A Miss is a s good as 1.6 Kilometres

[neptune]

As far as I know, the statute mile is still the standard official measurement of journey distance within the UK. Our signposts, and vehicle speedometers are still marked in miles. When we adopted the Metric System, there was no mention of the Kilometre replacing the mile . So why is it that whenever distances are referred to on television , they are always referred to in Kilometres? Even on documentaries , we get things like "Baton Rouge is x Kilometres from New Orleans" . As the USA still uses miles, this is patently untrue. It is almost as if the Powers That Be want us to convert to kilometres, but don`t quite have the guts to come right out and make it official. Instead, they use the media to slowly brainwash us.

This is not the first time that there has been confusion over measurement, of course. Even when our measurements were officially imperial, the bore and stroke of engines were quoted in millimetres. When the engine became badly worn, the cylinders would be rebored, and oversize pistons would be fitted. How much oversized? Ah, that was always quoted as 10 thou or 20 thou, a "thou" being a thousandth. A thousandth of what? A thousandth of an INCH of course!

There was also a rumor that an American space probe to Mars failed because of some mix up between metric and Imperial measurement. That would be quite an expensive mistake.Then we get reports of an aircraft flying at 30.000 feet. Anything greater than 3 feet is a yard. And anything greater than 1760 yards is a mile. Of course nowadays, the altitude is stated in metres anyway.

 

[flecc]

It's we engineers to blame as much as anything, we've freely used and mixed both imperial and metric for decades, in my case ever since the early 1960s. Familiarity has made it easy for us to do that and I often convert "on the fly". Walked into a tool hire shop once and asked for a 5" diamond tip hole borer and the baffled assistant said "we've got x sizes", ending with 127 mm, to which I immediately said that's 5". "Sure? he said and I said yes, 25.4 mm to the inch, times 5 is 127. He looked at me like I'd just arrived from Mars!

I like things as they are since both have their preferential uses and are best both firmly in place as now.

 

[Blew it]

Confusion reigns, but only in the minds of those easily confused ... and it's not just the Americans who flatly refused to adopt the ISO Metric system.

We now have a multitude of weird mix & matches of different standards...a few examples:

Pedal threads are 9/16ths imperial, but have 15mm A/F spanner flats for tightening.

The old 'cycle' threads, 26 tpi, are now covered by a specially introduced 'Metric fine'

The popular American made Mirrycle cycle mirror is assembled with 3/16th whitworth bolts (20 tpi) but the cap heads require a M3 allen key.

As a model engineer, I have to work with both standards. My Boxford four-and-a-half-inch centre lathe has imperial indexes, but my universal mill/drill is all metric.

As flecc has already mentioned, us 'baby-boomers' can easily work in either systems, and I tend to use the different systems as a matter of convenience rather than a preference.

If you've ever wondered how to drill and tap threaded holes in your DIY projects, I strongly recommend you purchase a 'Zeuss pocket reference', mine has been my bible for many years, and is always close to hand.

Chronos Ltd Engineering Tools Data Charts

 

[Eaglerider]

Instead, they use the media to slowly brainwash us.

.

I rather fancy this has been going on for decades!!

 

[flecc]

I rather fancy this has been going on for decades!!

Amusingly this happened to prepare us for the euro. At the time when we were preparing for it years ago, suddenly all the TV ads stopped using pounds, items suddenly becoming announced as 499, 599 etc with no currency mention. The fact that all companies were doing this clearly indicated government instructions at the root to get us used to not hearing the word pound in currency terms.

The silly thing is that now we have no intention of ever adopting the euro, TV advertisers still persist in not using any currency rating, sticking with 499 etc in isolation. Could be 499 pence, chickens or marbles for all we know!

 

[smudger1956]

We are gradually inching towards total metrication..........

 

[Eaglerider]

We are gradually inching towards total metrication..........

Indeed, however I think Metrication will be the least of our worries!!

Its a worry, but thats why I have to go out for a ride on my EBike, because then I don't care anymore.

 

[smudger1956]

I can work in both, I love my 5/64's - 19/32's. BA/BSF Threads, although, when I design anything I use mm.
A friend of mine had to go on a course to learn about a Boeing 747 type, everything was imperial, the young lads on the course brought up on Metric measurement were flumuxed...they could not get their head round anything that was not divisible by 10....

 

[flecc]

the young lads on the course brought up on Metric measurement were flumuxed...they could not get their head round anything that was not divisible by 10....

If we brought back Pounds, shillings and pence they'd be completely sunk!

 

[neptune]

When Tachographs were introduced for HGVs, they were phased in gradually. You could still drive a vehicle without a tacho, but of course you still had to fill in a logbook. In that case, as well as having a specified number of daily driving hours, you could only drive 500 KILOMETRES A DAY. So of course, all day your head was full of converting miles to kilometres and vice versa. I remember having a fried breakfast at the transport cafe, and teaching other drivers how to calculate it. Happy days.

