Why still miles?
in [UK Drivers]
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From: GT on 19 Jul 2010 10:33 "NKTB" <north_korean_tourist_board(a)yahoo.com> wrote in message news:ff49cbf5-8f43-4cac-876e-d305ad586cff(a)l14g2000yql.googlegroups.com... > From watching various TV traffic cops type shows from various parts of > the Commonwealth, I notice that they all now use kilometres for > distances, and obviously kph for speed (and presumably km/Litre for > fuel consumption hopefully not the dreadful Litres/100km used on the > continent. I hope they ran this past the King/Queen before they changed his/her country!! > I know the British people are a bit stick-in-the-mud, and don't like > all these nasty foreign weights and measures, but British people, > albeit in foreign parts (Aussies, Canucks, Enzedders etc) seem to have > happily adopted these measures, no doubt with some resistance from the > elder and more conservative of their number. The Irish, who are > probably our closest neighbours culturally now, have long since gone > metric. We should never have let those countries out of our control and things would still be proper! > OK, we still buy milk in pints (multiples of 568ml), some food in > pounds (multiples of 454gm) but we are, to all intents and purposes, > fully metricated in the food area. We have for a long time used > celsius temperatures, and anyone who works in science or engineering, > as I do, will have used metric (MKS) units since I don't know when. Milk in pints Cheese by the pound Potatoes by the pound Jam by the pound Beer by the pint Height in feet and inches Sugar in pounds Distance by the mile Houses by square feet TVs by inches String and electic cable by the metre There is not much that is metric really! > Are the PTB scared of an almighty backlash if we go the final mile > (pun intended) and chuck the antiquated measurement into the long > grass? It would seem so. Is it just the expense of changing all > those road signs - I guess the current economic climate won't help. Its not the british way. We hold doors open for ladies and lay our coats down in puddles in this country. Stiff upper lip old boy. > How long can we go on having a hybrid, half-arsed system of distance > measurement? As long as we can!
From: The Peeler on 19 Jul 2010 10:33 On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:01:23 -0700 (PDT), NKTB <north_korean_tourist_board(a)yahoo.com> wrote: >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. PHEW, WHAT A SCORCHER! - Evening Standard Actually, Fahrenheit has more meaningful ranges of temperature. When it's in the 70s, 80s or 90s everyone familiar with Fahrenheit knows how hot it is. But what use is the 20s (Centigrade)?
From: Adrian on 19 Jul 2010 10:40 "Mortimer" <me(a)privacy.net> gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying: > Sweden changed from RHD to LHD some time in the 60s, which must have > left a lot of obselete RHD cars which no-one wanted to buy second hand. Not really, since they'd been buying LHD cars for years prior to that.
From: Mortimer on 19 Jul 2010 10:42 "The Peeler" <peelingthe(a)invalid.admin> wrote in message news:e8o846ta53fkt24bmti2cei93ca9hddq43(a)4ax.com... > On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:01:23 -0700 (PDT), NKTB > <north_korean_tourist_board(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > Actually, Fahrenheit has more meaningful ranges of temperature. > When it's in the 70s, 80s or 90s everyone familiar with Fahrenheit > knows how hot it is. But what use is the 20s (Centigrade)? It has the same meaning for people who are more familiar with celsius. If the temperature is above 30 deg C, it's very hot. If it's above 85 deg F, it's very hot. It's just a matter of being more familiar with one or other range of temperatures. And having water freezing at 32 deg F and boiling at 212 deg F seems very bizarre - a temperature scale which gives round numbers to the freezing and boiling point of the most abundant liquid on the planet seems eminently sensible!
From: Mortimer on 19 Jul 2010 10:49
"Adrian" <toomany2cvs(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:8aj6eqFrp2U8(a)mid.individual.net... > "Mortimer" <me(a)privacy.net> gurgled happily, sounding much like they were > saying: > >> Sweden changed from RHD to LHD some time in the 60s, which must have >> left a lot of obselete RHD cars which no-one wanted to buy second hand. > > Not really, since they'd been buying LHD cars for years prior to that. So they had. I never knew that. I've just looked it up: they preferred the driver close to the kerb to avoid running off the edge of the road, rather than near the centre to judge the distance from the oncoming cars and for ease of overtaking. And many of the cars sold in Sweden were American. |