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From: NKTB on
On 19 July, 14:40, "Mortimer" <m...(a)privacy.net> wrote:
> "NKTB" <north_korean_tourist_bo...(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:ff49cbf5-8f43-4cac-876e-d305ad586cff(a)l14g2000yql.googlegroups.com...
>
> > The Irish, who are
> > probably our closest neighbours culturally now, have long since gone
> > metric.
>
> When I was last in Ireland, in the mid 90s, I noticed that the cars had
> speedos calibrated in mph (presumably because they were right-hand drive)
> and the speed limit signs were in mph. However the distance signs were in
> km. It made it very difficult to work out how long it would take at the
> speed limit (eg 60 mph) to cover a certain distance (quoted in km) or how
> far you had travelled so far (using the odometer's reading in miles) when
> the total distance was in km. There was a lot of multiplying by 5/8 needed!
>
> Apparently (according to a Dubliner that I was visiting on business) the
> government decided not to change the speed limit signs to km/hr because they
> didn't want anyone to try to claim that a sign reading 80 (km/hr, equivalent
> to about 50 mph) meant that they were allowed to drive at 80 mph, given that
> the car speedo was calibrated with its more prominent numbers in mph.
>
> The situation may well have changed now with speed limit signs in km/hr and
> new cars fitted with km and km/hr speedos despite being RHD. Presumably the
> market for this combination is comparatively small compared with the UK, but
> also includes Australia, New Zealand, Malta and maybe Japan and India (do
> they measure speed in km/hr?).
>
> I do hope that if we *do* ever replace miles with km, the government also
> pass a law banning the perverted pronuncation "kill OM ittah" and mandating
> "KILL o ME tre" so as to match all other SI units and prefixes where the
> stress is on the first syllable of the prefix and the first syllable of the
> unit. Sorry - just a little pet hate of mine! I think I was King Canute in
> another life because I doubt I'll stem the tide of "kill OM ittah" ;-)

I agree with you on the kil OM ittah thing - it really annoys me as
well. After all we don't go around kil OG rums or kil OB ites.

The wikipedia article on LH/RH driving is interesting. Seems driving
on the left was much more common in the past. Napoleon and American
teamsters are the main cause of driving on the right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-_and_left-hand_traffic



From: NKTB on
On 19 July, 14:37, Adrian <toomany2...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> NKTB <north_korean_tourist_bo...(a)yahoo.com> gurgled happily, sounding much
> like they were saying:
>

> <shrug> Does it matter? Really?

Probably not to us, but kids who learn distances in Km are going to
get confused. As they grow up I guess there will be an increasing
demand to change

>
> there's the perennial temperature
> confusion (it's cold it's celsius (minus sodding five last night, my poor
> plants...), but when it's hot it's fahrenheit (nearly 90 deg the other
> day!)),

The red top tabloids are largely responsible for that, they grab
hyperbole wherever they can in order to sensationalise and sell
newspapers.


then there's the odd measurements for bits of wood, feet and
> inches for height of people, stone and lbs for weight of people.

My doctors always measure weight in Kg, makes it easy to work out
BMI. As I'm about 5ft 8inches this equals 1.72 Metres. 1.72 squared
is near as dammit 3 so I just divide my weight in Kg by 3 to get my
BMI

>
I prefer half a litre of my beer.

From: Adrian on
"Mortimer" <me(a)privacy.net> gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
saying:

> When I was last in Ireland, in the mid 90s, I noticed that the cars had
> speedos calibrated in mph (presumably because they were right-hand
> drive) and the speed limit signs were in mph.

Down solely to the Irish taking a while to convert completely - and,
quite probably, a lot of UK-market cars being exported used.

> The situation may well have changed now with speed limit signs in km/hr
> and new cars fitted with km and km/hr speedos despite being RHD.
> Presumably the market for this combination is comparatively small
> compared with the UK, but also includes Australia, New Zealand, Malta
> and maybe Japan and India (do they measure speed in km/hr?).

I suspect there's as many RHD km/h cars sold as RHD mph ones. Yes, Japan
and India use km.
From: Adrian on
NKTB <north_korean_tourist_board(a)yahoo.com> gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

>> <shrug> Does it matter? Really?

> Probably not to us, but kids who learn distances in Km are going to get
> confused. As they grow up I guess there will be an increasing demand to
> change

And if they don't learn about miles, they'll be confused when they deal
with Americans.

Just like so many mainland Europeans are when they come here currently
(or 'merkins when they go to mainland Europe), whilst us Brits are
equally happy with both.

>> then there's the odd measurements for bits of wood, feet and
>> inches for height of people, stone and lbs for weight of people.

> My doctors always measure weight in Kg, makes it easy to work out BMI.
> As I'm about 5ft 8inches this equals 1.72 Metres

Congratulations, you just proved my point.

> I prefer half a litre of my beer.

By "beer", are you referring to bland, dead fizz?
From: Mortimer on
"Adrian" <toomany2cvs(a)gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8aj2pdFrp2U5(a)mid.individual.net...
> It's not as if miles are the only hangover, either. Apart from MPG
> (whereas we buy fuel in litres), there's the perennial temperature
> confusion (it's cold it's celsius (minus sodding five last night, my poor
> plants...), but when it's hot it's fahrenheit (nearly 90 deg the other
> day!)), then there's the odd measurements for bits of wood, feet and
> inches for height of people, stone and lbs for weight of people.
>
> And, of course, pints for beer.

I'm one of those half-and-half people who is old enough to have been brought
up with imperial units so I estimate distances in inches, yards etc and know
my height and weight in feet/inches and stones/pounds, BUT if I'm asked to
measure anything I always do it in metric units for ease of calculation and
for consistency between linear, volumetric and weight units.

A box that it 10 cm cubed contains a litre and weighs 1 kg if it's filled
with water. There is no such simple relationship for imperial: there is not
an integer relationship between cubic inches and gallons:

- one imperial (UK) gallon is 277.42 cubic inches
- one US gallon is defined to be 231 cubic inches

Neither of these is a nice round number.

I first realised that there was no simple relationship between linear and
volumetric units when I had to work out how heavy a copper hot water
cylinder would be to see if the joists that it was standing on would take
the weight, and I only had a tape measure with inches on it. Not knowing the
conversion factor (277.4 is not a very memorable number!), even if I did
know that a gallon of water weighs 10 lb, I had to convert the height and
circumference to metric units (1 inch is about 2.5 cm, pi is approximately
22/7) and perform the calculations by hand on a piece of paper (I didn't
have a calculator either at the cottage where I was helping my dad fit the
cylinder).

For the record, I've just measured my own hot water cylinder and it's 120 cm
high by 122 cm circumference, so its radius is 122/(2*pi) = 19.4 cm and
hence its volume is 120 * pi * (19.4)^2 = (approx) 142,000 cm^3 or 142
litres. So the weight of the cylinder will be 142 kg plus the weight of the
copper itself.

We estimated the total weight would be around 150 kg so if the joists took
the combined weight of dad and me standing on it, it would take the weight
of the tank. We were lighter in those days - today we'd add up to about 220
kg, but such is life!

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