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What Distance/Speed Measurement do you officially use in the UK? Imperial or Metric?
- Thread starter Maserati7200
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Hmm, reading through this thread has led me to believe that even we don't know what we use!
There's clearly no standardised way of things. To be honest, whichever you use is going to be accepted. If you ask for 5 foot of fencing at a DIY store, you'd get the same response as you would if you asked for 1.5m.
Height is measured in foot and inches, and clothes are measured in inches, but if you go online and look at a table in Argos the measurements will be in cm/m.
Distance on roads is measured in miles, but the scale on maps will be in kilometers.
There really is no set standard, we mix both and it seems to work just fine
There's clearly no standardised way of things. To be honest, whichever you use is going to be accepted. If you ask for 5 foot of fencing at a DIY store, you'd get the same response as you would if you asked for 1.5m.
Height is measured in foot and inches, and clothes are measured in inches, but if you go online and look at a table in Argos the measurements will be in cm/m.
Distance on roads is measured in miles, but the scale on maps will be in kilometers.
There really is no set standard, we mix both and it seems to work just fine
We don't all hate Europe actually
Well said. I was going to say that too but you beat me to it.
Too many people in the UK are nostalgic for things that would be better updated. I don't know why they want the old Imperial measurements when the metric ones are so much simpler. I can understand the elderly wanting to keep what is familiar but it's nearly 40 years since we started going decimal and you'd think we could have managed it by now.
One fairly new phenomenon has crept in though. Although the roads are measured in miles, the motorways have now sprouted distance markers and they are in km. I'd like to think it meant things are changing but I won't hold my breath!
Another bizarre one, maybe its an European thing...
How do you measure your vehicle tyres??
For instance, my car took 205/45/17 tyres, with the 205 being the millimeter width (so thats metric...), the 45 being the profile as a percentage and the 17 being the diameter in inches (imperial)
How wierd is that...I've never realised that before this conversation before...
How do you measure your vehicle tyres??
For instance, my car took 205/45/17 tyres, with the 205 being the millimeter width (so thats metric...), the 45 being the profile as a percentage and the 17 being the diameter in inches (imperial)
How wierd is that...I've never realised that before this conversation before...
[doublepost=1489512506][/doublepost]MPH Of course as in Ireland and most civilised Countries.we are not Europeans but ourselves!
I only use Imperial for measurement for distances over a quarter of a mile. Anything under that is in metric. Apart from that pints are the only Imperial measurement I'd use. Can't see the point of all that inches, feet, ounces nonsense. Using that is like measuring temperature in a scale based on the hottest or coldest day in one town in Germany. What sort of utterly crazy headcase nation would do something like that?
I think there's a real generational difference in the UK. Above the age of 45 and the old timers still cling to the days of the Raj, complete with all that illogical stuff that went with it. Under that we've grown up more accusomted to metric ways.
(Raj comment meant sarcastically, not literally)
[doublepost=1489711370][/doublepost]
I think there's a real generational difference in the UK. Above the age of 45 and the old timers still cling to the days of the Raj, complete with all that illogical stuff that went with it. Under that we've grown up more accusomted to metric ways.
(Raj comment meant sarcastically, not literally)
[doublepost=1489711370][/doublepost]
They use kph (km/h) in Ireland
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Is it just the Lowlander's of Scotland that want to go independent, they Dinna ken what it really means, your are being led by false Lies from the likes of Alex Salmon & Nicola Sturgeon, who have a hidden agenda that you hav’na a clue about, my Mother comes from Inverness but now lives in Bonny Sunningdale in Surrey, she said the people from Scotland are fools to listen to these "Self Important pair who lead the SNP=Silly Noodle brained Pretenders"! How are they going to survive all on their own? [ 1. Independent Scotland, is going to have thousands upon thousands of Shipbuilders out of work, the Engineers that worked at Fastlane will either have gone with the Royal Navy down to their new Base in Southern England, all the Defence Bases scattered around the Highlands and on other places, will all be boarded up, so no more Revenue coming from them anymore. You will have no Armed Forces, all the Scottish Regiments are with the British Army, and cannot be loaned back. So where will independent Scotland get its Money from to run the Country, I wonder if this Scenario has been thought out?
FWIW, we use US Customary Units in the US, not Imperial or English units .
I am a chemist and of course am "fluent" in SI units but there are SI units I simply don't like. The Pascal is the SI unit for pressure, for example. In Chemisty, we tend to use atmospheres or PSI in high pressure applications and torr(mmHG) in vacuum applications. Some people like bars for vacuum application, a unit I REALLY don't like(1 bar=100,000Pa, or about .99atm).
.I am a chemist and of course am "fluent" in SI units but there are SI units I simply don't like. The Pascal is the SI unit for pressure, for example. In Chemisty, we tend to use atmospheres or PSI in high pressure applications and torr(mmHG) in vacuum applications. Some people like bars for vacuum application, a unit I REALLY don't like(1 bar=100,000Pa, or about .99atm).
When I was a kid, I seem to vaguely remember a huge metrification push in the USA some time around the 80's. My memory is not so good, so I'm probably getting details wrong, but I seem to remember that Congress passed a 2-step law. At first everything was going to be US+metric for a while in order to have an adjustment period, and then later everything would be metric.
Here are examples of the dual-measurement period:
Obviously that didn't pan out, but I do remember that the first step happened (dual measurement) and I wonder why we never did step two.
Here are examples of the dual-measurement period:
Obviously that didn't pan out, but I do remember that the first step happened (dual measurement) and I wonder why we never did step two.
