Metrickery

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Which puts it at odds with a metre, which is 39.38 inches!
No, it's not.
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
There is as I understand it a metric unit for liquid, in particular, flammable liquid.

This is the pound.

When filling up with fuel no one ever knows how many gallons or litres they bought,
but they will know that they bought (e.g.) fifty pounds worth.
I stopped buying petrol when it went over £1 a Gallon, sold my motorcycle and got the Carlton out of the shed. I've only ever owned bicycles since. :becool:
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
America is still mainly Imperial measurements, but they mainly quote a persons weight in pounds and their mile is shorter than the British mile and I'm pretty sure that their gallon is a bit less and as for engine capacity in cubic inches which I'm pretty sure never was used in Britain (We've always quoted in cc or litres)
its all rather confusing really to quote Spike Milligan.
I remember in my local when they said beer would soon be sold in half litres I commented that we had been served half litres for years and was ridiculed so next time I went in I had a 500ml bottle of beer with me, made sure I had an audience at the bar and asked for a pint glass into which I poured the bottle. Lo and behold a pint with a head.:becool: It led to some muttering and people asking the landlord to "Top that pint up" for quite a while.:giggle:

Er, no, mile is a mile here and in US. But their "pint" is 16 fl.ozs., not 20 as here (why???), so their gallon is 80% of a UK gallon. It's a nightmare over there, they are so isolationist about this sort of stuff you couldn't make it up! All they need is a Nigel Farage to tell them to keep immigrants out - forgetting they have only been there for about 12 generations...:wacko: It's all so much easier metric!
 
Which puts it at odds with a metre, which is 39.38 inches!

And 39.38 X 25.4 equals?

Hardly relevant. The point is that a metre is not, and has never been, defined in terms of inches. That 39.38 would have just been a handy approximation, that is now not correct. And as the inch was defined by BS in 1930 (thank you wikipedia!), has never been correct in your life time.
 

DaveReading

Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
Location
Reading, obvs
1m = 39.37"(2dp) by definition. Who says it's 39.38?

The Americans did (in 1866) but they have seen the light since then,
 

Dogtrousers

Kilometre nibbler
I stopped buying petrol when it went over £1 a Gallon, sold my motorcycle and got the Carlton out of the shed. I've only ever owned bicycles since. :becool:
I remember it well ... When petrol went over £1 a gallon they had to change the pumps at the garage where I was working. I got my hand trapped under the pump as we were moving it and it hurt a lot.
 
Location
Wirral
Ah, the Americans. Still, I do prefer their billion to ours.

Same thing these days, but an old UK billion rather than a US/new billion in dollars/euro/GBP surely? I'm pretty sure either billion is enough for anyone but that safety factor of a 1000 on the old fashioned one would make one smugger still...
 

SpokeyDokey

68, & my GP says I will officially be old at 70!
Moderator
Christ knows why we don't just bite the bullet and 'go metric'.

We've been flopping around on this one for decades.

Imperial measurements are complete codswallop although I still use some as i am an older person and that's what I was taught.

What can be easier than Base 10?
 

Mr Celine

Discordian
Any fule kno that an acre is equivalent to the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in one day.
The oxen in France are not as strong as English oxen, so their hectare is smaller.

A hectare has nothing to do with ploughing. It is a area of 10000 square metres, for example a square 100m x 100m, which is larger than an acre. It's imperial equivalent is 2.47 acres, so by your logic French oxen would be over twice as strong as English oxen. Scottish oxen are also stronger than English oxen, a Scots acre being equivalent to 1.3 English acres.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
I remember arguing with a doctor friend who was bemoaning patients quoting their weight in stone, babies' weight in pounds and so on. I asked her what blood pressure should be and was quoted some arcane figure. So what would that be in Pascals then?
 
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