# Miles or Km



## Sterlo (9 Mar 2020)

Curious what most of you do? I've always gone imperial but I've taken the plunge and gone metric this year.


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## ianrauk (9 Mar 2020)

Miles.
I even convert my Audax ride sheets to miles.


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## gavroche (9 Mar 2020)

I have Strava in kms but my Garmin in miles.


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## Phaeton (9 Mar 2020)

What are Km's?


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## gavroche (9 Mar 2020)

Phaeton said:


> What are Km's?


The future.


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## bluenotebob (9 Mar 2020)

Kilometres .. but it always raises the question about the thing that measures distance .. is it a kilometremeter ? 

And when I reach milestones in my cycling targets, I struggle to think of them as 'kilometrestones'


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## numbnuts (9 Mar 2020)

Independent state = miles


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## BigMeatball (9 Mar 2020)

Km. 

Only. Always.


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## C R (9 Mar 2020)

I have my Garmin set to miles, that way I surprise myself with how far I have been when I convert the distance to km, .


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## Spiderweb (9 Mar 2020)

I can never understand why people use km in the UK, I’m strictly miles.


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

Miles. Km are used by wannabes to exaggerate their speed and distance


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## Mo1959 (9 Mar 2020)

Definitely miles...........and I can still just about count in pounds, shillings and pennies too


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2020)

Miles, although my brother is kms.

When he borrowed my ebike he changed the display.

Something else trivial for us to fall out over.


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## Edwardoka (9 Mar 2020)

If used for navigation or giving/receiving directions, the local unit of measurement.
If used for bragging rights, whichever number sounds more impressive.

As this is the only correct answer, I will not be taking further comments at this time.


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## s7ephanie (9 Mar 2020)

miles, even though everything here is Ks


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## Joffey (9 Mar 2020)

Miles innit


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

For personal consumption, kilometres. Use them for walking, cycling and - back when I was young and had functional knees - running.

But I do defer to @Edwardoka in that I convert my 161km+ rides to 100 milers purely for the bragging rights (and entry into the century a month challenge, which is pretty much the same thing)


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## derrick (9 Mar 2020)

Miles for men. Kilometers for kids. 100 miles is so much better than 100 kilometers.👍


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

Furlongs for shorter riders, and Parsecs if I'm going a long way.


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> Miles for men. Kilometers for kids. 100 miles is so much better than 100 kilometers.👍



200km so much better than 100 miles...


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## derrick (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> 200km so much better than 100 miles...


🤔not as good as 200 miles


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## fossyant (9 Mar 2020)

Miles.


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## fossyant (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> 200km so much better than 100 miles...



That's because it's 40km more than 100 miles (approx).


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## cyberknight (9 Mar 2020)

simple 
road signs in miles. measurement in miles .


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> 🤔not as good as 200 miles



Not as good as 400km. Lots of 400km events out there, where are all the 200 mile ones if they are so good?


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## derrick (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Not as good as 400km. Lots of 400km events out there, where are all the 200 mile ones if they are so good?


So how many 400km rides you done?


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> So how many 400km rides you done?



About 30


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## derrick (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> About 30


Thats good going. Are they on Strava?


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> Thats good going. Are they on Strava?



Don't do Strava but being doing audax for years. I do a super randonneur series every year plus Easter Arrow. So that's a series of 200,300,400,600km rides every year plus the 400km + Easter Arrow.


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## Ian H (9 Mar 2020)

Km for audax*, miles for time-trials, either indifferently for other riding.

*Though one of the events I organise is 167km.


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

I didn't say anything when a friend bragged on Faecebook about having completed her first century ride of 64.12 miles


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## Venod (9 Mar 2020)

I don't understand why UK cyclists use Kilometers, do native cyclists in countries that use Kilometers use miles for recording distance?


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## derrick (9 Mar 2020)

We aint even in the EU. So it should be miles.😂😂


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## Adam4868 (9 Mar 2020)

Allways miles and allways feet and inches !


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

Being fluent in both gives you a whole load of additional milestones you can add to your ride. For example, as you pass 120km* you know that's three quarters of an imperial century.

Also it's very useful** to bear in mind that kilometres:miles is approximately the Golden Ratio.



Venod said:


> I don't understand why UK cyclists use Kilometers, do native cyclists in countries that use Kilometers use miles for recording distance?


Why? I've never really thought about it, or felt there was a need for a reason. But there are probably underlying reasons. As a runner 10k is a key distance so a lot of my running training revolved around km split times. Add to that the fact that OS grid lines are at 1km spacings so it's easier to eyeball distances in km. So 20 years or so ago when I got my first GPS I calibrated it in km. I only really use miles when driving up the motorway. And bragging when I pass 160.934 km on my bike.

* ish
** OK, it's actually not useful at all.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

derrick said:


> We aint even in the EU. So it should be miles.😂😂


The EU? Hmmmm. Something a bit off there. 🤔
The only other countries in the world using the mile are Liberia, Myanmar and the US. Everywhere else, in or out of the EU, uses km.


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> But there are probably underlying reasons



The language of cycling, certainly sports and competitive cycling, is nominally French.

I say nominally because English tends to dominate international communication in all spheres.


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

The metre is based on a very flawed calculation of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole, whereas the mile is a totally accurate and unimpeachable measure of 1,000 paces made by a Roman legionary


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## jay clock (9 Mar 2020)

KM all the way. And when I rent a car in the USA I change the temp to degrees C - must confuse them no end!


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

Also the Velominati say you should use kilometres. Which is probably a very good reason to use something, anything, else. Kilosmoots, for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

Really annoying people call them "klicks".


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## C R (9 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Also the Velominati say you should use kilometres. Which is probably a very good reason to use something, anything, else. Kilosmoots, for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot


FFF unit system all the way.


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## HMS_Dave (9 Mar 2020)

I use the measurements of a 'bloody long ways' and 'Knackereds' as my units of choice...


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## Brandane (9 Mar 2020)

I'm British; so it's miles. Velominati and kilometres are nobbery. 
Apart from the 100km monthly challenge ride, of course . Which only means I have to break through the 63 mile mark on my properly set Garmin, and then convert to KM's to post on here .


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> Really annoying people call them "klicks".



My brother uses 'k' or 'kays'.

I think he picked that up while serving with RAF in Germany.


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## Ian H (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> I don't understand why UK cyclists use Kilometers, do native cyclists in countries that use Kilometers use miles for recording distance?


I've known Swedish event organisers confuse people by referring to distance in miles. Of course, that's doubly confusing.


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

Of course the burning question is, do you say kil*OM*eters or *KIL*ometers?


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## Dogtrousers (9 Mar 2020)

Ian H said:


> I've known Swedish event organisers confuse people by referring to distance in miles. Of course, that's doubly confusing.


Traditional Swedish Miles are huge. About 10km I think. Or do they use Statute Miles?

Edit: Read your post properly. Doubly confusing so I guess they are using Swedish Miles.


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## Glow worm (9 Mar 2020)

Miles. Always miles.


