[geeks] RE: [SunRescue] OT: CA: It's Our Turn

[David Cantrell]

[taken to geeks list, please reply there if at all]

"Chris Byrne" <chris at chrisbyrne.com> wrote:

> Honestly I do wish we were metric if only for the fact that it would make
> life easier when dealing with the rest of the world. But 350 some years of
> tradition dont get changed overnight.

I personally wish that .UK *wasn't* gradually switching to metric.  It's
trivial in this age of ubiquitous computing power to convert from Imperial
to metric and vice versa when needed.  Imperial measurements like ounces
and feet and pints work far better on every-day scales than metric does.
Grams and millimeters are too small; kilograms and metres are too big.
The Imperial system also has the advantage that large amounts can be far
more easily divided reasonably accurately into their constituent smaller
amounts without equipment than in the metric system.  It is, for example,
*really* easy to fairly accurately divide a foot into inches by eye
(divide by two twice - easy; divide by three once - easy); now try that
going from metres to centimetres.  Not only that, but it divides nicely
into useful small integer amounts for thirds (four inches) and quarters
(three inches).

I do tend to use metric for measurements of the very large and the very
small, because that tends to be the realm of science.  Distances from
place to place, for example, are miles*.  Distances from star to star are
parsecs or kilometres.  Thickness of books is inches, thickness of sheets
of paper is microns.

Unfortunately, it seems that the government has decided to make a big push
towards metrication, so it is now illegal to - for example - sell cloth
by the yard or meat by the pound.  I make a point of asking for yards and
pounds.  I expect to be served the exact right amount too, to within a
half-inch or half-ounce just like I used to be.

> Hell officially the UK has been metric for more than 20 years and still most
> people I know of think of things in miles, pounds, and ounces. And how long
> did it take to switch from shillings to new-pence?

It was over twenty years before the old shilling and florin stopped being
legal tender.

> And we in the US are a lot more stubborn about the government telling us
> what to do. Under the Carter Presidency (jan 1977- jan 81) a law was passed
> requiring all highway signs to be metric within five years. 20 years so far,
> and very few metric signs out there.

NONE in .uk that I am aware of.  Instead we have bi-lingual signs
throughout Wales and Scotland.

> I personally drive a Saturn 1999 SC2M which weighs in at 2400 lbs

That's something I find weird about .us weight measurements.  You seem to
use pounds for everything, where in .uk it is common to use tons, cwt**
and stone.

A .uk ton is 2240 lbs; a cwt (hundred-weight) is 112 lbs so there's
twenty to a ton, just like twenty shillings to a pound; a stone is 14
lbs.

To add to the confusion, a .us ton is 2000 lbs and a .us cwt is 100 lbs
although they appear to not be used.

Tonne is metric - 1000 kg

A tun is a unit of liquid (usually beer) capacity, 210 gallons.  That's
.uk gallons, not .us gallons :-)

* I measure height to orbit in miles too for satellites, but the distance
to the moon in kilometres.  It seems that my cut-off is around about geo-
synchronous orbit, anything above that isn't on an easily comprehensible
human scale so goes metric.

** cwt isn't so common any more, but you still see it used for weighing
vehicles, farm equipment, stonework, and bells.

-- 
David Cantrell | root at alphacomplex.org | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david/

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