Imperial Measures

Germanshepherdsmum

volver

Fresh milk, by the pint, even in the supermarket.

UHT, by the litre.

No idea why.

Ah, I buy UHT. Always have food etc enough in to feed the army if they happen to pass by ... or if there's deep snow, even in summer.

Also, as far as a quick check on a couple of supermarket websites shows, non-dairy milk (coconut, soy etc) comes in litres, not pints.

Its only overturning the EU rule that made using metric in most circumstances illegal - nobody will be forced to use imperial measurements. I am comfortable with either system - I learnt both at school. We still use pints, miles, stones etc so we have had a hybrid system for many years now.

Correction: my last post should have read "made using imperial in most circumstances illegal" doh!

Saetana

Correction: my last post should have read "made using imperial in most circumstances illegal" doh!

You haven’t read the thread, have you?

Tesco semi-skimmed milk:
2.272L/4 Pints

Semi-skimmed milk from the Spar (same price):
2L

We might call feet, inches and miles Imperial measurements but they did come here from Rome in the first place, although they're older than that.

1215
Magna Carta says “Let there be one measure …” However, enforcement in medieval times is often left to chance, and this clause in Magna Carta should be seen as an indication of a problem but not foreshadowing a solution.

We've been arguing about this for centuries - why stop now?

What a waste of time and money! We’ve never gone fully metric, I can still ask for a pound of mince or a pint of milk and the NHS still record my height in feet and inches. The last two generations have been brought up with the dual system and seem to cope pretty well. This is just Johnson trying to convince us of another Brexit ‘win’ to detract from the failures.

Expensive mistakes can happen.
(CNN) -- NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.30 Sept 1999

I’m sure many will sympathise with this view?

Monty Don

Although a devout european, I have never mastered the metric system. Everything has to be converted in my head to imperial before I can understand it, be it cm, metres, litres,hectares, kilos or grams.

That’s exactly what I do. And don’t we all sometimes mentally convert the price of something such as a stamp (daylight robbery) into old money and say ‘HOW much?’?

My dear old Dad once asked DH to buy him some worktop - 39 inches he wanted. ‘Oh’ said OH ‘you want a metre’. ‘No’ said Dad ‘39 inches!’ He was a Quantity Surveyor by profession and never accepted metric measurements for building materials.

mokryna

Expensive mistakes can happen.
^(CNN) -- NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because a Lockheed Martin engineering team used English units of measurement while the agency's team used the more conventional metric system for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.30 Sept 1999^

Is that true? ?

I can't believe a British engineering team wouldn't be using metric in 1999!
The USA still uses imperial measurements

You'd think someone would have noticed.

Or have I got this wrong - Lockheed is an American company so the team would be using American units of measurement ie imperial.

No British engineering teams were involved in this event. It shows the problems you can have when people think its "OK" to mix imperial and metric.

And yes, its true.

Horses mouth

www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-oct-01-mn-17288-story.html#:~:text=NASA%20lost%20its%20%24125%2Dmillion,space%20agency%20officials%20said%20Thursday.

volver

No British engineering teams were involved in this event. It shows the problems you can have when people think its "OK" to mix imperial and metric.

And yes, its true.

Yes, I think I remember it now.

Nothing to do with the British!
USA is still using the imperial system now.

Nothing to do with the British.

Amazingly, the world doesn't revolve around Britain, although some are loathe to believe that.

This is about using mixed systems of measurements, which people on here seem to think will be OK.

He’s just throwing a dead cat on the table again.

This is about using mixed systems of measurements, which people on here seem to think will be OK.

I don't think that anyone on here thinks it's OK, volver.

We're saying that in our personal lives and where there's an interface with retailers a mixture of systems doesn't cause any problem.

I'm confident that, as industry has been using metric for decades, there is no danger of cock ups such as the US example. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

And,basically, this is a storm in a teacup but we've all enjoyed having a little non contentious chat about it...

There is an absolutely fascinating thread on the history of measurement, and how it is linked to power and control (ruler in both its meanings) on Twitter. James Vincent, whose tweets they are, has just had a book on the subject published.

twitter.com/jjvincent/status/1530901940623880192?s=21&t=c46bOooO9UtuVovpDDBVtA

I don’t want my grandchildren to have the wonderful experience of imperial measurements. I’m rather ok with things as they are. I can buy fabric by the metre ie. 39 ins. I now measure in either cms or inches just depending which happens to be easiest.

Imperial surely refers to Empire. I think that disappeared!

I manage without either tbh.
I buy on amount not weight.

MaizieD

^This is about using mixed systems of measurements, which people on here seem to think will be OK.^

I don't think that anyone on here thinks it's OK, volver.

We're saying that in our personal lives and where there's an interface with retailers a mixture of systems doesn't cause any problem.

I'm confident that, as industry has been using metric for decades, there is no danger of cock ups such as the US example. Do you have evidence to the contrary?

And,basically, this is a storm in a teacup but we've all enjoyed having a little non contentious chat about it...

There are people on here saying its about time we went back to imperial because they like it. Johnson is pandering to what he thinks are his core voters.

One poster talked about how her DH's business works in thou. That's a metric subdivision of an imperial measure. Just let that sink in for a minute. So businesses haven't been using metric for decades.

usma.org/unit-mixups

The crashing roller coaster is quite an interesting one.

So anyway, in the real world it won't happen. But in the interim Johnson and co are stirring up nostalgia for a Britain that no longer exists and blaming the EU for all our trouble again. And there are posts on this thread which reflect that.

Nannina

What a waste of time and money! We’ve never gone fully metric, I can still ask for a pound of mince or a pint of milk and the NHS still record my height in feet and inches. The last two generations have been brought up with the dual system and seem to cope pretty well. This is just Johnson trying to convince us of another Brexit ‘win’ to detract from the failures.

All my DC age 36 and down have been educated in metric measurements - height, weight etc as I suspect most of their age have. It would cost a fortune and be very difficult to re-educate everyone from that age into imperial again and all the schools would have to completely change again. Going from imperial to metric was relatively easy but going backwards is more difficult for example 16 ozs in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone. And these are fairly well recognised measurements. They don't flow easily. I have forgotten a lot of what I learned in school and I don't think I could remember most of it.

@volver

There are people on here saying its about time we went back to imperial because they like it. Johnson is pandering to what he thinks are his core voters.

As I don't think he has as many core voters as he thinks he has, I tended to disregard the very few voices in favour of reverting to Imperial...

One poster talked about how her DH's business works in thou. That's a metric subdivision of an imperial measure. Just let that sink in for a minute. So businesses haven't been using metric for decades.

Without knowing anything at all about that poster's business I would surmise that they make a complete product. They mainly export to the US, too. Which doesn't use metric... And one swallow doesn't make a summer...

Any business which exports components, or items which have to be compatible with items made in a different country would have to use the common standard, which is overwhelmingly metric. I can't see any experienced manufacturer accidently confusing Imperial and metric if metric is the international standard.

Most of the examples in article you linked to were from the US, a country which seems to be totally confused. Have you any UK specific horrors caused by mixing Imperial & metric? After all, we've been metric for decades. If it were such a problem wouldn't there be some UK examples?

I think you are possibly worrying unduly.