Discussion
Seeing a temperature quoted in Fahrenheit on another forum made me aware of the mixture of units I use.
For 'room' and most outdoor temperatures I use Fahrenheit, but switch to Centigrade below about 5C. (This probably stems from the time as student when I had to record outdoor temperatures in winter and they were given in C, so I started connecting C to how cold it was).
For lengths I use millimetres and centimetres for small lengths, inches and feet for medium lengths, and then recently I've found myself using metres instead of yards as the EU poisons my brain.
For volume I tend to think in cartons of orange juice.
For 'room' and most outdoor temperatures I use Fahrenheit, but switch to Centigrade below about 5C. (This probably stems from the time as student when I had to record outdoor temperatures in winter and they were given in C, so I started connecting C to how cold it was).
For lengths I use millimetres and centimetres for small lengths, inches and feet for medium lengths, and then recently I've found myself using metres instead of yards as the EU poisons my brain.
For volume I tend to think in cartons of orange juice.
bearman68 said:
Metric all the way - how can you calculate anything at all in imperial systems? I have no idea how many BTU's our boiler output is......
It's only because you were never taught them. Imperial is called Imperial because you can build a f
king Empire on it! We shall now sing the national anthem.
Halmyre said:
Footnote from Pratchett and Gaiman's 'Good Omens':
"Two farthings = One Ha’penny. Two ha’pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = A Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.
It's cleverly angled but all you actually needed was pounds, shillings and pence, just one more than we have today. The other terms are simply colloquialisms. 12 divides up more ways than 10. "Two farthings = One Ha’penny. Two ha’pennies = One Penny. Three pennies = A Thrupenny Bit. Two Thrupences = A Sixpence. Two Sixpences = A Shilling, or Bob. Two Bob = A Florin. One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown. Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note. Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies). One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.
Regardless of which is 'easier', it's the fact we have to adopt everything from bloody Europe that I find annoying. And that includes croissants and sitting on aluminium chairs on a freezing pavement. Bah.
mike_knott said:
think about the steps involved in adding six foot eight and five sixteenths to four foot eleven and seven tenths and you'll see what I mean.
True - though they wouldn't have used tenths of an inch. So all fractions would use, or could be converted to, the same common denominator. Mental arithmetic was much better in those pre-calculator days.Halmyre said:
They should have gone with weights. 16 ounces in a pound, 14 pounds in a stone, 8 stones in a hundredweight, 20 hundredweights in a ton.
In practice it's unlikely any profession would have needed all of that scale. A coalman would only work with tons and hundredweight. A grocer would only use pounds and ounces - and so on. My mother, who trained as a pharmacist, used ounces and drams. So in real life it wasn't as bad as things might seem.Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 10th February 16:09
motco said:
My particular hobby horse is the modern habit of measuring distance not in miles or kilometres, but in bloody hours. "It's two hours from here..." What? By camel, or aircraft? What's wrong with miles?
I agree, but would venture one exception - namely leisure craft. When one wishes to reach a particular place, and possibly return that day, then hours are the best unit - because that's what days are measured in. The fact a certain lock is X miles from my marina is immaterial; what matters to me is that it will take me three hours to reach it!
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