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## MontyVeda (9 Mar 2020)

Miles... folk who use km are just trying to kid themselves, and others with big impressive numbers


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## alecstilleyedye (9 Mar 2020)

km, for the simple reason that the first ever bike computer i had back in the 90s was km only...


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## Twilkes (9 Mar 2020)

I mainly thought in miles and mph, but elevation is easier for me to visualise and calculate in metres, especially percentage gradient, so I've switched my bike computer and route planner to km. It's not intuitive but I have a rough idea how fast 25, 30 and 35kph are now, and in the big picture it doesn't really matter so much, whether it's a mile or a kilometre I still have to pedal it.


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## Kuta (9 Mar 2020)

Miles, even though the roads I've designed have been in SI units since the seventies (m'way junction 300 yd countdown marker is 274m before the junction)


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## Hugh Manatee (9 Mar 2020)

I have always used miles. However, I'm thinking of changing to Kilometres just because it might cause Jacob Grease-Knob's port to taste ever so slightly sour.


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## steveindenmark (9 Mar 2020)

I live in Denmark 🇩🇰 I think I will try switching to miles 😁


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## pjd57 (9 Mar 2020)

Miles, until I can't manage my age in a day, then I might change


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## Drago (9 Mar 2020)

Miles. KM is for weaklings and those on a diet.


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## Donger (9 Mar 2020)

Both!! Two identical computers fitted, one using miles, the other using km. I use miles most of the time, but when entering audax events, the distances are always given in km. If I don't have a display showing miles per hour, I have a tendency to drift along slower, subconsciously relying on the bigger numbers on the km computer.


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## SkipdiverJohn (9 Mar 2020)

Hugh Manatee said:


> I have always used miles. However, I'm thinking of changing to Kilometres just because it might cause Jacob Grease-Knob's port to taste ever so slightly sour.



It's too late for that now. JRM won't care - his port will taste fine. We've left and we ain't going back! It's all about Brexit smiles per mile now.


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## Dave7 (9 Mar 2020)

If I am baking I weigh everything in kilometres.
When I cycle I measure it in Lbs..
I get some amazing results


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## Rusty Nails (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Don't do Strava but being doing audax for years. I do a super randonneur series every year plus Easter Arrow. So that's a series of 200,300,400,600km rides every year plus the 400km + Easter Arrow.



I get bored doing long rides so much prefer not doing 400 kms to not doing 200 miles.


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## Yellow Saddle (9 Mar 2020)

This place is messed up. 
The roads are marked in miles but fuel is sold in liters. Yet, fuel consumption is given in miles per gallon.
A pint of milk is 568ml but a pint of beer is 500ml.
People quote their weight in stone, which must be the most ridiculous unit of them all. It is such a large unit that you can take 3kgs off your weight with a little rounding fib. Stone is fit for horses, I say. Yet, food is sold in grams. 
Building materials are sold in meters, but joiners assemble in inches.
Tyre pressure is given in PSI but fortuitously, also in BAR.
Bike tyres....don't even get me going.

Let's just go metric so that we can simplify our lives.


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## Rusty Nails (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> This place is messed up.
> The roads are marked in miles but fuel is sold in liters. Yet, fuel consumption is given in miles per gallon.
> A pint of milk is 568ml but a pint of beer is 500ml.
> People quote their weight in stone, which must be the most ridiculous unit of them all. It is such a large unit that you can take 3kgs off your weight with a little rounding fib. Stone is fit for horses, I say. Yet, food is sold in grams.
> ...



This isn't America. What are liters and meters?


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## Venod (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> A pint of milk is 568ml but a pint of beer is 500ml.
> P


Change your pub you're being sold short a pint of beer is also 568ml unless you are in USA.


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## Yellow Saddle (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> Change your pub you're being sold short a pint of beer is also 568ml unless you are in USA.


As you all know, I don't drink beer, so the error is surely excusable. But, asking for a friend, I, I mean, he, buys bottles of beer for home consumption and the volume is stated as 500ml. Do you get a different size in a pub?


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> This place is messed up.
> The roads are marked in miles but fuel is sold in liters. Yet, fuel consumption is given in miles per gallon.
> A pint of milk is 568ml but a pint of beer is 500ml.
> People quote their weight in stone, which must be the most ridiculous unit of them all. It is such a large unit that you can take 3kgs off your weight with a little rounding fib. Stone is fit for horses, I say. Yet, food is sold in grams.
> ...


Weights and measures for sale, which are the metric examples you quote, were forced on people by law. They were never adopted with any enthusiasm. People use the old imperial measures among themselves, although mm and g come in useful for small things (thou, 32nds and drams are a bit esoteric).

SI units make sense for science. I did an engineering degree and the American units are horrific. They taught us a bit of that stuff to show us how to appreciate SI.

Btw, I was only taught metric at school (cgs) and I was vehemently opposed to Brexit. But imperial units make sense for everyday purposes as they are the right size, arrived at by custom and long use.


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## Venod (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> As you all know, I don't drink beer, so the error is surely excusable. But, asking for a friend, I, I mean, he, buys bottles of beer for home consumption and the volume is stated as 500ml. Do you get a different size in a pub?


If you ask for a pint, you get a pint, draught is usually dispensed in pints, you can buy 500ml bottles in the pub you can also buy bottled beer in pints and for some strange reason in 660ml bottles.


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## Yellow Saddle (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> If you ask for a pint, you get a pint, draught is usually dispensed in pints, you can buy 500ml bottles in the pub you can also buy bottled beer in pints and for some strange reason in *660ml* bottles.


I think you've just demonstrated my original point. This place is bonkers.
Please sign my petition for a new 10mm pitch bicycle chain standard.


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## Yellow Saddle (9 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> Btw, I was only taught metric at school (cgs) and I was vehemently opposed to Brexit. But imperial units make sense for everyday purposes as they are the right size, arrived at by custom and long use.


One foot may be more convenient to say than 300mm, but calculating multiples of those and converting to their next-largest unit isn't easy. Base 10 does make sense.


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## Drago (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> This place is messed up.
> The roads are marked in miles but fuel is sold in liters. Yet, fuel consumption is given in miles per gallon.
> A pint of milk is 568ml but a pint of beer is 500ml.
> People quote their weight in stone, which must be the most ridiculous unit of them all. It is such a large unit that you can take 3kgs off your weight with a little rounding fib. Stone is fit for horses, I say. Yet, food is sold in grams.
> ...


Or go back to Imperial that everyone was happy with until certain people abroad started imposing their will and forcing us to use litres, grams, and all that rubbish. Base 12 and 14 are just as easy if it's what you were raised with, as I was (I can work interchangeably in both old numbers and metric without any mental sweat, and if a thicko like me can do it you can hardly claim its difficult).


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## Moodyman (9 Mar 2020)

Miles. Unless I want to brag to none cyclists, in which case I use km. They don't know the difference.

If I really want to show off, I quote furlongs.


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## chriswoody (9 Mar 2020)

I live in Germany, so it's kilometres and metres all the way for me. 

