imperial system for everything I personally do, I weigh in lbs & ounces, I measure in feet & inches & so on & so on, although I am considerably older than 50 but I wonder do I qualify for being stupid ? Incidentally I can work out what a metre is, its 39" !
I don’t think this is about Labour or Conservative. It’s about recalling a myth of ‘Britishness’ where we don’t have to rely on them foreigners and their fancy ways.
I'm sure you got the main thrust. The imperial system is way more complex and difficult to manipulate than metric. It would be ridiculous to want to return to it.