Dear National Public Radio,
It’s called national pride. Look it up.
Regards,
Celerity.
Imperial ping.
“I Can See for Kilometres” by The Who just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I’ve never been able to embrace the idea of centimeter-worms or kilometer-stones or a gram of prevention being worth a kilogram of cure.
Walk a furlong in my shoes.
How many rods per hoghead will my new Biden mandated scooter get?
As long as their Pints of Ale stay 20oz I don’t care what they do.
You mean, give them a centimeter and they’ll take a kilometer!
The metric system is very handy when it comes to math. The traditional system is better when it comes to human beings. A yard is about the length from one’s nose to outstretched hand, or a man’s stride. A meter is almost the same but really just a tad too long for either, because its length was as a fraction of the distance from the pole to the equator, which of course they got slightly wrong.
The gram is too small a mass to be all that useful for ‘weighing’ most things in daily life things, so the kilogram is the standard used which kind of goes against the philosophy of the metric system.
Since the metric system makes each ‘jump’ by a factor of 10, there are loads of metric units that are rarely, if ever used, eg. decameters or dekameters.
Even in Canada, which officially is on the metric system, I’ve heard that everyone lists his height in feet and inches rather than the metric equivalent. The metric system tends to be imposed as was attempted here in the U.S. back in the 60s rather than enthusiastically accepted. I guess the same reaction is true in the U.K.
And although France attempted a metric calendar and a metric clock back in the 1790s, they could never make it permanent even though the math was so much easier—one of the main arguments for adopting the metric system.
Does this mean they will bring back Whitworth nuts and bolts? I have the spanners and sockets resting in my tool case.
Hey, a ready made jobs project to replace all of the road signs in the US. Presuming, of course, that we have folks in the US that can make signs instead of buying them from China or India.
Need to use metric on some imported drawing at work. Absolutely enjoy it.
My apologies to billorites but this may be redundant as all they have to do is fill the glass to the top, no matter what size it is, and let the pallet take it’s choice. Let’s face it, it isn’t the measurement of the amount, it’s what the amount does. The measurement is for creating a cost effective bottom line for the pub and it can be refilled hiding the same profit margin.
wy69
Inching away??? Watch any F1 race on Sky sports or other British broadcasting- its always miles per hour never kilometers per hour.
I worked for the State of Alaska DOT for 25 years and in March of 1992, President George Bush I issued an executive order for all states to start using the metric system with their highway projects or lose funding from the FHWA.
For two years we had to put both English and metric dimensions on highway plans and right of way plats because the public would throw a fit over total metric on everything. Freeway signs would all be changed to kilometers also.
Fortunately, the pubbies got control of the house in 1994 and Newt Gingrich said we are bagging the metric system right now - and that’s the rest of the story.
The metric system has never made any sense. The only thing going for it is that it’s a base 10 system. Other than that, it’s complete nonsense.
Only idiots buy gasoline by the liter.....
Welcome, Britain to our way of thinking. If people hate that you are going back to imperial measurement, F them...
Will the UK go back to the Pound and shilling monetary system?
There was a GREAT opinion piece I ran across one time about why NOT to bother with metric, and why English units actually make more sense.
The ONLY advantage of metric is ease of conversion of prefixes. So what.
Otherwise, it’s born of French Rev reactionary-ism. Basically a pure childish backlash against anything “royal”.
The article also mentioned how relatable English units are. Approximate sizes of relatable objects. Etc.
Would have to try to search hard to find that.