 

[Mike63]

If we brought back Pounds, shillings and pence they'd be completely sunk!

...back in 1971..was It ?...I was 30 and needed simple multiplication for my work.
like millions of others I had no trouble with £ s d but I couldn't get my head around decimalisation,
I had to initially make and use a ready reckoner, drove me mad 'till my wife who understood it perfectly spent all day teaching me 'till the penny dropped and it became second nature.

...so easy eh, but then so was £ s d.

 

[flecc]

...back in 1971..was It ?

Yes, 1971. I had the job of teaching it to the 24 employees in my department, company policy to help it's introduction.

We lost a lot of our tradition then of course, farthing, ha'penny, copper, tuppence, thruppenny bit, tanner, bob, shilling; florin, half-crown, quid, guinea, tenner etc.

Translation for the young:

Farthing = a quarter penny piece; Ha'penny = half-penny; Copper = a penny piece; Tuppence = two pence; Thruppenny bit = three pence piece; Tanner = six pence piece; Bob = shilling = 12 pence piece or 12 pence; Florin = 24 pence piece; Half-crown = thirty pence piece; Quid = a pound; Guinea = 21 shillings (now £1.05); Tenner = ten pounds.
.

 

[smudger1956]

If we brought back Pounds, shillings and pence they'd be completely sunk!

Yes...Can you imagine that.
"I would like a 26x1.95 inner tube please"
"Yes Sir.That's Four pounds seventeen and six"

 

[neptune]

I have just remembered an incident that happened to me back in the early 1970s. At the time I was driving an Atkinson tractor unit for a large firm of hauliers in Nottinghamshire. One day I pulled into the yard around noon which was unusual in itself. The yard was deserted except for one of the mechanics. He walked across to me and said "You `ve had a good education, haven`t you". I asked how he had arrived at that conclusion, and he said "Well you talk posh, like." I agreed I had had a reasonable education. he then said " well, can you teach me about these millimetre things?" I showed him how to use his tape measure as a conversion chart, and then,taking a pencil, I wrote a few things on the wall.

I wrote that an inch is about 25mm, one eigth of an inch is 3 mm and so on . After about ten minutes, I asked him if he had grasped it. He said "Yes I have, thanks, but I will have to rub that writing out." when I asked him why he said " If my mates find out that you had to teach me , they will take the p*** out of me" .I found that very sad, especially in view of the fact that his collegues probably hadn`t got a clue either. I told him that if they did find out, to tell them he was teaching me.

@flecc, you missed out the ha`penny old boy!

 

[flecc]

@flecc, you missed out the ha`penny old boy!

Thanks Neptune, I had a sneaky feeling that something was missing from the list. I've added it in now.

 

[bode]

I remember when I was doing up a house about thirty years ago the timber yard was selling wood in "metric feet" - multiples of 300mm. I don't think they still do? (It's a while since I bought timber other than in pre-cut lengths form B&Q.)

 

[neptune]

I wasn`t too sure whether to start this thread or not as it is only marginally on topic. However it has created quite a bit of interest. We have had more mileage out of it than I expected. Or should that be "Kilometreage"?
I remember a Victorian music hall song, sung by a lady, entitled "Keep your hand on your ha`penny". Strangely enough, it had nothing to do with coinage, pre-decimal or otherwise.

 

[flecc]

I remember when I was doing up a house about thirty years ago the timber yard was selling wood in "metric feet" - multiples of 300mm. I don't think they still do? (It's a while since I bought timber other than in pre-cut lengths form B&Q.)

I don't think so, mostly in metric now. Timber and some building products were about the first victim of our abandoned metrication and one of those most inconvenienced by it. DIY timber in metric lengths and the various chip and particle boards sold in imperial 8' x 4' or 4' x 2' sizes are just a part of the shambles.

 

[flecc]

I wasn`t too sure whether to start this thread or not as it is only marginally on topic. However it has created quite a bit of interest. We have had more mileage out of it than I expected. Or should that be "Kilometreage"?
I remember a Victorian music hall song, sung by a lady, entitled "Keep your hand on your ha`penny". Strangely enough, it had nothing to do with coinage, pre-decimal or otherwise.

Wilkins Micawber's principle is somewhat meaningless to the young now:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

 

[morphix]

I'm always quoting speed and distance in km because my bikes LCD console only does km. I got it from Austria and it's obviously intended for the European market but I was hoping it might have a selectable option and do miles.. no such luck, so I'm stuck with metric.. I still haven't got used to it and always doing conversion in my head.. it just doesn't seem right to me to do speed and distance in km, not in this country Oddly it does wheel sizes for the speedometer config in inches. Why don't the Europeans use metric for those too?