The Irish are being Metrified even more!

[Hagar]

Personally i like things as they are. MPH lbs ounces and so on. Even the younger generation work on those numbers these days. Schools try to teach metric but i think thats part of the reason some people are lacking in good grades. Why mess with what works.

Precisely Craig. From the few documentaries I've seen on TV recently I couldn't help noticing they've gone back to Imperial measurements. Miles, yards & suchlike. Some weather forecasters have gone back to using Fahrenheit again. They've obviously realised that the attempt to get everyone thinking metric failed. Nobody understood what the heck they were talking about.

[ozzy72]

I have to say having live in Hungary for some years now that once you get used to it its not a problem. I can happily work in both systems and convert in my head without thinking about it.
However when it comes to being pulled over by the boys-in-blue I conveniently forget that I can speak Hungarian

[Craig.]

i used to work in celcius, but as soon as i learned the Fahrenheit system, i stuck to it. It made trips the the US easier and just seems to make more sense.

[Craig.]

However when it comes to being pulled over by the boys-in-blue I conveniently forget that I can speak Hungarian

LOL

[Rivers]

This is an island & there is no need to change it

Yeah but it is a very important one, with lots of scientific and engineer research going on.

One of the big problems for us "oldie drivers" would be the change from Miles to Kilometers...!
Trying to quickly estimating the distance from one town to another would result in a brain hemorrhage...!

You are very good fozzer you always makes me give a big laugh with those funny comments  ;D

I'm young do you know what gives me a brain hemorrhage:
12 inches to a foot,  
3 feet to a yard,  
5280 feet to a mile
furlong is somewhere in here
15 centimeters to an inch


I remember NASA lost something in space because Lockheed engineers work with metric and the NASA ones with imperial and some miscalculations made the thing go crazy.

[Fozzer]

...just one little observation...
(I love "Little Observations")... ... ...!

In England we use Cubic Centimetres for for engine sizes...(cylinder capacity)...!
The Americans use Cubic Inches for engine sizes...

Only those two conflicting measurements have ever given me problems as a mechanic trying to convert from one to another... ...!

Cheers all...!

Paul.

P.S. Note the spelling of the word...Metres...(NOT Meters)...!
A Meter is an "instrument" of measurement.

Hi Rodrigo...It's 25.4 mm, (2.54 cm), = 1 Inch....I love inches...keeps Jordan happy... ...!

[Hagar]

Yeah but it is a very important one, with lots of scientific and engineer research going on.

I think you will find that most engineers & scientists can work in many systems. They wouldn't be much use if they couldn't. Even I was quite capable of working in both Imperial & metric as part of my job. I used to have to teach new employees how to convert from one to the other (not so easy at times). I'm not quite so silly as I look.

However, I still think in Imperial. The units used to measure speed on the roads have no bearing on this at all. Changing for the sake of it simply confuses everyone for no good reason I can think of.

[Saitek]

Perhaps one reason for change is that you can legally go 100km+ in a car.. you can only go 70mph legally. Perhaps its an attempt to make people go slower!

[ozzy72]

Perhaps its an attempt to make people go slower!

Fat chance

[pete]

I wonder what they use in China.

I suspect the Irish will take this on board with very little trouble - like they did the Euro & the smoking ban.

& remember you Brits - you have already changed your currency a long time ago to metric. Imagine going back to shillings & farthings & how Dickensien (sp?) that now seems  ;D

The world moves on (thank god!)  ;)

[Hagar]

OK. Here's a little problem that used to crop up every day at work. We used to manufacture flexible hose assemblies to drawings supplied by customers. This was quite straightforward before some of the new fellers decided to go over to metric on all their drawings. The parts for the hose assemblies were manufactured by a well-known US company & all their reference measurements were in Imperial. Not only that but the "cut-off" length of the fittings is measured in decimal inches (1.25 etc) & the length of the finished assemblies is measured in inches & eights of an inch (1 2/8 ). Don't ask why, they just are.

Using metric measurements on the assembly drawing just complicated matters. This meant that the assembly length on the drawing had to be first converted into decimal inches, then fractions & finally all converted back again once the job was finished. Now, I can do most of this in my head without writing it down or using a calculator. I wonder how many of you could do that? It obviously took longer to do the job. No wonder so many mistakes are made.

[ozzy72]

Finally Doug reveals his part in the collapse of the British aviation industry

[Hagar]

Finally Doug reveals his part in the collapse of the British aviation industry

Nothing to do with me old chap. It's all the others.
I'm quite happy to admit to my failings but this is not one of them.

PS. I remember on one occasion we made a batch of hoses 26 inches long instead of 26 feet. Fortunately the customer was quite amused. It does help to have a sense of humour.

PPS. Here's what I was talking about. http://www.vargaair.com/aeroquip.htm

[Fozzer]

[quote]I suspect the Irish will take this on board with very little trouble - like they did the Euro & the smoking ban.

& remember you Brits - you have already changed your currency a long time ago to metric. Imagine going back to shillings & farthings & how Dickensien (sp?) that now seems

[beaky]

I'm surprised to hear so much resentment of the switch from Imperial to metric from the UK contingent; I always assumed that we Yanks were most the most stubborn about it (many Americans, in fact, believe that our current system of measurement originated here)!! I definitely agree that asking taxpayers to foot the bill for having metric shoved down their throats is  a bad idea, but a base-ten system just makes a whole lot more sense. I'm very comfortable with the old system, but it wouldn't bother me at all if I woke up tomorrow and the whole world had gone metric out of sheer common sense. What makes metric unappealing for most folks is the conversions...!!
 This thread reminds me of a question: who pronounces kilometers "KIL-o-meet-ers", and who prefers "kil-AH-meters"? For years I used the latter, until I realized that if it's "MILLimeeters"and "CENTimeeters" it should be "KIL-o-meeters". Of course, saying anything ending with "meters" is bound to get me some dirty looks here in this fair land, and trying to pronounce it correctly- why, that's un-American!
  Somebody mentioned decimal divisions of inches: now THERE'S a stupid idea!! I've encountered that in my work, and it's annoying as hell.