Britain to go more European

Originally posted by stumason

Maybe the US should unite with our motherland!

Well, we did try to convince you nicely back in the 1770's (and 1812 I believe)

hehe, but you bloody Yanks always think you know best

Or how many ounces in a pound (well, the "smokers" out there would know about ounces!).

*chuckles* Aye! we do...... I dont know how 'nice' it was but hey we did get a national anthem out of the 1812 deal.

nice we can joke about that stuff

16 oz's in a pound lol....dont ask me how I know that....also about 30-32 grams is an ounce lol.

actually I do agree metrics are less confusing and much more scientific.....but here in the US these old boys just dont want to give up that gallon of moonshine

Originally posted by XphilesPhan
*chuckles* Aye! we do......

I dont know how 'nice' it was

but hey we did get a national anthem out of the 1812 deal.

nice we can joke about that stuff

16 oz's in a pound lol....dont ask me how I know that....also about 30-32 grams is an ounce lol.

actually I do agree metrics are less confusing and much more scientific.....but here in the US these old boys just dont want to give up that gallon of moonshine

Indeed it is good we can joke.

Unlike some of my brethren here who claim we all hate Europeans in the UK because of wars we had decades (or centuries) ago!

That is just untrue.

The UKIP types here all congregate in clusters and as such convince themselves that everyone hates the EU, because all they speak to are other anti-EU types.

Calling the French Frog eaters, or the EU a grand plan for the Nazi's to take power is just ubsurd! Pray tell were these "Nazi's" are coming from? Judging by your French bashing, I take it you assume that all Germans are Nazis?

Bigotry is alive and well in the UK.

Originally posted by Zanzibar
Well I want to 'clutch' onto our measurements because they make sense, I've grown up using them and it would be a real pain learning all the new ones.

- Come off it.

Like I said, you see KPH everytime you drive on your speedo (assuming you are old enough to drive) and the currency you use is already decimal.

You would not see a big change, the numbers on the ticket or sign would change but the system itself would be exactly the same.

Decimalisation was a far greater change and, despite the odd hiccup, the people coped fine making the change.

I know the British currency has changed, but not that much over time.

- Er, actually when the UK currency went decimal in 1972 it changed totally.

You should check out the facts before making such claims cos it seems obvious you do not know 'you own system/history'.

'Pounds; shillings and pennies' was a completely different 'base 12' system not a decimal one.

And lets face it, most of Britain hate Europe, we have always disliked the French and most of us only go to Europe for a holiday.

- Childish Sun style digs at the French may have gone on for yonks but to claim some ridiculous idea that 'most' of us 'hate' Europe?!

How sad, but face it, you are simply speaking for yourself.

Lots of people in the UK have relations in Europe (especially now thanks to the increased numbers of Britons working and moving to retire over there).

A small rump of Britons seem to have ideas stuck in the 1940's or 19th century but as the votes keep showing the UK is nothing like as anti-EU as some seem so desperate to believe.



[edit on 26-2-2006 by sminkeypinkey]

Originally posted by stumason
How many of you imperials out there could tell me (without looking it up on google!!

) how many yards are in a mile?

1760

Or for that matter,how many metres are in a mile? Does anyone know how far a mile is?

5280 feet. I don't know how many meters are in a mile! meters is metric!

Or how many ounces in a pound.

16

I know how far a Kilometre is, but a mile is just random in comparison and makes no sense.

I don't know a kilometer from shinola. We were raised with the Imperial measurements. It's what we know. I know how far a mile is, but kilometer is just some random measurement...

Originally posted by kuhl
...first it was fruit

Can someone explain that to me?



[edit on 26-2-2006 by Benevolent Heretic]

5280 feet. I don't know how many meters are in a mile! meters is metric!

I know

Plus, you don't count . Your an American and as you said, you were raised and taught Imperial. Over here, we are taught metric in schools.

I know how far a mile is, but kilometer is just some random measurement...

I know your only pulling my leg here, but for the Euro-sceptics I will elaborate. Imperial measurements are random as they are made up of out of date references.

