dieseldog999:
switchlogic:
We should stop all this ■■■■■■■ around and go metric. Makes way more sense and is easier to understandmetric means 10 fingers for counting.feet and inches means someone british invented it because chains and furlongs wernt enough to mess your head with. if britains in the eu,then why dont we have euro and metric anyway ?
Exactly. Since I’ve spent a large part of my career driving foreign trucks in foreign countries my brain is totally metric these days. KMs rule!
dieseldog999:
switchlogic:
We should stop all this ■■■■■■■ around and go metric. Makes way more sense and is easier to understandmetric means 10 fingers for counting.feet and inches means someone british invented it because chains and furlongs wernt enough to mess your head with. if britains in the eu,then why dont we have euro and metric anyway ?
Because this is Britain and not part of Euro Disney. I am British and not European. I live in an English country village and not some multi ethnic craphole. I we weren’t in the EU, you wouldn’t have others dropping the pay rates for your job.
By the way, chains are what you lash heavy things down with and furlongs tell you how close the jockey is to the finishing line. 
switchlogic:
dieseldog999:
switchlogic:
We should stop all this ■■■■■■■ around and go metric. Makes way more sense and is easier to understandmetric means 10 fingers for counting.feet and inches means someone british invented it because chains and furlongs wernt enough to mess your head with. if britains in the eu,then why dont we have euro and metric anyway ?
Exactly. Since I’ve spent a large part of my career driving foreign trucks in foreign countries my brain is totally metric these days. KMs rule!
The flaw in the metric system is that it is all based on multiples/dividers of one basic measurement the metre.Whereas imperial has different standard measurements to suit the different requirements.Which is why we can use fractions of an inch, inches,feet,yards and miles as and where they are best suited to make the best representation of the measurement in question.
As opposed to metric.Which is effectively the same thing as imperial standardising on decimal multiples and dividers of the yard would be. 
IE miles rule to cover motorway distances not kiloyards.While feet and inches are better to represent an accurate picture of bridge heights etc than yards and tenths of yards.Just as thousandths of an inch provide a better representation for close tolerance engineering than fractions of a fraction of a metre/yard.
I think that most people who need it are bi-lingual in measurements from a couple of years after leaving school. It’s a lot worse in America where they are still officially imperial but lots of stuff, especially anything scientific or engineering is metric. For lengths shorter than an inch they use tenths and thou’s (thousandths.)
The biggest crunch came when the Mars Polar Lander crashed because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units and NASA didn’t notice.
For my money, bridge heights should be shown in both - anything that helps the idiots from hitting them has got to be good.
Scientifically, metric may be the easier system to work with, but imperial measurements relate more to things the human brain can comprehend. I cannot think of one country which uses a decimal time system for example although such a thing would be perfectly possible.
A pint is the perfect amount of beer to be served in a glass, whereas 500mm isn’t enough and a litre is too much.
In terms of fuel consumption 7.5 mpg is an instantly graspable and comparable concept compared to 37.66 litres per 100km.
I understand that although Canada switched to the metric system in the 1970’s, builders, carpenters, plumbers etc nearly all still work in imperial measurements.
I believe there is soon to be a change (probably as part of the upcoming new TSRGD) where new height and width restrictions on public roads will have to be marked in imperial and metric measurements.
If this does happen, it will be many years before the majority of the old imperial only signs are replaced.
Santa:
I think that most people who need it are bi-lingual in measurements from a couple of years after leaving school. It’s a lot worse in America where they are still officially imperial but lots of stuff, especially anything scientific or engineering is metric. For lengths shorter than an inch they use tenths and thou’s (thousandths.)The biggest crunch came when the Mars Polar Lander crashed because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units and NASA didn’t notice.
For my money, bridge heights should be shown in both - anything that helps the idiots from hitting them has got to be good.
The 1970’s environment taught us both systems by necessity not really by choice and that’s probably where the US is now.As for decimalised imperial measurements in general anything working in close tolerances and measured same is/was in thous.But sheet metal work/fabrication is/was done in the way which best suits the measuring type being rulers marked in fractions of an inch.Usually to a tolerance within +/- a 32nd or a 64 th sometimes a bit more depending on the application.
The common link being that,unlike metric,imperial provides far more flexibility in using different/optimum,therefore superior, measurement standards that provide the best accuracy and which best suit different applications.
As for metric at best it is just necessary appeasement of what is basically a flawed compromised system of measurement.Which as I said the analogy of which would be imperial standards all based on decimal multiples and divisions of the yard. 
djw:
I believe there is soon to be a change (probably as part of the upcoming new TSRGD) where new height and width restrictions on public roads will have to be marked in imperial and metric measurements.If this does happen, it will be many years before the majority of the old imperial only signs are replaced.
Maybe it would be fair to say why the double standards in the metric users expecting everyone to bow down to their dodgy system.Instead of the rules making them learn both just like we had/have to.On that note there ( rightly ) doesn’t seem to be any compromise in the US for example regarding the vagaries of its Canadian and Latin American neighbours.IE if a Mexican driver can’t understand signs marked in feet and inches tough.
Who ever invented Metric system had 10 fingers.
How many fingers this English guy had when he invented imperial system 
■■?
Dan ze Man:
Who ever invented Metric system had 10 fingers.How many fingers this English guy had when he invented imperial system
Not English mate! I heard he was 1/3 Irish, 1/3 Welsh and 1/3 Scottish. (And I believe that! 
)
I will agree that it is easier to calculate physical problems in units of 10 but I ask you, some of the units of measure are as meaningless as rod, pole or perch. Pressure is sometimes expressed in Kilopascals, now can anyone actually visualise what a kilopascal might look, or feel like; whereas PSI pounds per square inch?
Carryfast:
switchlogic:
dieseldog999:
switchlogic:
We should stop all this ■■■■■■■ around and go metric. Makes way more sense and is easier to understandmetric means 10 fingers for counting.feet and inches means someone british invented it because chains and furlongs wernt enough to mess your head with. if britains in the eu,then why dont we have euro and metric anyway ?
Exactly. Since I’ve spent a large part of my career driving foreign trucks in foreign countries my brain is totally metric these days. KMs rule!
The flaw in the metric system is that it is all based on multiples/dividers of one basic measurement the metre.Whereas imperial has different standard measurements to suit the different requirements.Which is why we can use fractions of an inch, inches,feet,yards and miles as and where they are best suited to make the best representation of the measurement in question.
As opposed to metric.Which is effectively the same thing as imperial standardising on decimal multiples and dividers of the yard would be.
Carryfast, you have summed up my thoughts exactly and elegantly. I worked in precision engineering (auto components during) the 1970s and 1980s, we used Imperial and Metric (customers were European and USA), you precisely identified the advantages of Imperial.
Newtons anyone?
Just wish they would choose one or the other.
fredthered:
Should all signs be in imperial AND metric or one or the other?
I’m and old duffer but I don’t remember imperial measurements being banished or replaced although I do remember decimalisation being introduced.
Just fed up having to keep converting to metric when pulling trailers marked up in imperial - please, can’t we have one or t’other!!!
I’d like to see filling stations have measurements in imperial as well as metric; the measurements are for trucks and we mostly have heights in imperial. It’s madness that they only have metric measurements. It makes sense for bridge heights to be in both.
I might be wrong but aren’t all TV’s imperial?? They are in Spain. I can remember going into a hardware shop in Spain and seeing copper fittings in 1\4 and 1\2 inch, when we were using 15mm and 22mm over here, how weird is that?