Hurrah! The return of Imperial Units!

[noblegiraffe]

The government has announced a taxpayer-funded study to quantify the economic benefits of a return to imperial units - a definite Brexit benefit.

I'm struggling to think of any. Journeys are all in miles. You can still buy a pint. No one has arrested me for my standard cake recipe of 8,8,8,4. What are the good old imperial units I'm forgetting that are currently verboten and what economic benefit will they bring? Are people desperate to buy a pound of apples but holding off while they're in kg?

"Paul Scully, a Tory business minister, said reintroducing imperial labelling would be “an important step in taking back control” and that a planned “assessment of the economic impact on business will be carried out in due course”."

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-imperial-measurements-economic-benefit-study-b2021304.html

Fgs!! I am NOT going to learn bullshit imperial measurements when I think in metric for everything. They can do one.

Have we also left the COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION?

Honestly it would be ridiculous. The most efficient thing is to Not Fix What Ain't Broke and not waste money on pointless changes.

I'm in my forties and we did metric at school. I don't know imperial bar miles.

I'm sure people are going to be talking about it over their 568mls in the pubs tonight.

I'm 50 and only know metric measurements! What an utter waste of time and money

@jamandmarmaladeoncrumpets

and yet today my gynae consultant asked me how many Stones i weigh.

TVs are sold in inch screens. I am 46 but learnt Imperial first and Metric later. Imperial is what my parents taught me in home cooking.

I want British plumbing back. None of this 2.6litre flush nonsense

See I don't get why it's in Inches.

I have to convert it to cm to get an idea.

And surely that's a bigger number so men people can impress more with their gigantic 150 cm screen.

Are TVs manufactured slightly different so they can be sold here (and in the US) compared to other countries where metric is used?

Because that just seems complicated.

@NotMeNoNo

Have we also left the COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION?

Honestly it would be ridiculous. The most efficient thing is to Not Fix What Ain't Broke and not waste money on pointless changes.

but that was the rationale from people contesting decimilisation

Not a good idea. Metric is easier. When I was at school we had to do long division of money using pounds, shillings and pence. 12 pennies made a shilling, 20 shillings made a pound. Total nightmare, I always got sums wrong.

I have to laugh at the idea.

DH is 50yo and would struggle with going back to all imperial measurements. (Let’s forget that as an engineer, he would be working in meter all day long anyway).
I suspect no one under 50yo would find it easy at all. My dcs would have no clue what anything is, let alone trying go into all the decimals etc…

Oh goody, I can weigh myself in stones rather than kilos as I have been doing all my life anyway

Ain't 'sovereignty' grand?

The plumbing in my flat is in Imperial. The plumber had to get some kind of different fitting to match to metric.

And then there's different spanner sizes...

I think there was an issue in warfare with confusion with km and miles, inches and centimetres when armies work together.

Plus NASA mistakes

www.newscientist.com/article/dn17350-nasa-criticised-for-sticking-to-imperial-units

“Operating in space while using two different systems of measurement certainly opens the door for problematic mistakes and miscommunications,” he adds.

Lost probe
Indeed, NASA lost an unmanned mission owing to a mix-up between metric and imperial units. In September 1999, its $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter probe was destroyed because its attitude-control system used imperial units but its navigation software used metric units. As a result, it was 100 kilometres too close to Mars when it tried to enter orbit around the planet.

Units have also played a role in other spacecraft problems. In 2006, the guidance system on NASA’s DART spacecraft went awry and caused it to ram into a military satellite it was merely meant to dock with.

Before DART’s launch, NASA found that GPS data on its position was mistakenly being read by its computer in feet. Ironically, correcting this to metres in a simulator resulted in an incorrect change to another parameter that was programmed into the spacecraft – a problem that led to the collision.

Just when you think they couldn't have a dafter idea
I am old enough to remember imperial especially the complexities of pounds shillings & pence for x pounds & ounces let alone furlongs & links - ugh.....
Its aligning with USA in the vague hope it will appease them

@cakeorwine

I can imagine all the recoding of machines to calculate measurements in Imperial.