The US has officially been on the metric system since the 1970s.
US Customary units are now precisely defined in terms of metric units(i.e 1 inch is exactly 2.54cm) and the standards that NIST maintains are SI standards.
That includes our copies of the International Prototype Kilogram(IPK). BTW, if you want to geek out on measurements and also twist your head around, read up on the IPK. The kilogram remains the only measurement that is tied to an artifact and by definition the original IPK kept in Paris can not change in mass. The problem is that it HAS changed over the years. There is a push to define mass in terms of a fundamental constant of nature(as has been done with all other SI units) but no one has delivered a totally satisfactory proposal.
Expense. Plain and simple.When I was a kid, I seem to vaguely remember a huge metrification push in the USA some time around the 80's. My memory is not so good, so I'm probably getting details wrong, but I seem to remember that Congress passed a 2-step law. At first everything was going to be US+metric for a while in order to have an adjustment period, and then later everything would be metric.
Here are examples of the dual-measurement period:
Obviously that didn't pan out, but I do remember that the first step happened (dual measurement) and I wonder why we never did step two.
I think it was more resistance by the American citizens. I was in school in the 70s when they started doing this and all I remember was the negativity about embracing this. Heck, many industries in the US have used and continue to use the metric system. In hindsight, I think the US missed the opportunity to embrace it.
At any point now, we could switch. It would be a large infrastructure undertaking, though. All our signs are in ft/miles. But all our speedos are in metric, so there's that. I don't think I have driven a car that doesn't have both.
In the 70s when I was in school overseas, albeit at a weird British and American run school, we were 'forced' to learn both systems. The punishment for not learning wasn't bad. A severe talking down to was the usual end result. Words that wouldn't fly in today's precious system of nurturing students and coddling them.
I had trouble learning both at the same time. We all did. I remember a few wild students who balked at the concept and acted out. They were either forced to do menial tasks, write on the chalkboard after class or if you had one of the prick teachers, they'd rap your across the knuckles, albeit somewhat gently, with a wooden ruler. One student, whom no one really liked, went as far as throwing a pot of paint at the lesson on the board. I think everyone at that school was fed up with the lessons. Decades later, it manages to mess me up when I order in specific weight or volume and I'm not paying attention as much as I should.
During those lessons, we used pencils we'd have to sharpen incessantly and dip pens. I think you're old enough to have used dip pens here in the US. If you are, you know just how horrible those things were. They were sharp and scratchy. You could throw one, like a spear, and have it impregnate itself into the chalkboard. I cut my fingers quite a lot with those things.
-King of the Tangents
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So I'm remembering back over 30 years to what I learned in school, correct me if my recollection is hazy.
Doesn't ten cubic centimetres of water at sea level and room temperature equal one litre and weigh 1kg? Given we know the precise length of a metre why not just reverse that process to come up with a kilogram. Or would current industrial/scientific processes not give the accuracy needed?
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The issue with using density of some substance is that the measured value with vary with the force of gravity at that location. That is NOT a constant value-in fact it varies around the earth based mostly on altitude but based on other factors also. As an example, most physics students will be taught a value of 9.81 m/s^2 as the acceleration due to gravity. In Central KY, the various trustworthy measured values I've been rolled are around 9.78 m/s^2-when we're dealing with something like mass that's a big difference.
One of the "tenets" of metrology is that if you are going to define a unit in terms of a physical constant of nature, it should be reproducible anywhere in the word.
Furthermore, due to plate tectonics, the value of gravity in a specific location does actually vary over time. This variation is quite small, but it's not consistent enough for a definition of a value.
I sure hope not!
Edit: I just realised what you meant. If you have a cube of water that's 10 cm in each direction, then yes. But if you just have 10 cubic cm, then no.
As a diver I really like bars as a unit. They're nice and easy to deal with. I still remember the first time I dived on hired regs in the USA. At the beginning the dive leader asked me how much air I had in my cylinder, and after checking the PSI gauge I had to laugh and respond that I didn't have a clueFWIW, we use US Customary Units in the US, not Imperial or English units
I am a chemist and of course am "fluent" in SI units but there are SI units I simply don't like. The Pascal is the SI unit for pressure, for example. In Chemisty, we tend to use atmospheres or PSI in high pressure applications and torr(mmHG) in vacuum applications. Some people like bars for vacuum application, a unit I REALLY don't like(1 bar=100,000Pa, or about .99atm).
As a diver I really like bars as a unit. They're nice and easy to deal with. I still remember the first time I dived on hired regs in the USA. At the beginning the dive leader asked me how much air I had in my cylinder, and after checking the PSI gauge I had to laugh and respond that I didn't have a clue
I guess it's all in perspective
My chief criticism of the bar as a unit is that it's almost but not quite equal to 1 atm. There again, to me the atmosphere is a logical unit while the bar is seemingly arbitrary and just different enough to throw things off.
There again, though, certain units get ingrained certain applications and it's really difficult to change that. Going back to my vacuum example, it's so common to see values expressed in torr that I've seen values in millibars given on specifications and wondered "how does that even work with a pressure that high?" until I realized that the units were NOT in torr.
Also, as I'm sitting here looking at the barometer on my desk, I'm reminded of the fact that at least in the US it's still customary to give atmospheric pressure in inches of mercury and you'd likely throw a LOT of folks off if you changed that.
All they would need to change would be the road signs. Hardly billions of pounds worth of effort. Cars all have both measurements on their speedometers already. Then we would have a much saner system.