What I can't fathom for the life of me is that whilst Germany is a metric nation, why on earth do they insist on only using Imperial measurements for bike wheels and TV sizes?


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## Venod (9 Mar 2020)

And your never too old to learn, I came across a measurement the other day which was new to me, the "ligne"


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> I think you've just demonstrated my original point. This place is bonkers.
> Please sign my petition for a new 10mm pitch bicycle chain standard.


Been done!

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/nanodrive/


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## PaulSB (9 Mar 2020)

Miles though when cycling in France I change my RWGPS routes and Wahoo to km for simplicity.


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Mar 2020)

Maybe clocks ought to go metric, all this base 60 stuff is nonsense🤔


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Maybe clocks ought to go metric, all this base 60 stuff is nonsense🤔


And angles (although minutes and seconds of arc seem to be dying out in these days of GPS)


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## Low Gear Guy (9 Mar 2020)

Kilometers are the way to go. Imperial units are imperialist.


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## Mo1959 (9 Mar 2020)

My dad was a fencer and drainage contractor. Way back in his younger days he still quoted for digging drains by the chain (22 yards)


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## Tenkaykev (9 Mar 2020)

I switched my Garmin running watch over to Km a few years ago when I realised my mile pace had become my kilometer pace 🙄


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## Smudge (9 Mar 2020)

Miles always. But i will measure for diy sometimes in metric and sometimes imperial.
I always weigh in metric, apart from my own weight and use centigrade temp.
I use MPG, BHP for power instead of KW's, but i use both NM and ft/Ib for torque. MPG can become different in America, as US gallons are smaller than UK gallons.

But i agree we should become all metric, we'd soon get used to it. Having two systems is complicated and stupid.


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## tyred (9 Mar 2020)

And what was wrong with the cubit?


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## Edwardoka (9 Mar 2020)

Drago said:


> Or go back to Imperial that everyone was happy with until certain people abroad started imposing their will and forcing us to use litres, grams, and all that rubbish. Base 12 and 14 are just as easy if it's what you were raised with, as I was (I can work interchangeably in both old numbers and metric without any mental sweat, and if a thicko like me can do it you can hardly claim its difficult).


I honestly can't tell if you're being facetious or not. One of the systems is called "imperial" and yet it's the other one that you claim was imposed on us... that... that is not how empires work.


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## Edwardoka (9 Mar 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Maybe clocks ought to go metric, all this base 60 stuff is nonsense🤔


Base 60 at least makes sense since it is highly divisible by 2, 3 and 5 whereas converting fractions to percentages immediately devolves into idiocy like 0.6666666666666666666666......................6667 or 0.125 0.0625 0.03125 ad infinitum


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## C R (9 Mar 2020)

Moodyman said:


> Miles. Unless I want to brag to none cyclists, in which case I use km. They don't know the difference.
> 
> If I really want to show off, I quote furlongs.



Speed in furlongs per fortnight is also very impressive, I managed 43 kfurlongs per fortnight in my lunchtime ride.


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## Spartak (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> If you ask for a pint, you get a pint, draught is usually dispensed in pints, you can buy 500ml bottles in the pub you can also buy bottled beer in pints and for some strange reason in 660ml bottles.



And why are some cans sold in 440ml...?

Always strange in EU you order beer in either 250ml, 330ml, 400ml or 500ml.


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## Shut Up Legs (9 Mar 2020)

Phaeton said:


> What are Km's?


A possessive phrase missing the possession?


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## gavroche (9 Mar 2020)

I never could understand Farenheit , centigrade is so easy: boiling 100 c, freezing 0 c, simple .  Why complicate it. 
Same with the decimal system, it is so much easier to use and calculate. 
When I worked in engineering, most of my drawings were using Imperial units so I had to learn it fast but now , most firms have moved over to the metric system, specially when using CNC machines, it makes sense.


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## Ridgeway (9 Mar 2020)

KM here, must admit that i find it slightly demoralising when riding in the UK and forgetting how far "10 miles" is vs my expected 10km.....

I just couldn't imagine working in inches and thou anymore


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## Shearwater Missile (9 Mar 2020)

Miles is how I started life and miles I will end it, not just yet I hasten to add.

When I used to run in races most events were either 5 mile,10 mile, 1/2 marathon or marathon. Of course there were also the 10km which we did on the track (25laps) or the road. Track running was mainly metric. If we worked out our pace it would always be minutes per mile. Perhaps that has changed now.


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## snorri (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> I don't understand why UK cyclists use Kilometers, do native cyclists in countries that use Kilometers use miles for recording distance?


Yes! Sweden and Norway use mils but they measure 10km.
I was lucky to have been given the low down not long before asking a local for directions to a campsite in Sweden. "It's just half a mil up the road" she said. I didn't feel like cycling another 5km at the end of a long day, but that's what I had to do.



Dogtrousers said:


> Of course the burning question is, do you say kil*OM*eters or *KIL*ometers?


The latter.


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## LeetleGreyCells (9 Mar 2020)

Metric all the way.


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## Jenkins (9 Mar 2020)

Either.

My Garmin is set for miles and my total mileage is recored in them. However, when I go out for a ride I like to aim for a round number minimum distance whether that's 40 or 50 miles or 50 or 100km (31 & a bit or 62 and a bit miles).

Also, just to throw the drinks thing into confusion, it is possible to buy bottles of cider in 1 pint/568ml bottles, but I've not seen beer sold in this volume.


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## rogerzilla (9 Mar 2020)

tyred said:


> And what was wrong with the cubit?


I still use that to set reach on a bike! Cubit plus an inch.


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## Venod (9 Mar 2020)

Jenkins said:


> Also, just to throw the drinks thing into confusion, it is possible to buy bottles of cider in 1 pint/568ml bottles, but I've not seen beer sold in this volume.


Even more confusing, Newcastle Brown is sold in 550ml bottles, maybe to allow for a head in a pint glass.


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## Jenkins (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> Even more confusing, Newcastle Brown is sold in 550ml bottles, maybe to allow for a head in a pint glass.


And straying even more slightly off topic, packs of ground coffee are mostly sold in 227 or 454g packs (1/2lb or 1lb) while instant is in multiples of 100g.


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## Pale Rider (9 Mar 2020)

Venod said:


> Even more confusing, Newcastle Brown is sold in 550ml bottles, maybe to allow for a head in a pint glass.


Newcastle Brown is unusual for a beer in that it is supplied in a clear glass bottle.


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## SkipdiverJohn (9 Mar 2020)

There are a few bottled beers that are sold in full pint measures. I suspect the main reason for the proliferation of 500ml sizes is a lot of it is exported, and for most brewers, it's more convenient to only have one size container on their bottling lines. You can get Wifebeater in 284ml bottles by the case though, AKA half a pint. Not sure it still qualifies for the name though, as it's not as strong as it used to be. I used to sometimes drink Newky Brown in pubs with no real beer, and I'm sure it used to be full pint measure years ago.


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## si_c (9 Mar 2020)

My bike computer show speed and distance in miles and elevation in metres. I use Strava for ride-logging and that displays in KM largely because I prefer elevation in metres and you can't select that as a display option separately.


