Metrication

[the_mikey]

I'm not used to seeing the above formats of metric units and sub-units of measurement

1µm = 1 x 10[sup]-6 [/sup]m
1mm = 1 x 10-3 m
1cm = 1 x 10[sup]-2[/sup] m
1km = 1 x 10[sup]3[/sup]m
1Mn = 1 x 10[sup]6[/sup]m

I've never encountered the megametre before and had to look it up. It's rarely used and thousands of kilometres are more often than not expressed in full e.g. 5000km rather than 5Mm. It also apparently avoids the possibility of 5Mm being confused with 5mm.

I agree, no one would really use Mega metres, for that very reason, and yes the way you represent the numbers is fine also. I think the letter prefixes just come from being an engineer.

Trivially, and all the others you missed out, your point being?

It was a response to someones disliking of cm as a unit of measurement, with which I proceeded to make a mess with! I hope someone got the point and context of my post (I'm not sure myself anymore!)

 

[Norm]

Can I just say...

So, i keep a foot in both camps. We're a dying breed

You need to keep 30 cms in one camp.

Brilliant!

 

[Speicher]

Thank you Norm, I wondered if anyone was going to notice.

 

[Over The Hill]

When coins went decimal we used to have lots of people convert back, but I never hear anyone now. So I guess in time it will all go metric.
I could live with imperial but I just hate the way we are only half converted still and just change the odd thing every now and again (petrol seemed to go over 20 after everything else).

 

[Over The Hill]

I've never got on with metric since I accidentally asked a butcher in France for 200 kilos of beef mince. It slowly dawned on me I should have said grams as he cheerfully stuffed half a herd of cattle down the mincer.

It's a sad fact that in the UK you are more likely to go to prison for dealing drugs in ounces rather than grams than for actually dealing drugs.

Apart from anything else- metric's a waste of breath. I'm one meter, seventy eight centimeters tall. That's 11 syllables! In English, I'm 5 10 - only two syllables- job done.

There's a small village near here called Six mile Bottom which will have to be renamed 'Ten Kilometer Bottom' - sounds crap! (Although I think it was named after one of my ex's). The Famous Rowley Mile Course here in Newmarket would have to become the Rowley 1.6 kilometers course. Frankly, that's just hideous.

And what about music? The Proclaimers would, god forbid, have to walk '800 kilometers'. In The Police's 'Can't stand losing you' the line 'Your brother's gonna kill me and he's 6 feet 10' would be 'your brother's gonna kill me and he's 2.0828 meters'. Neil Diamond would no longer be '1000 miles away' but '1600 kilometers away'. (Some would say that's not far enough either way). Golden Earring would no longer be 8 miles high but 13 kilometers- all sounds a bit cold, clinical and dull to me. And none of it scans.

Finally, it's a well known fact that since British house builders started using metric, more new houses than ever have collapsed, simply becasue there are fewer meters than feet.*

*There's a small chance I made that bit up.

What about running a 10k or popping into a French bar for a demi?

 

[surfdude]

So, i keep a foot in both camps. We're a dying breed


i keep a foot in the middle as well

 

[Keith Oates]

Dream on, Oggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gbb]

When coins went decimal we used to have lots of people convert back, but I never hear anyone now. So I guess in time it will all go metric.
I could live with imperial but I just hate the way we are only half converted still and just change the odd thing every now and again (petrol seemed to go over 20 after everything else).

I still do that occasionally, but only to remind myself hoew things have changed.
Mars Bar when i was a kid...6d
Bag of chips...6d

2.5 pence in maybe 1970

Mars Bar now...lets say 50p
Bag of chips....over £1

Why the difference now? i often wonder.

Petrol, circa 1975...47p per GALLON. That equated to 44 gallons for my weeks wages as a teenager at that time.
Petrol now, say £5 per gallon. If you think the average teenager's on say £200 a week, thats about 40 gallons. So there's been no great change in the cost in relation to earnings.

 

[mcshroom]

I find I have to use both, often at the same time. I will use whichever i s easiest to use at the time for casual stuff, but all my official stuff gets done in metric units for consistency.

 

[Norm]

I used to love riding motorbikes round Ireland when they had speed limits in MPH and the distances in km. It didn't matter how much I knew about the different measurements and recalculated them both into miles, I always got places much quicker than expected.

 

[Speicher]

I once won a small prize for correctly converting the height of a mountain in Canada* into metres. The person who asked the question said that people usually took ages, and then got it wrong anyway. I just did it the easy way, divide by three, and subtract ten per cent.

Admittedly I got worked it out more quickly than most, because I had heard the French people near me, and guessed they would ask the question, before they had a chance to ask the Guide.

* On a train in Canada at the time.

 

[atbman]

Can't stand this newfangled Centigrade. Why couldn't we have stuck to good old English Fahrenheit
Metrication of literature and songs, tho'...

How many kilometres to Babylon?
One hundred and thirty two.
Will I get there before tonight?
Yes, but you won't half have to goo.

Then there's the old fold song, the Barley Mow. A barrel is 163.6586 litres and so on downwards. Really buggers up the scansion

 

[slowmotion]

I really like the half-way house fudge that the UK has settled on as regards metrification. Everybody is happy over here. The punters in the veg. market get the stuff they expect, we have a feel for long distances in miles, builders measure stuff in mm, we use feet and inches for describing peoples' height, and all scientists use the SI system.

It's worked for the last forty-odd years. Fabulous.

 

[dellzeqq]

I was taught exclusively in metric, but.... I live and work in the real world.

Anything below an inch is measured in milimeters.
Anything between 1" and about 6' is feet and inches.
We then switch to meters for the next 1500 and then back to miles.

Beer and milk are measured in pints.

Petrol in Litres.

It's a perfect system - it manages to confuse all the foreigners equally well, both metrical Europeans and Imperial Americans.

I'm pretty much the same. Anything that bears a relationship to the human body goes in to feet and inches when spoken about, but, sadly, in to millimetres on a drawing.

 

[beanzontoast]

I loved those exercise books you could buy at the Post Office that had lists of Imperial Measures on the back. Such great names - pole, perch, chain, rood...

I still like to convert prices to pre-decimal for fun, usually when wife or daughter buys something at a price that if you convert it, makes you think twice, as in: "Do you realise that birthday card you just bought cost 17 shillings!!!"

This from a lad whose weekly pocket money in the 60's was 3d (1/4 of a shilling for those who have no idea what I'm talking about).