28 stone 3 pounds 3 ounces at £3.29 a stone anyone?

The metric system is used around the world in the use of measurements for a reason.

Get with the plan!

28 stone 3 pounds 3 ounces at £3 5s 9 1/2 d a stone anyone?

I'm 31 and have used both my whole life. I use metric for cooking (unless I'm baking) and temperature but I have absolutely no idea what a person's weight in kilos looks like. Sometimes people on MN post their height in centimetres and their weight in kilos, which honestly means nothing to me - I would have to convert it on google.

To me, human weight is always stones and pounds, height is feet and inches, distance is miles.

to be fair @cakeorwine i never understood why tvs remained in metric for that reason.

ps. the reason i bring up British plumbing is because it worked. European toilets are not and never have been the ideal. They skimp on water and you end up flushing twice.

Please can i have two tap kitchen sinks back please.

but that was the rationale from people contesting decimilisation

Except that Imperial is disconnected, inconsistent across measurement types, require more complex maths, aren't multiplied or subdivided in a consistent and predictable way, and are at odds with the SI measures that have been globally accepted as standard since 1960.

Apart from that, no problems...

@jamandmarmaladeoncrumpets

and yet today my gynae consultant asked me how many Stones i weigh.

TVs are sold in inch screens. I am 46 but learnt Imperial first and Metric later. Imperial is what my parents taught me in home cooking.

I want British plumbing back. None of this 2.6litre flush nonsense

Interestingly computer screens are sold in inches in Belgium (and maybe other EU countries, I don't know)

I get people know their weight in stone and pounds - but how many people could easily work out the average weight of 20 people in stone and pounds - the mean and the median.

@amusedbush

I'm 31 and have used both my whole life. I use metric for cooking (unless I'm baking) and temperature but I have absolutely no idea what a person's weight in kilos looks like. Sometimes people on MN post their height in centimetres and their weight in kilos, which honestly means nothing to me - I would have to convert it on google.

To me, human weight is always stones and pounds, height is feet and inches, distance is miles.

Same.

I switch between both depending on the circumstance. Very small length measurements are mm and cm, unless we're talking photograph sizes, in which case it's inches. Medium lengths are cm and metres, but one they get longer I switch to feet (drives DH mad who sticks to metric for all lengths). The point at which I switch is entirely arbitrary too 😂

it's a bind isn't it...

Is this a joke? I am 60 and am more used to pounds and ounces but what possible use are they when the rest of the world is decimalised? Why not go the whole hog and go back to florins.

@jamandmarmaladeoncrumpets

to be fair *@cakeorwine* i never understood why tvs remained in metric for that reason.

ps. the reason i bring up British plumbing is because it worked. European toilets are not and never have been the ideal. They skimp on water and you end up flushing twice.

Please can i have two tap kitchen sinks back please.

www.travisperkins.co.uk/kitchen-sinks/leisure-lexin-2-tap-inset-stainless-steel-left-hand-drainer-kitchen-sink-le95l/p/910832 They never left.

There are plenty out there with two holes and lots of two tap sets there for you freezing/scalding enthusiasts - lots at B&Q recently when I was looking for a new kitchen tap...

I'm 40 and I've always used both. I prefer imperial but I can do both. And cups for baking/cooking if the recipe is American.

The eh eight and weight are one of the view areas where people still use stones and feet.
It doesn’t mean that people would be comfortable going back ONLY using feet and stones for everything else.

I am 55, so not exactly young.

In the early 1970s I did metric at school.
I have never learnt imperial.

I DO NOT WANT IT BACK

I use km and miles, but prefer km
kg for everything except occasionally stones and lbs but only because other people use it for their weight.
oz for my Granny's cake and then gr, cups or guess work for all the rest of my cooking. (but could easily do the cake in g as it is the weight of the eggs anyway)
litres for everything except pints of beer.

most kids in school would be 100% unable to add up in imperial, as you need to add in multiple bases for each sum.

metric is just so easy.