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## HLaB (9 Mar 2020)

Miles so I can talk about my mileage; talking about kilomage doesn't sound right


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## Vantage (10 Mar 2020)

The only times I use kilometres is on the 50k a month thread and that's only because just like kilometres, I'm a big girls blouse and can't currently do 50 miles.
I blame those poncy French types fine chaps across the pond and the tdf for kms being the default choice among cyclists.
If distances were people, the mile would be John Wayne. Big, tough, rugged, manly. The km would be some moisturiser using, manbag wearing, boyband wannabe, metrosexual with a stupid bleach blonde wavy haircut.
I'd rather the John Wayne way.


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## Sterlo (10 Mar 2020)

Okay, you've convinced me, I've just switched back to miles!!!


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## Hugh Manatee (10 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> And angles (although minutes and seconds of arc seem to be dying out in these days of GPS)


Ah, but GPS (GNSS) relies on the WGS84 coordinate system. This is always expressed as Latitude, Longitude and Elipsoid height. The Lat and Long are degrees, minutes and seconds. All other coordinate systems (including our own OSGB36(15) are transformations of WGS84.
I wrote a guy an export file that would export his WGS data to 9 decimal places last week.

On the other hand, my son who is doing A Level maths and did Further Maths at GCSE didn't even know about degree, minutes and seconds! Apparently, they use Rads.


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

Here's a fun game for you. Assuming your computer reads out miles, after one mile you wonder how far you have gone in km. You make a guess: It's about 2km so you say to yourself "1 mile is 2 km". It's a pretty poor estimate but it will do.

Now wait until you have done that number of miles, in this case 2. Add together the two previous numbers and you will get a better estimate - in this case 2 miles is 3 km.

And repeat the process: 3 is 5 (ie 2+3); 5 is 8 (3+5); 8 is 13 (5+8); 13 is 21 and so on. With each step your estimate will get better. By the time you get to 8 is 13 the error is already less than 1%.

Unfortunately I lied and it doesn't keep getting better for ever. Eventually it settles down with an over-estimate error of about 0.5%.

Of course what you are doing is calculating the Fibonacci numbers as you go along. Who says long distance cycling is boring?


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## postman (10 Mar 2020)

View: https://youtu.be/Q0iqg2UanEc


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## Shut Up Legs (10 Mar 2020)

What gets me is that there's no useful abbreviation for miles, so when I cycle 161km, did I cycle 100ml, or 100mls, or ???
On the other hand, miles works better in poetry and songs, rhyming with words such as piles.


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## Ming the Merciless (10 Mar 2020)

Shut Up Legs said:


> What gets me is that there's no useful abbreviation for miles, so when I cycle 161km, did I cycle 100ml, or 100mls, or ???
> On the other hand, miles works better in poetry and songs, rhyming with words such as piles.



It’s 100 mi


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

As a child of the 60s I can mentally juggle most everyday units but there are a couple that really throw me, and I'm reduced to counting on my fingers.

The first is use of lbs for any large quantity (bigger than, say, a turkey). Mainly Americans do this, for example giving the weight of people or vehicles in lbs. What's that all about? Use kg, tons, tonnes, cwt, stone and I'm fine ... but not lbs. And 2.2 is a really awkward factor for convering to kg.

The second is feet for any large quantity. I'm fine with feet for the height of people, the depth of ditches and so on but anything bigger than that really throws me. 2,000 feet? WTF? Yards, metres, miles, km fine. But feet? Are you insane? (or a commercial pilot). Fortunately a quick division by 3 reduces it to yards, which are roughly a slightly smaller version of metres.

Both of the above I suspect are Americanisms. (Who also have their own pints, tons and hundredweight plus a slightly different mile standard I think)

Also fluid ounces. But I have never in my life had any reason to be interested in fl oz, and I doubt I ever will.


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## SpokeyDokey (10 Mar 2020)

Miles for the bike and the car but always Kilometers when hoofing around in the mountains.


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## Ashimoto (10 Mar 2020)

Miles


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## PaulSB (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Here's a fun game for you. Assuming your computer reads out miles, after one mile you wonder how far you have gone in km. You make a guess: It's about 2km so you say to yourself "1 mile is 2 km". It's a pretty poor estimate but it will do.
> 
> Now wait until you have done that number of miles, in this case 2. Add together the two previous numbers and you will get a better estimate - in this case 2 miles is 3 km.
> 
> ...



I think this is just a variation on ÷3 *2 or *2 ÷3 depending on which conversion one is doing?

It's the one I always use


----------



## Ming the Merciless (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> The first is use of lbs for any large quantity (bigger than, say, a turkey). Mainly Americans do this, for example giving the weight of people or vehicles in lbs. What's that all about? Use kg, tons, tonnes, cwt, stone and I'm fine ... but not lbs. And 2.2 is a really awkward factor for convering to kg.



Divide by 2 then subtract 10% will get you near enough

So 168 pounds
Divide by 2 gives you 84kg
10% of that is 8 kg
So it’s 76kg


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

PaulSB said:


> I think this is just a variation on ÷3 *2 or *2 ÷3 depending on which conversion one is doing?
> 
> It's the one I always use


No, the Fibonacci calculation is due to the fact that, purely by chance, the km to mile conversion factor (1.6093) is almost the same as the golden ratio (1.61803). It's just a bit of fun - it's of no practical use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio


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## PaulSB (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> No, the Fibonacci calculation is due to the fact that, purely by chance, the km to mile conversion factor (1.6093) is almost the same as the golden ratio (1.61803). It's just a bit of fun - it's of no practical use. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio


That was an interesting read. Thank you.

The only golden ratio I was previously familiar with was 1000 feet climbed for every 10 miles ridden!!!!


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## Vantage (10 Mar 2020)

My dad's attempt to get me to pay more attention at school was to point out that I wouldn't always have a calculator to hand.
Then some smart arse invented the smart phone.
Miles to kilometers? Problem solved.


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## Vantage (10 Mar 2020)

Sterlo said:


> Okay, you've convinced me, I've just switched back to miles!!!


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## oldwheels (10 Mar 2020)

Weight and volume I use metric but I convert fuel measure into gallons. Distance always miles. When in the past I bought yarn it was always metric but before that I bought barley in tons.


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## mjr (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Both of the above I suspect are Americanisms. (Who also have their own pints, tons and hundredweight plus a slightly different mile standard I think)


All use of miles in this day and age is an Americanism, expressing a hope that England will be dominated by its former colony instead of cooperating with its neighbours.

I set everything to km except the car head up display when driving in the UK because I don't want to speed if I misremember part of the sixteen times table! Annoyingly, that sets all other car displays to Imperial, including fuel economy and range.


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

Interestingly, if we consider folk units I'm told that in some markets in Normandy the produce is still sold in "livres" (pounds) that predate the revolution.

Science and engineering is conducted primarily using SI units because anything else would be - not to put too fine a point on it - plain stupid. But it doesn't really matter a damn what ordinary people (including cyclists!) use.