A mile started life as a measurement of how many steps by the Romans. It was originally 1500 metres. Over time and after several statutes on the matter by Parliaments, it was refined (if I can use that word) to be 8 furlongs. A furlong is:

......... a measure of distance within Imperial units and U.S. customary units. Although its definition has varied historically, in modern terms it equals 660 feet or 220 yards, and is therefore equal to 201.168 metres. There are ten chains in a furlong and eight furlongs in a mile. The name "furlong" derives from the Old English words furh (furrow) and lang (long). It originally referred to the length of the furrow in one acre of a ploughed open field (a medieval communal field which was divided into strips). The system of long furrows arose because turning a team of oxen pulling a heavy plough was difficult. This offset the drainage advantages of short furrows and meant furrows were made as long as possible. For this reason, it was once also called an acre's length.

Source

That is a pretty random way to measure things in the 21st century, don't you think?

On the other hand, metres (be they milli, centi, kilo etc) are based on science. The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

Now, I admit that 1/299 792 458 of a second is pretty random, but it has a basis in science.

Metre

I would rather go with a measurement of distance travelled by light, than the distance between one patch of peasant land and another anyday!

Can someone explain that to me?

Alot of Euro-sceptics like to moan that fruit now has to be sold in kilo's/grams rather than pounds and ounces and how it was the first step to metricisation. It wasn't. The currency change of 1969 (may be wrong on the date) was the first step to metricisation, long beofre the fruit thing of the 1990's.

Truth be told, ask anyone under the age of 30 if they know how much a pound or ounce is and they couldn't tell you, as we have all been brought up on Metric.

Only those that chuff would know how much an ounce is . Even then, we (they? ) can tell you the metric equivalent in grams, as they like to check the weight of the "goods" on a scale, which is metric.

Originally posted by stumason
On the other hand, metres (be they milli, centi, kilo etc) are based on science. The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second.

Now, I admit that 1/299 792 458 of a second is pretty random, but it has a basis in science.

Thanks for the explanation, especially the fruit thing. I was mystified!

Now, about this randomness thing... C'mon! the path travelled by light in a vacuum? and those numbers? Like you're going to be able to figure something out without a rule?

"Now, let's see, if light travels this far in a vacuum, in 1/299 792 458 of a second, then it travels this far in 1/995 862 of a second, so considering I'm in atmospheric space, then that number has to be multiplied by ..."

You get my point.

At this point, what does it matter what the measurement is based on? It's precise now, regardless of how it came about. IMO, All the rest of science falls away when you talk about 1/299 792 458 of a second!

And we who know imperial method, know it and don't want to change. There are easily-accessible conversion tables.

And I'm just giving you a hard time.

I can tell you how much is in a pound is ounces lol and it not cause I smoke the green stuff lol.

I still use it to measure out rice and crap cause it how I know how much to use lol.

and im 22.

but in honesty I use metric more due to the fact I live in the computer age and am a computer scientist (Nearly got my honours)

I like miles lol it looks less than kilometers lol which is great when you live at the top end of scotland and need to go to glasgow or that lol.

Your definitely right about the fact that under 30's haven't got about imperial units. I know my height and weight only in metric. I buy fruit simply by the number (weight has nothing to do with it- i.e. 5 bananas.)

I personally think of imperial units as backward, and I could never dream of working in America and having to do calculations in imperial. (Slugs, wtf is a slug as a measurement?)

If we should do anything with the road signs it should be to have BOTH measurement systems on them.

I believe that Metric is far better and more accurate than the 'old' Imperial system, but I also believe there should be some kind of compromise i.e. as CarlosG has stated, they should update the road signs with both Metric and Imperial units - as time moves on, and less people become opposed to the change and more people become educated on the new Metric units, we can then safely remove the old Imperial units

And I'm just giving you a hard time.

hehe, I had noticed! Anyhoo, your a Yank, so you can stick with your outdated, peasant field measurements if you want .

Originally posted by stumason

And I'm just giving you a hard time.

hehe, I had noticed! Anyhoo, your a Yank, so you can stick with your outdated, peasant field measurements if you want

.

Hey!, guess who taught us those measurements

no wait I got one better.....guess who invented them!

Originally posted by XphilesPhan

Originally posted by stumason

And I'm just giving you a hard time.

hehe, I had noticed! Anyhoo, your a Yank, so you can stick with your outdated, peasant field measurements if you want

.

