Imperial measurements

[kshotton45]

The European Union is set to confirm it has abandoned what became one of its most unpopular policies among many British people. The EU is set to abandon plans for Britain to ditch its imperial measurements system.

BBC NEWS | UK | EU gives up on 'metric Britain'

Freedom !

Keith.

[Meles meles]

Splendid, there was no need to change it any way.

[pressld2]

We must celebrate - make mine a 0.568261485 litres!

Dave P.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

Did they really think they could convert us to having a half litre of beer, I didn't think so.

Mines a pint

Cheers

BWD

[ron1863]

I'm old school and use pints, feet, gallons and inches etc. but my son, who is 25 talks to me in metric, which is what he was taught at school. He will say something like "it's about 50 millimeters long" and then has to hold his hands apart so that I can get a rough idea of what he is talking about.
I don't mind us going back to imperial but the kids who have been taught metric will be in the same boat as me.

[Paul mabbott]

Any more than half a pint ....

Originally Posted by Billy Wobble Dagger

Did they really think they could convert us to having a half litre of beer, I didn't think so.

Mines a pint

Cheers

BWD

[Paul mabbott]

The EU has not given in, it has said that it's up to the British government to do it. Which they should - no wonder we have so many problems with applied mathematicians and scientists (or lack of them) in this country when children don't use the same methodology as most of the world and are often actively discouraged from doing so.

It is a pain when shopping sometimes to have to convert from avoirdupois into decimal - fortunately most of the major supermarkets have long moved onto metric labelling ... those fighting a rearguard action are banging their heads against a brickwall - which is no problem if they like it but they shouldn't wilfully confuse other people and damage their education ....

[Gill Catton]

I prefer metric, I guess that's my age, but it just seems to make more sense everything being in tens!

[Wild-Woman]

Bring back £'s shillings and pence!!!!

And Guineas which was worth 21 shillings which were worth 1 twentieth of a pound.

All beautifully confusing.

[pressld2]

Originally Posted by Paul mabbott

no wonder we have so many problems with applied mathematicians and scientists (or lack of them) in this country when children don't use the same methodology as most of the world and are often actively discouraged from doing so.

My son has just left school with six grade A A-Levels, including maths, further maths and physics, and he is about to start on a four year MMath degree at the University of Warwick. The sum total of his education in imperial measurements was one week in year 8 (2nd year at secondary school) when they covered conversion between the two systems. And it never came up in any of his exams. In every subject across the curriculum all measurements were exclusively metric - e.g. kilometres in geography, millimetres in DT, grams and millilitres in chemistry.

He, like most people his age, much prefers metric to imperial and if I'm honest I can see why people find it easier to work in multiples of ten. But some of the old imperial systems were not as daft as they look, especially the ones based on twelve (e.g. 12 inches in a foot, 12 pennies in a shilling). This is because of their divisors. If you exclude 1 and itself, 10 can only be divided into half or into fifths without involving fractions or decimals, whereas 12 can be divided into halves, thirds, quarters and sixths. This was quite important before the advent of pocket calculators and precise measuring devices. Which makes 14 ounces in a pound all the more puzzling!

Dave P.