I drink water in pints, set my gears up using gear-inches, measure my rims and tyres in mm and my rides in km and elevation in m, on tyre pressures in either bar or psi depending on which pump I'm using. How others do it is interesting, but not important.


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## Hugh Manatee (10 Mar 2020)

Mo1959 said:


> My dad was a fencer and drainage contractor. Way back in his younger days he still quoted for digging drains by the chain (22 yards)


Gunter was a genius. Mathematician and Clergyman if memory serves. His 22 yd chain allowed integration of imperial and metric systems.
I believe it is also why a cricket pitch is still 22 yards long.


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

Hugh Manatee said:


> Gunter was a genius. Mathematician and Clergyman if memory serves. His 22 yd chain allowed integration of imperial and metric systems.
> I believe it is also why a cricket pitch is still 22 yards long.


I'd not heard of him. But I have now. Will read further


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## Edwardoka (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Also the Velominati say you should use kilometres. Which is probably a very good reason to use something, anything, else. Kilosmoots, for instance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot


I feel that this wiki link didn't get enough appreciation.
The guy the Smoot was named after became chairman of ANSI and president of ISO.
If anyone knows anything about standards, he does. I'll be going with Smoots from now on.


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## Tenkaykev (10 Mar 2020)

I would walk 800k, and I would 800 more...
To be the man who walks 1600k to fall down at your door...


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## Dogtrousers (10 Mar 2020)

Tenkaykev said:


> I would walk 800k, and I would 800 more...
> To be the man who walks 1600k to fall down at your door...


Have you got anything by Km Wilde?


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## Shearwater Missile (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Here's a fun game for you. Assuming your computer reads out miles, after one mile you wonder how far you have gone in km. You make a guess: It's about 2km so you say to yourself "1 mile is 2 km". It's a pretty poor estimate but it will do.
> 
> Now wait until you have done that number of miles, in this case 2. Add together the two previous numbers and you will get a better estimate - in this case 2 miles is 3 km.
> 
> ...


Whenever I was on the continent travelling and road signs were in km and I wanted a quick conversion to miles all I did was 1/2 the km and then add 1 for every 10km. Thus 10km divide by 2 =5 +1 = 6 miles actually it is 6.2 in reality but pretty darn close when you are assuming that the road signs are correct anyway. So 80km /2 =40+8 =48miles.


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## snorri (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Assuming your computer reads out miles, after one mile you wonder how far you have gone in km. You make a guess:


I don't guess!
I got bored with the guessing game and bought a second computer to mount on my 'bars.
Of course this can lead to frustration as when converting miles to km (or vv) at the end of the day the distances recorded never agree, a bit like the man with two watches who is never sure of the exact time.


----------



## glasgowcyclist (10 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Of course the burning question is, do you say kil*OM*eters or *KIL*ometers?



Must be the latter, it's the only one that makes sense.


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## Edwardoka (10 Mar 2020)

glasgowcyclist said:


> Must be the latter, it's the only one that makes sense.


Bear in mind that there are some on here who think that "bath" doesn't rhyme with "path" and that "issue" doesn't have a "sh" sound in it


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## pjd57 (10 Mar 2020)

Tenkaykev said:


> I would walk 800k, and I would 800 more...
> To be the man who walks 1600k to fall down at your door...


Would you be bringing almost every penny home or would it be cents ?


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## Mr Celine (10 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> Weights and measures for sale, which are the metric examples you quote, were forced on people by law. They were never adopted with any enthusiasm. People use the old imperial measures among themselves, although mm and g come in useful for small things (thou, 32nds and drams are a bit esoteric).
> 
> SI units make sense for science. I did an engineering degree and the American units are horrific. They taught us a bit of that stuff to show us how to appreciate SI.
> 
> Btw, I was only taught metric at school (cgs) and I was vehemently opposed to Brexit. But imperial units make sense for everyday purposes as they are the right size, arrived at by custom and long use.


Imperial measures ie London measures were forced on people by law. 
In Edinburgh, for example - 
A mile was 1807metres
A pint was 1.696 litres
A pound was 624 grams
No doubt the locals thought these units made sense for everyday purposes. Or perhaps the English are just lightweights.


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## newfhouse (10 Mar 2020)

Kilometres, just to irk the luddites.


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## the_mikey (10 Mar 2020)

I use Kilometres mostly, but mindfully convert to Miles when talking to 'normal' folk. 😬


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## lane (10 Mar 2020)

the_mikey said:


> I use Kilometres mostly, but mindfully convert to Miles when talking to 'normal' folk. 😬



This. Also, i'm not really prepared to die in a ditch over it - just not really that important to me.


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## SuperHans123 (10 Mar 2020)

Miles.
KM for kidding yourself you've gone further.


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## rogerzilla (10 Mar 2020)

I'm a big fan of fathoms, personally. Brilliant way to visualise depth.


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## mjr (10 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> I'm a big fan of fathoms, personally. Brilliant way to visualise depth.


There's a half fathom column outside Marriott's Warehouse in King's Lynn, representing the tidal range of the adjacent river.


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## Edwardoka (10 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> I'm a big fan of fathoms, personally. Brilliant way to visualise depth.


I've tried to understand fathoms but I can't get to the bottom of it.


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## Kryton521 (11 Mar 2020)

Kms. It was sad old farts of the AA/RAC that blocked the conversion to Kms.

I learned Kms & decimal system at school, joined the Army, first question, "How many yards in a mile?" "Not a f**king clue!" I can't visualize distance in yards/miles. As in, how far to next junction? 600 metres.


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## snorri (11 Mar 2020)

Here is a link to an amusing/depressing history of our transition, or not, to metrication in the UK.
Start at 1968 and the formation of The Metrication Board.
https://ukma.org.uk/what-is-metric/uk-progress/uk-metric-timeline/


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## rogerzilla (11 Mar 2020)

The trouble with metric units is that they're the wrong size. It's like eating with a teaspoon or a tablespoon rather than a dessert spoon.


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## mustang1 (11 Mar 2020)

Km mostly. But sometimes for long rides I see how long the ride is in miles (it's a smaller number so it can't be that bad) but at the end I record it in km (wow that's a big number, give yourself a pat on the back and a slice of cake).


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## biggs682 (11 Mar 2020)

Miles for me as I am a British person living in country who's sign post's are in miles


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## Ming the Merciless (11 Mar 2020)

newfhouse said:


> Kilometres, just to irk the luddites.



What has textile machinery got to do with it?


----------



## Andy in Germany (11 Mar 2020)

Sterlo said:


> Curious what most of you do? I've always gone imperial but I've taken the plunge and gone metric this year.



I use kilometres because 1: I live in a country where they are standard, and 2: It sounds way better when showing off. Not that I do, of course.


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## I like Skol (11 Mar 2020)

Is this discussion still rumbling on? The answer is miles, thread can be locked now.


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## mjr (11 Mar 2020)

biggs682 said:


> Miles for me as I am a British person living in country who's sign post's are in miles


In miles, but various road changes make them so widely inaccurate on the small roads used for most cycling that they might as well be in Sheppys.