Hey!, guess who taught us those measurements

no wait I got one better.....guess who invented them!

Which were excellent for the time, now we've on to something even better

Its all a nice debate, but I dont know if you have seen Tony Blair and Alistar DArling both stated Catergorically that this would not happen.

I dont thing its got much to do with Europe or resisting europe, The British are natrually conservative and would stir up such a stink they would lose MORE votes.


Dan

Originally posted by James Daniel

Originally posted by XphilesPhan

Originally posted by stumason

And I'm just giving you a hard time.

hehe, I had noticed! Anyhoo, your a Yank, so you can stick with your outdated, peasant field measurements if you want

.

Hey!, guess who taught us those measurements

no wait I got one better.....guess who invented them!

Which were excellent for the time, now we've on to something even better

very true......as I said metrics are needed in the age we live in (scientific)
Imperial were great when you needed to bring your products to market etc, lol....oh well, change is inevitable...im sure the US wont be able to hold on to it for much longer.

It's long-overdue.

37 years ago we were taught to measure in metres and told it was our job to educate our parents in these 'new fangled' metric measurements.

Many aspects of UK (Army for instance) work in metric, all our maps have been in metric for years but stick-in-the-mud attitudes have prevented us making the changeover complete unlike ROI, Oz etc etc.

The fact it's still being debated all these years later is a damning indictment.

Yank here. Thought I would chime in a bit.

Being pretty well versed in both measurements, I have to say that using metric makes much more sense. Forget the fact that it is rooted in science. It is base 10. Simple. 10 fingers and toes. Easy math.

Having a universal, worldwide measurement system would be nice. Anyone work on cars? Some stuff is metric, some standard (thats what we call it here ). Its a huge pain when you have a car that uses both. Same with any device that is manufactured all over, and assembled in one place.

I would like to see a world standard just to alleviate the need for all the tools, and the extra time educating our children on the measurement system that is shunned by most of the world, as well as that other one.

Moving this thread to Global News Discussion.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic

Originally posted by kuhl
...first it was fruit

Can someone explain that to me?

Haven't all our bananas got to be straight these days...along with various standardised levels of fruit colour and size. I can't believe someone gets paid to, firstly, come up with these directives and, secondly, implement them.

There still doesn't seem to be a serious debate about the European issue in the UK. The government don't want to tackle it just yet because they know that most people here don't want to be 'European', which is a shame.

History cannot be erased, as some people seem to fear, and, personally, working for a company that relies upon imports from the continent, a levelling of a monetary playing field at the very least, seems an attractive proposition.

Originally posted by CarlosG
Your definitely right about the fact that under 30's haven't got about imperial units. I know my height and weight only in metric. I buy fruit simply by the number (weight has nothing to do with it- i.e. 5 bananas.)

Im 21 and couldn't tell you how tall i am in centimetres or how many kilos I weigh i am six feet and one inch tall and weigh 201lbs as far as im concerned,

even if you ask my brother who is 16 he will tell you his height and weight in imperial measures.

i have never honestly in my entire life heard any one ask......so how tall are you...

oh im one metre 26 cm or what ever.

Originally posted by buckaroo

Originally posted by CarlosG
Your definitely right about the fact that under 30's haven't got about imperial units. I know my height and weight only in metric. I buy fruit simply by the number (weight has nothing to do with it- i.e. 5 bananas.)

Im 21 and couldn't tell you how tall i am in centimetres or how many kilos I weigh i am six feet and one inch tall and weigh 201lbs as far as im concerned,

even if you ask my brother who is 16 he will tell you his height and weight in imperial measures.

i have never honestly in my entire life heard any one ask......so how tall are you...

oh im one metre 26 cm or what ever.

I am an Engineer, I do calculations everyday in metric, why would I want to know my height and weight in imperial? It means nothing to me. I am 1.78m tall and 72kg.

Intrestingly, you state your weight in pounds, odd for a Brit. It would usually be in Stones.

And a comment on the metre being defined from the speed of light thing. That is real not what is great about the unit, it is the links between volumes, masses, forces, etc., that are the real benefit. When you get to the end of a calculation you can use the SI rules from the various units that you have to get another sensible unit, truely genius.