Metric Measures

ymu · January 25, 2011

I live my life entirely metricated although brought up and educated in imperial. It seems perverse to decry and reject a system that is so much better because either you cannot be arsed to learn it or wallpaper it over with xenophobia. I can think of two commodities still sold in imperial measures, beer in pints 'cos it is exempt from metrication "for cultural reasons", and dope in ounces or fractions thereof for heaven knows what reasons but it has to be presumed that trading standards insisting upon metric scales is low down on the priorities of yer average drug dealer!

When the imperial system insists upon waving its little union flag then 25mm to the inch, 8 "kliks" to 5 miles, and 440 grams to the pound are close enough, since as I said beer is still sold in pints I have no need to convert to litres!

Yup, 2 feet is not 60cm, it's 600mm.

609.6mm.

Sir Nibble · January 25, 2011

609.6mm.

Nobody likes a smartarse.

Doorman · January 25, 2011

I live my life entirely metricated although brought up and educated in imperial. It seems perverse to decry and reject a system that is so much better because either you cannot be arsed to learn it or wallpaper it over with xenophobia. I can think of two commodities still sold in imperial measures, beer in pints 'cos it is exempt from metrication "for cultural reasons", and dope in ounces or fractions thereof for heaven knows what reasons but it has to be presumed that trading standards insisting upon metric scales is low down on the priorities of yer average drug dealer!

When the imperial system insists upon waving its little union flag then 25mm to the inch, 8 "kliks" to 5 miles, and 440 grams to the pound are close enough, since as I said beer is still sold in pints I have no need to convert to litres!

Yup, 2 feet is not 60cm, it's 600mm.

Dope being the operative word, seeing that it's enjoyed by idiots

Mike

Barry · January 25, 2011

dope in ounces or fractions thereof for heaven knows what reasons but it has to be presumed that trading standards insisting upon metric scales is low down on the priorities of yer average drug dealer!

Is it because it's easy to take an amount of something and half it, then half it again, and again, and again - so its natural to work in halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths.

When I was doing a bit of taxi-ing I used to hear colleagues referring to a measure of stuff as 'a tink' - they explained it as being an abbreviation of 'a sixteenth'

Strads · January 25, 2011

There are some measurements that are imperial that are more widely understood be males who live in metric countries..

but they also get the product in both in most cases...

so a 36C - normally is sold as a 92C but with variationss...

Odd that no one has ever succesfully explained the "measurement process" for calculating the actual cup size, but (generalising eg Cubic capacity - must be a complex set of formula) all men have a good idea what each size/version looks like immediately!

I'm not after any one reverting with the formula or visual examples - but was merely making a point re commonly accepted measurements, before the PC brigade pop out for a comment..

Sir Nibble · January 25, 2011

Dope being the operative word, seeing that it's enjoyed by idiots

Mike

And crack by arseholes

Mind you, the game stops working when you get to heroin, used presumably by ladies of outstanding courage and sacrifice.

How about booze? Drunk by people unhappy with the poor quality of the entertainment?

I could get into this.

Doorman · January 25, 2011

And crack by arseholes

Mind you, the game stops working when you get to heroin, used presumably by ladies of outstanding courage and sacrifice.

How about booze? Drunk by people unhappy with the poor quality of the entertainment?

I could get into this.

Booze..... helping ugly people to have sex for centuries....

Tiny · January 25, 2011

Me - I like feet. You can walk on two feet but you can't walk on 60 point something centimetres. And what a system we have with roods, pecks, perches and chains and those old favourites the bushel and the chaldron. Who neeeds a load of froggy imports when we have these beauties on the back of our books of logs!

Machpoint005 · January 25, 2011

If you ever need a value for an unfamiliar scientific constant, you can be sure that Tinternet will find it, but it'll be in some really helpful unit such as furlongs per fortnight.

mayalld · January 25, 2011

IIRC furlongs per fortnight is actually a reasonably useful measure. For instance 60MPH is er, where's my calculator

Richard

Ah, you must be thinking of the Furlong, Firkin, Fortnight system that was much used by the regulars on uk.rec.sheds

It was an interesting system, in that it allowed the use of SI multipliers and sub-multipliers with non-SI units.