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## Sterlo (11 Mar 2020)

Enough already, I thought you all played together nicely on here!


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## Wobbling (11 Mar 2020)

It has to be miles even if I’m told a distance or speed in km I have to convert it before it has any meaning .This is especially strange in athletics where a 10000 m time of 28 mins sounds ok until I realise it’s bloody 6 and a quarter miles


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## Andy in Germany (11 Mar 2020)

Wobbling said:


> It has to be miles even if I’m told a distance or speed in km I have to convert it before it has any meaning .This is especially strange in athletics where a 10000 m time of 28 mins sounds ok until I realise it’s bloody 6 and a quarter miles



I remember my confusion in the first few months here. Now I'd probably have problems going back to miles.

And driving on the wrong side of the road of course...


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## chrisleuty (11 Mar 2020)

Spartak said:


> And why are some cans sold in 440ml...?



Roughly 3/4 pint or 15 fluid ounces, I guess.


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## lane (11 Mar 2020)

Audax is all km. Think that's why I started using and thinking of distances as km for cycling. Everything else I do use miles.


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## rogerzilla (11 Mar 2020)

Imagine how depressing the Dunwich Dynamo would be, if the first sign for Dunwich read "Dunwich 11" instead of "Dunwich 7".

(Although it is sometimes altered with a Sharpie or black tape to 17)


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## Shearwater Missile (11 Mar 2020)

Why were car engines always measured in CC or litres ? I don`t suppose a 5.2 pint Capri would sound quite as powerful.


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## LarryDuff (11 Mar 2020)

Km for me. Vive le metric!


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## rogerzilla (11 Mar 2020)

Shearwater Missile said:


> Why were car engines always measured in CC or litres ? I don`t suppose a 5.2 pint Capri would sound quite as powerful.


The Americans still use cubic inches, especially for the larger V8s.


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## rogerzilla (11 Mar 2020)

Edwardoka said:


> Bear in mind that there are some on here who think that "bath" doesn't rhyme with "path" and that "issue" doesn't have a "sh" sound in it


The main difference between northern and southern English accents is whether the pairs of words bath/trap and foot/strut are differently pronounced. In the north, they are usually identical. In the south, they are different.

However, the Bristol pronunciation of that posh town to the east of it is "Bath", not "Barth".


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## SkipdiverJohn (11 Mar 2020)

On that subject, you wouldn't title a rock'n'roll instrumental as 64.3776 kilometres of bad road would you?


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## rogerzilla (11 Mar 2020)

Kilometres aren't very poetic.


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## I like Skol (11 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> Kilometres aren't very poetic.


And I would walk 500 kilometres, and I would walk 500 more?


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## Dogtrousers (12 Mar 2020)

I like Skol said:


> And I would walk 500 kilometres, and I would walk 500 more?


https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/miles-or-km.258274/page-9#post-5907992


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## I like Skol (12 Mar 2020)

I like Skol said:


> And I would walk 500 kilometres, and I would walk 500 more?





Dogtrousers said:


> https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/miles-or-km.258274/page-9#post-5907992


Ok smartarse! I was beaten to it by a country kilometre.....


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## Dogtrousers (12 Mar 2020)

It's clear from this discussion that both the mile and the kilometer are arbitrary values and entirely unsuited to measurements related to cycling. 

We need a unit that is meaningful to cycling, and then we will all agree unanimously  

A bit like this:_* Poronkusema*_ _(literally: a reindeer piss) is a measurement of distance originating in Northern Finland. It is the distance traveled in a reindeer pulled sleigh, between two instances of reindeer urinating. _(Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsolete_Finnish_units_of_measurement )

Any suggestions? The Standard Pootle? The Spin?


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## Dogtrousers (12 Mar 2020)

OK here's my suggestion. The Standard Pootle is the distance covered at pootling pace in an hour.

Roughly speaking:

1 Pootle per hour (pph) is pootling pace
1.5 pph is a medium relaxed ride without stopping (for me, at least)
2.5 pph is about club run pace
3 - 3.5 pph is pro peloton cruising pace
The hour record is a bit over 4 pph
We can replace both the imperial and metric centuries with a decapootle as it's in the right ballpark. 
Audax Randonees will come in at around 15 pootles.

I'm proposing 13.09* km or 8.13* mi as the Standard Pootle.
* approx


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## Sterlo (12 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> OK here's my suggestion. The Standard Pootle is the distance covered at pootling pace in an hour.
> 
> Roughly speaking:
> 
> ...


I think 8.14mi would be more accurate


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## Dogtrousers (12 Mar 2020)

Sterlo said:


> I think 8.14mi would be more accurate


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## rogerzilla (12 Mar 2020)

In the Northern Territory of Australia, they measure distances in tubies or stubbies.

This is the time or distance needed for the driver to drink a can/bottle of beer and throw it out of the window.

NT has an unusually poor accident record.


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## Venod (12 Mar 2020)

A Kind Of Blue by Kilometer Davies, is just wrong.


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## Porcia (12 Mar 2020)

Had a friend at college who answered a question on an exam paper, where it said "preferred units" he used furlongs per fortnight, I believe the answer was correct but he got markdown for being a smart ass


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## Aravis (12 Mar 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> OK here's my suggestion. The Standard Pootle is the distance covered at pootling pace in an hour.
> 
> Roughly speaking:
> 
> ...


I thought you were on the right tract with urinary pauses.

I reckon mine occur roughly every 15-20 miles. If I were to process my GPS tracks I could probably find out precisely, since any pause of over a minute is likely to involve urination. There may be occasions when I make a precautionary stop immediately before a known photo opportunity so that I can be comfortable when taking the picture. Perhaps when two stops occur sufficiently close together one should be disregarded.

Should I need to self-isolate in the coming days this is a project I will be glad to have up my sleeve. My guess would be that a 200km Audax will be about 7ps. Your frequency may vary.


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## Shearwater Missile (12 Mar 2020)

I think that we should use the nautical term of "knots" on the basis of all the wind we have had this year. Many a time out on the bike I have heard myself say " Take her into the wind Captain Baines" and picture the sight of the Charlotte Rhodes.


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## rogerzilla (13 Mar 2020)

Last year's Dun Run was only 3ps. The middle one was under particularly glorious stars on the Wattisham plateau.


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## theloafer (14 Mar 2020)

miles for me ...


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## overmind (15 Mar 2020)

"When in Rome do as the Romans"; so since I am in England, it is miles. If I was cycling on the continent I would probably switch to km.


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## Illaveago (15 Mar 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> The metre is based on a very flawed calculation of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole, whereas the mile is a totally accurate and unimpeachable measure of 1,000 paces made by a Roman legionary


I thought it was from Barcelona to Paris being 1,000 km which was wrong. Either way it is a flawed measurement.


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## Illaveago (15 Mar 2020)

I use miles. I seem to be able to guess distances in miles travelled.
I also prefer to use yards, feet, inches and fractions as opposed to millipedes although I'm using them to make a model at the moment .


