Imperial and/or metric units. Discussion on the use and teaching of

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

(the use of kph is because that is what the line speeds will be stated in also its my antidote to OD of Farage in the media this weekend  )

No doubt though Electric train, like Mr Farage, you'll continue to enjoy the odd imperial pint. 

[TonyK]

No doubt though Electric train, like Mr Farage, you'll continue to enjoy the odd imperial pint. 

I quite like litres, BNM.

[TonyK]

Farage. Mm. French is it?

[JayMac]

I quite like litres, BNM.

Bit too heavy to lift is a 1000ml stein. Although it does allow for fewer visits to the bar, but possibly more visits to the Gents.

[Btline]

Why use km/h? There is nothing wrong with mph and indeed most drivers will be used to knowing these speeds, I see no benefit of changing.

I also find it difficult myself to imagine the km speeds on this forum as I have to switch to mph to compare it to me driving.

The only line where dual speeds are sensible is HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel), so any foreign stock can use it without having to have a mph speedo fitted.

Mph is miles better.

[ChrisB]

Tell that to anyone under 30 & they'll tell you they did metric at school

[JayMac]

41 years old here. And I did metric at skool.

However, ask me my mass in kilograms, or my height in metres, and I've no idea.

[bobm]

10 years older and I started doing imperial and then moved to metric (with decimal currency thrown in) and I don't know my hectare from my kilogram... 

[Electric train]

May be we should use Rods, Bushels and Fortnights as the base units 

Personally I am ambidextrous when it comes to imperial or metric, quit happy working in thous (1/1000") and I am in 1/10mm, although my ^Sd is a bit rusty now 

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are changing to metric because all the material is supplied in meters, Tonnes all the designs I deal with are in metric even to the extent that "construction mileage" in meters    is marked out on site.  The change has been a slow burn but I feel the time is right to make the move on the railways to metric

[Alan Pettitt]

Quite interesting, I am 60 years old, when I first started school we only learned metric, even our rulers were only marked in centimetres, we were taught not to try converting to imperial all the time as by the time we left school nobody would be using it. It was not until I was about 10 that we started to regularly learn feet and inches in addition. Presumably an educational experiment that quietly went down the pan.

[BBM]

52 years old and I did metric at school. I still think in mph though and I can still convert Pounds and Pence to ^SD at the drop of a hat!

Oh and you'll also find km/h signs on NR^» (Network Rail - home page) in the Sunderland area where Tyne & Wear Metro trains run on their tracks. Here's an example:

[ellendune]

Quite interesting, I am 60 years old, when I first started school we only learned metric, even our rulers were only marked in centimetres, we were taught not to try converting to imperial all the time as by the time we left school nobody would be using it. It was not until I was about 10 that we started to regularly learn feet and inches in addition. Presumably an educational experiment that quietly went down the pan.

I am 57 and learnt both at school. (Though we were allowed to leave out the questions in rods poles and perches)

Personally I am ambidextrous when it comes to imperial or metric, quit happy working in thous (1/1000") and I am in 1/10mm, although my ^Sd is a bit rusty now 

I too can work in both sets of units.  When I started work the labourers could not (or pretended they could not) work in metric, so I would end up reading the drawing in mm doing the conversion and telling them what to do in ins.

Tonnes are easy as for all practical purposes 1 Ton = 1 Tonne! That conversion is not too challenging.

As for hectares I worked with someone who said he could never get on with them.  We then asked him to estimate an area from the plan. He could not. We then did so in Hectares. He could not understand how we did it until we pointed out that each one of those 100m grid squares on the site plan was 1 hectare. He was converted in an instant as no one could ever do the same for acres!

I am glad I never had to do engineering calculations in imperial units as there are so many factors to include for conversion of units.  Engineering is so much easier in SI units.

Also we thought 17.5% VAT^▸ (Value Added Tax) was a pain to work out in metric money, think how difficult it would have been in ^sd!

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are changing to metric because all the material is supplied in meters, Tonnes all the designs I deal with are in metric even to the extent that "construction mileage" in meters    is marked out on site.  The change has been a slow burn but I feel the time is right to make the move on the railways to metric

However permission to be pedantic.  Meters are instruments we use to measure usage of electricity, gas or water and the like.  The SI unit of length is the metre.  The standard English dictionary of international standardisation is The Oxford English Dictionary not Websters!  The Americans might have more claim to set the spelling if they actually used the metre as a unit of measure.  

[Electric train]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) are changing to metric because all the material is supplied in meters, Tonnes all the designs I deal with are in metric even to the extent that "construction mileage" in meters    is marked out on site.  The change has been a slow burn but I feel the time is right to make the move on the railways to metric

However permission to be pedantic.  Meters are instruments we use to measure usage of electricity, gas or water and the like.  The SI unit of length is the metre.  The standard English dictionary of international standardisation is The Oxford English Dictionary not Websters!  The Americans might have more claim to set the spelling if they actually used the metre as a unit of measure.  

I will color my language accordingly ................ don't to be sent to gaol  or is it jail by the pedantic police 

[TonyK]

52 years old and I did metric at school. I still think in mph though and I can still convert Pounds and Pence to ^SD at the drop of a hat!

Oh and you'll also find km/h signs on NR^» (Network Rail - home page) in the Sunderland area where Tyne & Wear Metro trains run on their tracks. Here's an example:

I'm 6 years older, and did LSD at school.* I was the first generation of physics students at my grammar school* to have the acceleration due to gravity at 9.81m/^ rather than 32 ft /s^. But I later worked in France briefly*, and think metric more than I do imperial*, except when driving, where I think in pints (one max)*. Occasionally, I get weighed in hospitals, and the nurse always looks at my weight in kilos, and says, "I'll translate that into rocks and quids for you (or whatever)", and I say don't bother, I work to kilos, which leaves them open-mouthed*, as not even teenagers do that. But calculating body mass index by dividing your weight in Kg by the square of your height in metres must be so much easier than the 19th century equivalent.

(*I'm not proud of everything I've done, although I enjoyed most of it at the time.)

[Alan Pettitt]

I think we need to go easy here or one of our forum bosses will be splitting this off into a "Forum Members' ages and Units of Measurement" thread