The millifortnight is such a handy unit of time.

Nobody likes a smartarse.

Mrs Mayall does :-)

RLWP · January 25, 2011

<snip>

The millifortnight is such a handy unit of time.

<snip>

ANd the milli-Helen

Richard

canaldrifter · January 25, 2011

Horses have hands, lots of them. Horses are handy.

I think I'm getting the measure of this thread now....

Tone

Edited January 25, 2011 by canaldrifter

system 4-50 · January 25, 2011

Is it because it's easy to take an amount of something and half it, then half it again, and again, and again - so its natural to work in halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths.

When I was doing a bit of taxi-ing I used to hear colleagues referring to a measure of stuff as 'a tink' - they explained it as being an abbreviation of 'a sixteenth'

Yes! Hexadecimal is by far the best as any programmer knows. We don't need factors like 3 (in 12) or 5 (in 10). Factors of 2 is all we need.

Decimalisation is just a stop-gap until we have perfected the genetic engineering to put eight fingers on everybodies' hands.

Tam & Di · January 25, 2011

Yes! Hexadecimal is by far the best as any programmer knows. We don't need factors like 3 (in 12) or 5 (in 10). Factors of 2 is all we need.

Decimalisation is just a stop-gap until we have perfected the genetic engineering to put eight fingers on everybodies' hands.

Registered ships work in that system - as a sole owner you own 64/64 shares, or two can own 32/64 shares each. Still gets screwed up once you have three owners though - it doesn't go into thirds. Duodecimal is better for that as it does halves, quarters etc, but also does do thirds. What it does not do is these silly 10th things that Napoleon so loved.

FadeToScarlet · January 26, 2011

ANd the milli-Helen

Richard

Being, of course the quantity of beauty required to launch a ship.

Tiny · January 26, 2011

Is it because it's easy to take an amount of something and half it, then half it again, and again, and again - so its natural to work in halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths.

When I was doing a bit of taxi-ing I used to hear colleagues referring to a measure of stuff as 'a tink' - they explained it as being an abbreviation of 'a sixteenth'

It,s more fun to take a bit of paper and fold it in half, then in quarters, then in eights and so on and pretty soon it will be so thick it will have reached the moon. Now you can't do that with decimals. (And whatever they say infinity is a concept and not a number.)

RLWP · January 26, 2011

Being, of course the quantity of beauty required to launch a ship.

'zackly

Richard

Timleech · January 26, 2011

'zackly

Richard

Of course a milliHenry is a real, metric, unit.

Tim

Edited January 26, 2011 by Timleech

Chertsey · January 26, 2011

Odd that no one has ever succesfully explained the "measurement process" for calculating the actual cup size, but (generalising eg Cubic capacity - must be a complex set of formula) all men have a good idea what each size/version looks like immediately!

Oh, there is a formula, I assure you; I just can't remember what it is. But 38C is actually the same cup size as 36D. I know that much.

ymu · January 26, 2011

Measure under. Measure around. The first measurement +2 is the number, the difference between the two determines the cup size.

Dominic M · January 26, 2011

Mind you, the game stops working when you get to heroin, used presumably by ladies of outstanding courage and sacrifice.

You'll find they took an E with it as well.

Machpoint005 · January 26, 2011

Measure under. Measure around. The first measurement +2 is the number, the difference between the two determines the cup size.

Is that the result of years of dedicated research?

By the way, a furlong per fortnight is an excellent velocity unit for something that creeps along (or, dare I say, inches along...) but as a speedometer calibration it's bleedin' useless. One mile an hour is 0.02381 furlongs per fortnight.

ymu · January 26, 2011

Is that the result of years of dedicated research?

No. It's the result of years as the owner of a pair of breasts.

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Metric Measures

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