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## Edwardoka (15 Mar 2020)

I have foregone my use of kilosmoots per hour in favour of light-seconds per baktun.
Given that 15 miles is 0.00000805229 light seconds and a baktun is 3456000 hours long, it is a much easier unit to convert to/from.


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## marshmella (1 Apr 2020)

Miles..because it's easier to spell properly than KilomeTRES


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## Globalti (2 Apr 2020)

Miles because people annoy me when they abuse apostrophes and write KM's when the plural of KM should be KMs.


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## IaninSheffield (2 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> Miles because people annoy me when they abuse apostrophes and write KM's when the plural of KM should be KMs.


Good point ... to which I'll add that km should always be lower case and the plural remains km (kms would be kilometre second)
Miles for me too though.


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## Globalti (2 Apr 2020)

I guess the convention is to write abbreviated measurements in lower case.... m2, cm2, lb/ft, km, 21c, 21f, etc.


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## snorri (2 Apr 2020)

It's interesting in a weird sort of way that this topic is still being discussed some 40 years after the UK Metrication Board was wound down*.

Quoting Wikipedia...
The following year the Metrication Board was wound up*, one of the 457 Quangos that were wound up in the "Quango bonfire" of 1979–81.[12] 

*Wound up/wound down? A topic for another thread


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## anothersam (2 Apr 2020)

That's the Cleveland in Ohio, which became the first US state to post distance signs in metric in 1973. Haven't checked lately, but I don't believe they've gone too far since then.

(Some graffiti artist added the furlongs...)


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## Ajax Bay (2 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> I guess the convention is to write abbreviated measurements in lower case.... m2, cm2, lb/ft, km, 21c, 21f, etc.


As far as metric/SI units are concerned, m, s, kg are all correctly lower case, and of course m (1/1000th), c (1/100th) and k (1000 times) are in common use, though (in common use for information and power generation metrics) M and G are the first of several '10 to the power of' prefixes and all these from 6 onwards are capitals . In addition abbreviated measurements of many derived units are capitals eg: A current, V voltage, W power, Hz frequency, N force, J energy.
I'd advocate the BBC style which holds that "There is no acceptable abbreviation for '*miles*'". "mi" is just useless and "m" is already taken as a distance measure abbreviation, but for clarity/brevity some UK road signs do use "m".


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## CXRAndy (3 Apr 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> The Americans still use cubic inches, especially for the larger V8s.


My F150, has a badge saying 6.2litre

I only use metric for short distance measurement

Everything else is imperial


----------



## avecReynolds531 (3 Apr 2020)

I don't mind both but somehow (no idea why) find it easier to relate distance & effort in km. 

I love the kilometre markers I found on French climbs - showing the altitude, distance to summit and next kilometre average gradient (not great when you see 11%). Maybe that's the reason after all...


----------



## Ming the Merciless (3 Apr 2020)

If all the UK road signs were in km we’d not be having this conversation. We just use what is convenient to the country’s setup. I don’t travel through Europe converting everything to miles, I just go with the local unit of distance.


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## Baldy (3 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> I guess the convention is to write abbreviated measurements in lower case.... m2, cm2, lb/ft, km, 21c, 21f, etc.



Isn't an upper case K Kelvin, lower case is kilo. Not sure what an upper case M is, mass maybe as in E= MC squared. When using scientific abbreviations upper/lower case does matter.


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## C R (3 Apr 2020)

Baldy said:


> Isn't an upper case K Kelvin, lower case is kilo. Not sure what an upper case M is, mass maybe as in E= MC squared. When using scientific abbreviations upper/lower case does matter.


Upper case M is mega, mass is usually lower case m, usually context tells you if m stands for mass or metres in a particular case.


----------



## Ajax Bay (3 Apr 2020)

Baldy said:


> Isn't an upper case K Kelvin, lower case is kilo. Not sure what an upper case M is, mass maybe as in E= MC squared. When using scientific abbreviations upper/lower case does matter.


Yesbut (and early credit to @C R ). 'K' is for degrees Kelvin (one of the 7 SI units, as opposed to derived ones) and 'k' is widely used and understood: not much chance of confusion even with no context as 'k' is a prefix and must be followed by the unit (eg 'g' or 'm'). M (capital and = 10^6) is only a prefix; and the dimension symbol (not unit) for 'mass'. @Baldy maybe you were thinking of Mariah Carey's E=MC^2 album.


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## rogerzilla (3 Apr 2020)

The c in E=m_c_^2 should be italic, too, because it's a physical constant rather than a variable.


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## figbat (3 Apr 2020)

And now we're mixing notations for constants, variables and units. Also, as a science pedant, may I point out that the Kelvin scale is absolute, so it isn't "degrees" Kelvin, it's just Kelvin.


----------



## Globalti (3 Apr 2020)

Tsk, people are just showing off now. Have they nothng better to do?


----------



## CXRAndy (3 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> Tsk, people are just showing off now. Have they nothng better to do?


----------



## figbat (3 Apr 2020)

Just a thought, what if I want to describe 1,000s of miles? Would that be km?


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## Gravity Aided (3 Apr 2020)

anothersam said:


> View attachment 512053
> 
> 
> That's the Cleveland in Ohio, which became the first US state to post distance signs in metric in 1973. Haven't checked lately, but I don't believe they've gone too far since then.
> ...


Most American cyclists seem to have the metric system quite well figured out. 


We are working at bringing the rest up to speed.


----------



## Gravity Aided (3 Apr 2020)

anothersam said:


> View attachment 512053
> 
> 
> That's the Cleveland in Ohio, which became the first US state to post distance signs in metric in 1973. Haven't checked lately, but I don't believe they've gone too far since then.
> ...


Or 30080 rods.


----------



## Dogtrousers (3 Apr 2020)

Gravity Aided said:


> Most American cyclists seem to have the metric system quite well figured out.
> 
> 
> We are working at bringing the rest up to speed.


I was surprised to notice, while watching a US pro race on the telly (I think the Tour of California) that the on-screen distance-to-finish was in miles. I would have thought that for cycle sport purposes, especially a UCI World Tour one (if it was indeed the Tour of California), that everything would be in the standard km. I guess that's up to the broadcaster.


----------



## Dogtrousers (3 Apr 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> If all the UK road signs were in km we’d not be having this conversation. We just use what is convenient to the country’s setup. I don’t travel through Europe converting everything to miles, I just go with the local unit of distance.


True, but I don't remember the last time I paid any attention to a distance road sign. I got a satnav / bike GPS to do that. 

My car satnav is obviously in miles so I have feedback on keeping below the speed limit and get a warning tone if I encroach.


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## snorri (3 Apr 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> True, but I don't remember the last time I paid any attention to a distance road sign. I got a satnav / bike GPS to do that. My car satnav is obviously in miles so I have feedback on keeping below the speed limit and get a warning tone if I encroach.


I liked the distance road signs when on the A9 between Perth and Inverness where it was usualy possible to maintain a steady 60 mph throughout the trip, and the distance in miles could be converted to time in minutes until I reached my destination. 
Edit. Before the days of satnav of course.


