General Chat

Very true, Patrick!

I used to work in both metric and standard, because I was a scientist. We used metric in the lab, and standard at home! I used to know temperature in C for eg freezing at work, and in F for at home

I think of weather in Centigrade and mms/cms, but also still know how to automatically do a rough calculation from C to F if I need to convert for someone. That's what I used to do between the lab and home.

I now think in pounds for my weight, that's the old standard here, and in feet and inches for height. The doctor confuses me when he gives my weight in kilos and height in metric ...... I have to think hard as to what he means.

I buy meat, fish etc by the size or number of what I'm buying, and ignore the weight. If we go to our butcher as against buying from the supermarket ..... he thinks in pounds (British immigrant) and his cash register weights and charges by gram or kilo (by law). He sells to us on size of roast he knows we like.

I buy fruit and veggies by the number that I need, eg 10 oranges, 8 bananas, 6 apples, 15 mushrooms, etc, and let the cashier determine how much it weighs and therefore how much I owe.

Canada is supposed to be metric, and certainly all packaging is in metric, but prices will be advertised in flyers and shop windows both per lb and per kg (or 100 gms)

Like you, Sylvia, I buy some fruit and vegetables by the piece - apples, pears, bananas, sprouts etc. - and meat by slices or pieces - as required. A loose bunch of grapes is as large or as small as you need it to be but pre-packed is in kilos.

If necessary, I have always roughly calculated centigrade/celsius to fahrenheit by doubling the centigrade temperature and adding, not 32 but (roughly) 30. The figure 30 could vary slightly according to how hot/cold it is.

Everyone still buys pints or half-pints here in England even if they have glasses that are volume-marked. Most milk is now in plastic bottles and the volume is given on the 'bottle' in both litres and pints.

It is now much easier to count pennies/pence and pounds. The old pounds, florins, shillings and pence, and even guineas (21 shillings for you young ones) and halfpennies are long gone, thank goodness.

I know my height and weight in both ways (too short - can't change that - and a few pounds (there you go) too heavy at the moment - can change that :-D).

Are people really daft enough to think that there is any chance of the UK bringing back £ s d currency or the the panoply of yards, feet and inches, acres, fahrenheit, inches and so on? Surely not.

It is illegal to use these measures for business purposes e.g. selling meat in the UK. Typically enforcement of this has been pretty tough and there is no reason to expect anything different going forward whatever nonsense doorstep UK Kippers may have been spouting during the campaign.

There are a few exceptions in the UK. Chief of those is the ongoing use of miles for signing and speed limits on highways. This is under review for safety reasons. The Dept Transport have been consulting countries with relevant experience. Draught beer & cider may be sold by the pint in glasses so marked, milk only in "returnable containers" (milk bottles) but the plastic bottles used by supermarkets are marked in pints as well as litres.

Unlike North America the UK started moving to metric in the 1950s and by the mid 60s schools allowed students the choice of metric or imperial units in science exams. The fusty musty dusty teachers were less than keen and I had a bitter battle with my school over this which I won.

Main Street America is the last hold out of anglo-saxon traditional measures as even NAFTA has moved to metric for science and engineering.

I guess there may be a petition on the uk.gov web site for the return of imperial units? No? Surely not. Think of all the other stuff which could be tagged on as E&W makes a u-turn into the past.

England & Wales is the only country I know where people of any level of education express pride at their innumeracy or if scientists and engineers hide such abilities with shame as they are scorned socially as geeks. Even doctors when they demand a reasonable deal.

Well now can't add up, won't add up has come back to bite. For donkeys years most Brits have been screwed for savings loans mobile phones and pension 'cos of their innumeracy. Now the great white shark of brexit has bitten a leg off and will come back for the rest.

Even the Labour Party has (at last) managed to work out that it is the northern and midland towns and cities which most voted Leave which are going to be the places most royally screwed by Johnson and his unpleasant cronies. The party is in turmoil. Johnson can sense that a fatal strike on the party is in the offing.

:-0

Perhaps we should look at removing some of the other the Brussels red tape and imposed laws too.

For example let's start employment by scrapping the 28 days annual holiday leave the EU imposed on this Sovereign nation of ours and go back to the good old days. Many businesses would be much happier with just 15 days - so much more profitable for them.

Then lets cut the maternity and paternity rights which the EU imposed. Even as recently as the late 1970's firms could have sacked an employee for being pregnant. Then the EU stepped in and stopped it all.

How about we abolish the 48 hour maximum working time directive. Employers would much prefer flog their English only workforce harder.

Food for thought, isn't it?

But the British have just shown their mettle and how they can reject what they do not want.

Having seen what they can do, I don't think the British would stand for that any more.

These are not the people of the seventies.

Is that so?

The US still operates on the old measures ....... miles, ounces, pounds, gallons, etc

Canada is officially metric ........ as Rollo said was the case in the UK, everything has to be sold in metric by law, but that of course doesn't stop people THINKING and TALKING in "old" terms. In fact, most of us are clever enough to be able to operate with both methods

We have no signs on roads in anything other than metric EXCEPT at the border entry points, when there is a sign just on the Canadian side, as one leaves the border post, that states in large letters that speed limits are marked in kilometres, and speeds are enforced in kilometres.

Car dealers cannot sell cars in Canada that do not have speedometers in kilometres ......... except in the case of antiques. Cars in the US can only be sold with speedometers in miles. This means that automobile makers have to make models for the US and models for Canada. There are regulations for people who sell cars privately, but I'm not sure what those are as we never buy other than new cars from a dealer.

People who drive antiques or American-bought cars in Canada (or vice versa) have to learn how to quickly convert speeds

Gasoline is sold in gallons in the US .......... and a US gallon is smaller than the British one and thus than the Canadian one. One US gallon equals just over 0.8 British gallon.

Gasoline is sold in litres in Canada.

Fortunately for the simple minded, gas gauges in all cars just show how full the tank is :-D

Funnily enough, most people over here even the wrinklies, no longer THINK or TALK in imperial measures at all, with, perhaps the one EXCEPTION of their own weight which they still tend to use the rather quaint measure of a 'Stone'

But none of that was due EU directives so won't change if we do leave.

I was born in 1984 and so was taught in metric at school but my parents were born in the 50s and so learnt in imperial. I can work between the two and frequently do as the shop I work in sell clothes both tops and bottoms in inches but most people come in with the measurements in metres and centimetres.

the only conclusion possible ...........


is that we are all crazy mixed up people and countries, but we live and enjoy life

:-D :-D :-D

Personally I feel that a certain member of Genes should be sent to Coventry

Why what's poor Coventry done to you :-D

:-D :-D

Caroline - nothing. However it would appear to be the only place Genes member has not mentioned in postings ;-)

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I still convert metric to Imperial in my head.

Even though I have lived in countries that used metric I still converted just cos I could.

Today I still have to convert athletics results to good old yards, feet and inches.

I still work out what a Mars bar costs in shillings (and promptly faint).

BTW we still buy land in acres and aren't horse races measured in furlongs?



;-)

Directions to the White Dolphin,


Yes,,,,,,,,,,,,,,about 50 yards down on your right.




about 10 meters isnt said in UK that I have heard,

Yes Sues,

and hectors.