Imperial Measures

geekesse

I remember doing maths before decimalisation. Stuff like ‘Paint is sold in gallons. One gallon of paint costs 12/6. One pint covers three square feet. A wall is four yards long and 9ft 6in high. How many gallons of paint must the painter buy to paint the wall? How much will it cost?’

You have to use base 3, base 8, base 20 and base 12 to work that out. I can’t see it catching on. 49% of the working age population have the numeracy level of primary school children.

So, here’s a challenge. How many GN users can work that out?

I just know that I am going to work that out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Av2l4t0U4

volver

There is standardisation. It's the metric system.

Not if you are buying machinery from several different countries and shipping goods to other countries. Luckily most of our customers are happy to use imperial - 80% of our products are sold to USA.

That's why your DH uses thou. Thousandth of an inch. US usage. And of course the US doesn't use imperial. It uses US customary units. Which is not the same as Imperial. Clear as mud, eh?

So if 80% of your customers are in the US, that's why they like thou.

Star dreamer I think drinkers are more interested in what’s in their glass and they haven’t been short measured, than in which way round they hold their glass.

volver

How many painters are still working in £sd and feet per furlong?

5 gallons, assuming that only one gallon tins are available.

How much? 5 guineas, 3 crowns and a groat.

I made the cost £3/2/6d for 5 galls.

Wasn't a groat 4d? ?

It took me 5 minutes to work out with a pencil & paper. Hope I was correct..

Doesn't it actually show that our generation has a greater breadth of knowledge to use?

Before decimalisation of the currency, but not before use of decimals for other calculations.

So the wall is 12 feet by 9.5 feet.

So an area of 108 (=12 x 9) + 6 (=12 x 0.5) => 114 square feet.

One pint covers three square feet.

So, 38 (=114 / 3) pints of paint are needed.

There 8 pints in a gallon.

So 5 gallons of paint are needed.

So notionally two pints left over, but as a practical matter more paint than 38 pints is needed as some will be left on the brush and be washed away when clearing up afterwards.

One gallon of paint costs 12/6, which means (for the benefit of younger readers) 12 shillings and sixpence. The work sixpence meaning six pence, but said as one word back then)

So five gallons costs 62 shillings and 6 pence.

That is £3 2s 6d

Conclusions

How many gallons of paint must the painter buy to paint the wall? 5

How much will it cost? £3 2s 6d

So, here’s a challenge. How many GN users can work that out? I don't know, but the number is at least one.

I made the cost £3/2/6d for 5 galls.

Blimey, to think I've recently paid £70+ for 5litres of exterior satin... ?

25Avalon

Star dreamer I think drinkers are more interested in what’s in their glass and they haven’t been short measured, than in which way round they hold their glass.

Indeed.

There is the story I was told long ago - it might not have ever happened, but maybe it did - of the man who ordered a pint of beer in a pub and when handed the glass of beer by the publican asked him if he would be able to add a measure of whisky into the glass without there being any spillage. The publican replied that he could do that and reached for the bottle of whisky, thinkng he had got another sale, whereupon the customer said that in that case could he fill it with beer as he should have done in the first place.

MaizieD

^I made the cost £3/2/6d for 5 galls.^

Blimey, to think I've recently paid £70+ for 5litres of exterior satin... ?

Paint was cheaper then!

Well done, StarDreamer. I wonder how many others had a go?

MaizieD posted while I was preparing my post, so the answer to the third question is now I don't know, but the number is at least two.

will the pints of paint have crowns on or just the ones made by crown?

Mention of the groat set me searching.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groat_(coin)

Now work it all out long hand without a calculator

Not so difficult with metric, most of us had to do it at junior school. £sd, pints, gallons, pounds ounces and hundredweight.

No thanks

Surely we all know what a groat was? Do we need to be patronised with a link? No.

Katie59

Now work it all out long hand without a calculator

Not so difficult with metric, most of us had to do it at junior school. £sd, pints, gallons, pounds ounces and hundredweight.

No thanks

Katie, I worked it out longhand without a calculator, took a fewer than 5 minutes and it was easy. And this is the woman who barely scraped O level maths after an extra term of tuition..

I think it's interesting that the problem actually requires some application of logical thought. People working in base 10 all the time don't have to practise that skill.

With inflation running as it is and the use of plastic I don’t think the groat is going to make a return anytime soon ? Likewise the farthing and halfpenny unless you have a rare one.

Germanshepherdsmum

Surely we all know what a groat was? Do we need to be patronised with a link? No.

Goodness me, GSM, you must be really old if you remember them and don't need a wiki article to inform you. Groats went out of circulation in 1856. I doubt if many people, apart from history buffs, know what they were worth.

25Avalon

With inflation running as it is and the use of plastic I don’t think the groat is going to make a return anytime soon ? Likewise the farthing and halfpenny unless you have a rare one.

How could I find out whether my wooden cigar box full of Victorian coinage harbours a rarity or two?

Updated for the 21st century.

Paint is sold in litres. One litre of paint costs 62p. 125ml covers one square metre. A wall is 4 metres long and 3 metres high. How many litres of paint must the painter buy to paint the wall? How much will it cost?’

2 litres and £1.24.

Did it in my head in about 30 seconds. Shall we have one in hex? Might as well.

History buff here.

I’m sure SD will be along soon with a handy link ixion.

Idiom try “Sean’s Standard Catalogue of British Coins”. No guarantee any collector will buy though. If you have an old groat now that might be worth something. Or an old silver three pence.

Not Sean’s, stupid predictive text. Seaby

Katie59

Now work it all out long hand without a calculator

Not so difficult with metric, most of us had to do it at junior school. £sd, pints, gallons, pounds ounces and hundredweight.

No thanks

Ah a hundredweight.

No clue in the name though.

112 pounds if I remember correctly.

Is that 8 stones?

25Avalon

Idiom try “Sean’s Standard Catalogue of British Coins”. No guarantee any collector will buy though. If you have an old groat now that might be worth something. Or an old silver three pence.

Thank you 25Avalon. Should I come into ££££s, we can split it!
I show my children this box occasionally, telling them that this holds the key to their fortune when I am gone.

They laugh...