The government actually IS doing a consultation on bringing back imperial measurements!

[Kendodd]

I thought it was a joke.
AIBU to think this is a complete load of bollocks waste of money?

The questions don't even give you the option of saying just keep metric.
Example question -
For Consumers,

a) If you had a choice, would you want to purchase items:

(i) in imperial units?

(ii) in imperial units alongside a metric equivalent?

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1079711/choice-on-units-of-measurement-markings-and-sales-consultation.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjchIqM1pT4AhXIPsAKHWSZBW0QFnoECAUQAQ&usg=AOvVaw05usEgoqbR2NHfgE3SzAYH

Nah, whale jars.

If you know you know but if you don't 'Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is?" is fab.

In way, having a vote on bringing back imperial measurements sums up Brexit. Let (stupid) people vote to bring back an outdated and illogical system so they can make life harder for themselves and everyone else.

Since JRM pronouncement, not a single tomato has been sold in imperial. Not a single business has made the move to trade in the never-illegal imperial units.

Nada. Fuck all.

Funny how for all it's "benefits", no one is keen on flexing their Brexit freedoms.

My husband is an aircraft engineer, and as majority of aircraft he works with are American they are imperial, so he always uses imperial at home. Drives me mad as I use metric, but I don't see an issue with using both.
The volume of Pint will be here forever whether beet or milk

The volume of Pint will be here forever whether beer or milk

Not if you're a bit dim. Serve a Brexiteer 568ml and see them explode with fury *as the Express would frame it

*Probably Ben Habib, but other headbangers are available.

The volume of Pint will be here forever whether beet or milk

Where is "here"?

A British pint is 1.25 American pints.

But "a pints a pound, the world around" surely ?

It's worth remembering that Imperial measurements AREN'T completely illogical. For the most part they are trying to make sure that the numbers you deal with in everyday life are all small, approachable numbers.

For example,
Is it easier to picture what someone 170cm tall looks like or is 5 foot 7 inches?
Is it easier to picture what a 63kg person looks like, or a 10 stone person?
Is it easier to picture what 2 pints of orange juice looks like, or 1.14 litres?

Humans tend to like using numbers like 5, 7, 10 or 2 more than they like numbers like 170, 63 or 1.14.

And WHY (for example) 12 inches in a foot? Well 12 is a very divisible number, so it allows you to do a 1/3, 1/4 or 1/2 of a foot in whole numbers of inches. The same reason why 24 is a great number for hours in the day, and having a "metric" day of 10 hours wouldn't be so helpful.

However, once you start to do calculations with them, then metric units become easier. If you had to calculate the total length of 20 planks that are 3 feet 7 inches long that becomes a mess compared to doing 109cm x 20.

In today's modern world we do a lot of calculations, so metric units have appeal. But that doesn't mean imperial measurements didn't have their advantages.

@snowlaser honestly, as someone brought up metric your examples make no sense. If you know broadly what a metre looks like (as you will, having brought up with it) then visualising 1.7 of them is really not that hard.

You can't visualise weight because no two people weighing 63 kilograms will look the same. Stones are a ridiculous measurement in any case.

And if you can visualise what a litre carton of something looks like (which again you will, if you were brought up with them) then something 10% larger is easy enough. In many shops in the Netherlands you can buy drinks cartons which are 1.5 or 1.25 litres. Everybody manages just fine.

And while 12 is a very divisible number, so is 100. There's a reason why the world tends to use base 10.

But "a pints a pound, the world around" surely ?

Only if "the world around" is the same world that plays World Series baseball.

Elsewhere, the mnemonic is "a pint of pure water weighs a pound and a quarter".

I was highly amused when I was a teenager working in a supermarket. The stockroom (remember them?) had a big notice saying that the weight imposed was not to exceed 10N (newtons) per m squared.

I really don't know what was going through their heads when that was put up!

10N (newtons) per m squared.

isn't that pressure in Pascals ?

@pointythings the only reason people use base 10 is because they have 10 fingers.

10 divides only by 2 and 5

12 divides by 2, 3, 4 and 6

24 divides by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12

Imagine what it would be like if a day had 10 hours or 100, and then you realise how neat using 12s and 24s really is for keeping things into nice round numbers.

@snowlaser it isn't all about divisibility though, is it? Base 10 means the calculations are easier than they are working in base 12. You just move the decimal point and Bob's your uncle. This is particularly important when it comes to dosages of medicine - the last thing we want to do is go back to Imperial measures there, it would be dangerous.

And the point I made about visualising dimensions still stands - it's all about what you grew up with.

Why wouldn’t you just talk about a litre of milk?

That’s no less simple than 2 pints. It only produces a crap number because you are comparing it to pints.

I don’t think that 5 feet 7 inches is easier to visualise that 170 either.

65kg is easier than 10 stone 4 pounds.

The imperial measurements also don’t scale in any easy way.

There are 3 barleycorns in an inch.
12 inches in a foot
3 feet in a yard
5.5 yards in a rod
40 rods in a furlong
8 furlongs in a mile (or 1760 yards if you prefer)
3 miles in a league

there are 16 ounces a pound
14 pounds in a stone
8 stones in a hundredweight
20 hundredweights in a ton

How is any of that easier than metric?

How is any of that easier than metric?

Because it's less furrin ?

Yes - how on earth the staff were meant to know how many boxes of baked beans could be safely stacked there was a complete mystery to me then and now!

I'd love to know if it's still there.

As a jewellery maker I occasionally come across metals priced in pennyweights (dwt) even now.

This govt won't be happy until 6 year olds are being sent up chimneys and all poor people have scurvy & rickets. Rees Mogg will be totally in favour of imperial measures, despite no schoolchildren learning imperial for decades. What's a yard/foot/inch, mummy? Why we didn't move to kilometres too was always weird.

We could also change to a base 12 numeric system at the same time imperial currency is brought back. That will make things a lot easier.

How does adopting a base 12 system help the people who believe they risk jail if they order a pound of apples?

Or are we going to make them adopt the Troy pound?

If we need a base 12 system of mass, my vote is for slugs instead.

In fact, describing my body mass as about 4 slugs sounds way better than 58 kilograms.

And cost the economy a fortune because exports would have to be standardised to metric because that's what the rest of the world uses. Yep, that sounds like a good plan. Also reissue all maps, change the pagination of books to base 12, completely change all medicine labelling and retrain all doctors and pharmacists... The list goes on. Stupid in spades.

1 Pascal = 1N/m^2
1000000 Pa = 1MPa = 1000000N/mm^2