----------



## rogerzilla (3 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> Tsk, people are just showing off now. Have they nothng better to do?


Mate, it's this or hoovering the driveway again.


----------



## Ming the Merciless (3 Apr 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> True, but I don't remember the last time I paid any attention to a distance road sign. I got a satnav / bike GPS to do that.
> 
> My car satnav is obviously in miles so I have feedback on keeping below the speed limit and get a warning tone if I encroach.



Yes but if everything was km and speed limits in km would you still have your sat nav in miles?


----------



## Gravity Aided (3 Apr 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> I was surprised to notice, while watching a US pro race on the telly (I think the Tour of California) that the on-screen distance-to-finish was in miles. I would have thought that for cycle sport purposes, especially a UCI World Tour one (if it was indeed the Tour of California), that everything would be in the standard km. I guess that's up to the broadcaster.


That is quite odd, I suppose the broadcaster thought that the general public here might be interested. We have many races here in metric distances, and even some just plain old rides, like the local metric century.


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## Dogtrousers (4 Apr 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Yes but if everything was km and speed limits in km would you still have your sat nav in miles?


It's clever, it swaps itself automatically to km when it crosses the channel. And it reminds me to drive on the right when I set off. (Or is that my wife? I get the two confused sometimes)


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## RobinS (4 Apr 2020)

When in the car or Campervan I switch the satnav to KM when I cross the channel. On bikes, since we tour in continental Europe more than in the UK we use kilometres all the time. People back home in the UK always ask "How many miles did you cycle?" or "How many miles do you do each day?", and I always give the figures in kilometres!


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## Buck (4 Apr 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> It's clever, it swaps itself automatically to km when it crosses the channel. And it reminds me to drive on the right when I set off. (*Or is that my wife?* I get the two confused sometimes)



But you can turn off the Satnav


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## StuAff (4 Apr 2020)

Both.


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## Kestevan (8 Apr 2020)

Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........

Anything less than an inch is measured in mm
between an inch and a foot is inches, and then feet till about 6'6"
Then switch to meters until you get to a mile.

Temperature is in celsius - unless we're talking about the weather - when its Farenheit; unless it's freezing cold when it switches back to celsius again.

Weight is grams for owt less than a pound, then pounds for a bit before we switch to stones. Unless its in Kilos.

Volume is Litres.... unless its milk, beer or petrol when its a pint, (or a gallon).

Area is square feet. No one knows/cares what a hectare or an acre is so the next unit of measurement is the "Football pitch", until we get to big places which are measured in units of "the size of Wales".

See, easy.... and as an added bonus it confuses the hell out of jonny foreigner


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## anothersam (8 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........
> 
> Anything less than an inch is measured in mm
> between an inch and a foot is inches, and then feet till about 6'6"
> ...


You're so right it's eerie.


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## snorri (8 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> See, easy.... and as an added bonus it confuses the hell out of jonny foreigner


Thank You.
Suddenly it is as if a thick mist is lifted and I am reminded of that great Jimmy Cliff number .......

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHxhQPOO2c&list=RDMrHxhQPOO2c&start_radio=1&t=0


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## Yellow Saddle (8 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........
> 
> Anything less than an inch is measured in mm
> between an inch and a foot is inches, and then feet till about 6'6"
> ...


Thanks. I now finally understand how it works.

Or do I?

You need to amend your sentence regarding volume. There's an error there, I'm sure it wasn't intended to be like that. We buy petrol in liters.

And one more thing. You need to add Olympic size swimming pools to when volume gets really big.


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## carlosfandangus (8 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........
> 
> Anything less than an inch is measured in mm



Someone who worked for me many moons ago was 6 foot 13 mm tall!!!


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## rogerzilla (8 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........
> 
> Anything less than an inch is measured in mm
> between an inch and a foot is inches, and then feet till about 6'6"
> ...


^^ This.

Now, attempt to explain why road numbers are pronounced the way they are, using less than 1000 words. Why is it "A four one nine" but "A four twenty" and "B four thousand"? You must cover all permutations.


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## PatrickPending (8 Apr 2020)

it were all cm m and Km when I were a nipper.....


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## oldwheels (8 Apr 2020)

rogerzilla said:


> I'm a big fan of fathoms, personally. Brilliant way to visualise depth.


We used fathoms when anchoring as our chain was marked off in fathoms but for diving always meters. Many used feet for diving depth which just caused confusion.


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## figbat (8 Apr 2020)

Don't forget that aircraft fly in feet at a rate of knots.

My last Strava ride was:

4.695x10^-12 light years long
6.41x10^11 nm climbing
Average speed Mach 0.0143


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## Kestevan (8 Apr 2020)

Yellow Saddle said:


> Thanks. I now finally understand how it works.
> 
> Or do I?
> 
> ...




We _buy _petrol in litres, but measure consumption in miles per gallon..... _obviously!_

Have to admit I'd forgotten about the Olympic Swimming Pool - careless of me, I'll be sure to have words with myself.


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## mjr (10 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> Miles because people annoy me when they abuse apostrophes and write KM's when the plural of KM should be KMs.


You mean "mile's". HTH HAND ;-)


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## classic33 (10 Apr 2020)

mjr said:


> You mean "mile's". HTH HAND ;-)


No, correct usage/spelling already given in the post you quoted.


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## Ajax Bay (10 Apr 2020)

Globalti said:


> Miles because people annoy me when they abuse apostrophes and write KM's when the plural of KM should be KMs.


The plural of km is "km". (Symbols do not have a plural form, eg: 25 kg, not 25 kgs.) TMN award to @IaninSheffield
https://www.bipm.org/utils/common/pdf/si-brochure/SI-Brochure-9.pdf
"Unit symbols are mathematical entities and not abbreviations. They are not followed by a period [full stop] except at the end of a sentence, and one must neither use the plural nor mix unit symbols and unit names within one expression."
HTH


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## rogerzilla (10 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> We _buy _petrol in litres, but measure consumption in miles per gallon..... _obviously!_
> 
> Have to admit I'd forgotten about the Olympic Swimming Pool - careless of me, I'll be sure to have words with myself.


If we still bought petrol in gallons, no-one would drive any more. FIVE POUNDS?!


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## carlosfandangus (10 Apr 2020)

£5.85 here for diesel, small mortgage required to fill the tank


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## Shearwater Missile (10 Apr 2020)

As I spotted 5 butterlies on my ride today I thought, that`s it BPH, butterflies per hour so 5 bph it was .


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## Dogtrousers (10 Apr 2020)

Kestevan said:


> Surely it's simple to know which units to use at any given time........


Brilliant post. Close the thread.


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## Sterlo (10 Apr 2020)

Dogtrousers said:


> Brilliant post. Close the thread.


How do you close a thread?


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## Dogtrousers (10 Apr 2020)

Sterlo said:


> How do you close a thread?


I was speaking metaphorically. Just that there is no way we will better @Kestevan s post.

I didn't mean literally close the thread.


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