News1 min ago
Were Things Much Easier Before Metrication?
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We buy our Beer by the pint, but our petrol by the Litre.
Our road signs are in miles, but we measure in Metres etc.
What difficulties did you find on the days of the change over?
Take the day when suddenly there was only 100 new pennies to the £1, when we once got 240 old pennies.
Remember those cheap little plastic money converters we carried about?
We buy our Beer by the pint, but our petrol by the Litre.
Our road signs are in miles, but we measure in Metres etc.
What difficulties did you find on the days of the change over?
Take the day when suddenly there was only 100 new pennies to the £1, when we once got 240 old pennies.
Remember those cheap little plastic money converters we carried about?
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I have a Groat handed down to me somewhere.
//The settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV. Local legend has that the "o' Groats" refers to John's charge of one groat for use of his ferry, but it actually derives from the Dutch de groot, meaning "the large". People from John o' Groats are known as "Groaters".//
//The settlement takes its name from Jan de Groot, a Dutchman who once plied a ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, which had recently been acquired from Norway by King James IV. Local legend has that the "o' Groats" refers to John's charge of one groat for use of his ferry, but it actually derives from the Dutch de groot, meaning "the large". People from John o' Groats are known as "Groaters".//
HAZYDAISY, I think in Imperial too but a kilometre is midway between 1/2 a mile and 3/4 of a mile.
A metre is about 10% longer than a yard so just add 1/10th to the length in metres to get it in yards.
My method gives
1500m =(1500 + 150)yds or 1,650 yds compared to the actual figure of 1640.5 yds
For kilogrammes, double the amount and add 10% of that answer to get the weight in pounds.
My method gives
50kg=(50 x 2)+ 10 or 110lbs compared to the actual figure of 110.5lbs.
A metre is about 10% longer than a yard so just add 1/10th to the length in metres to get it in yards.
My method gives
1500m =(1500 + 150)yds or 1,650 yds compared to the actual figure of 1640.5 yds
For kilogrammes, double the amount and add 10% of that answer to get the weight in pounds.
My method gives
50kg=(50 x 2)+ 10 or 110lbs compared to the actual figure of 110.5lbs.
The standard metre is in Paris, 'cos the French originated the metre in the 1790s as one/ten-millionth of the distance from the equator to the north pole along a meridian through Paris. It is realistically represented by the distance between two marks on an iron bar. The International Bureau of Weights and Measures, created in 1875, upgraded the bar to one made of 90 percent platinum/10 percent iridium alloy.
“Just waiting for some idiot to change the time”
You’ve not long to wait:
An EU directive, due to be introduced in 2020, proposes reorganising the calendar and clock to a more user-friendly decimal system. There will be 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, 100 hours in a day and 10 days in each of ten months making up year. As well as making it easier to calculate dates and times, the system has the added advantage of giving busy people more hours in the day (although there will be far fewer of them). The months will retain their current names but July and August will be excluded from the calendar.
As a result there will be a number of minor adjustments needed:
• People currently working nine till five will work from approximately half past 37 until 71 o’clock. Unfortunately as the Earth rotates on its axis in just under a quarter of a New Day there will be a number of sunrises and sunsets daily.
• Anyone with a birthday in July or August must apply for a new birth certificate from a specially formed new department in Brussels.
• The Men’s 100 metres world record will be adjusted to around 27 New Seconds (there being 10,000 New Seconds in a New Hour instead of the current 3,600).
• France will close for annual holidays from June 1st to September 10th inclusive, resuming on October 1st.
• In the first year of the new arrangements Easter will fall on February 3rd, August Bank Holiday will e on May 6th and Christmas will fall on December 29th. After that it’s anybody’s guess but after a suitable period of “bedding in” public holidays across the EU will be standardised and lists published annually.
• Public Holidays will consist of 6.5 New Hours off work
• The continent's entire railway system will have to close for 9.6 New Hours every 2.3 New Days to give drivers the time to learn the latest timetables.
• The radio programme “Just a Minute” will be rename “Just 87.6 New Seconds”. Nicholas Parsons will still preside and the programme will be followed by numerous episodes of “I’m Sorry haven’t a clue” live from Brussels (or Strasbourg, depending where the EU is currently sitting).
:-) :-)
You’ve not long to wait:
An EU directive, due to be introduced in 2020, proposes reorganising the calendar and clock to a more user-friendly decimal system. There will be 100 seconds in a minute, 100 minutes in an hour, 100 hours in a day and 10 days in each of ten months making up year. As well as making it easier to calculate dates and times, the system has the added advantage of giving busy people more hours in the day (although there will be far fewer of them). The months will retain their current names but July and August will be excluded from the calendar.
As a result there will be a number of minor adjustments needed:
• People currently working nine till five will work from approximately half past 37 until 71 o’clock. Unfortunately as the Earth rotates on its axis in just under a quarter of a New Day there will be a number of sunrises and sunsets daily.
• Anyone with a birthday in July or August must apply for a new birth certificate from a specially formed new department in Brussels.
• The Men’s 100 metres world record will be adjusted to around 27 New Seconds (there being 10,000 New Seconds in a New Hour instead of the current 3,600).
• France will close for annual holidays from June 1st to September 10th inclusive, resuming on October 1st.
• In the first year of the new arrangements Easter will fall on February 3rd, August Bank Holiday will e on May 6th and Christmas will fall on December 29th. After that it’s anybody’s guess but after a suitable period of “bedding in” public holidays across the EU will be standardised and lists published annually.
• Public Holidays will consist of 6.5 New Hours off work
• The continent's entire railway system will have to close for 9.6 New Hours every 2.3 New Days to give drivers the time to learn the latest timetables.
• The radio programme “Just a Minute” will be rename “Just 87.6 New Seconds”. Nicholas Parsons will still preside and the programme will be followed by numerous episodes of “I’m Sorry haven’t a clue” live from Brussels (or Strasbourg, depending where the EU is currently sitting).
:-) :-)
I find the 'old' system incredibly unintuitive and confusing. I can't "see" a mile or a yard in my head but I can "see" a kilometre or metre. I have given up even trying to understand Fahrenheit temperatures. I give my height in cm and my weight in kg.
NJ is right - we should have chosen one system and stuck with it.
NJ is right - we should have chosen one system and stuck with it.
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