Metric weights and measures

[Besoeker]

But it isn’t nonsense. The measures are much simpler units than the old Imperial units. Stones, pounds, ounces…or kg?

[JBR]

@Percy_Vere

I’ve just discussed this with V and she can only remember the speedos having KPH on our Italian registered cars and, come to think of it, I can vaguely remember putting bits of sticky paper on the speedo cover glass at the equivalent of 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 MPH for her for when we drove back to England on holiday.

I think I’d probably do exactly the same!

[Mups]

Whose fat idea was it to go decimal in the first place?

[JBR]

@Mups

Whose fat idea was it to go decimal in the first place?

I shouldn’t be surprised if ‘our friends across the Channel’ had a hand in it.

[Besoeker]

@Mups

Whose fat idea was it to go decimal in the first place?

School teachers use decimal arithmetic for as long I can remember. And that’s a very long time ago…

[JBR]

@Besoeker

School teachers use decimal arithmetic for as long I can remember. And that’s a very long time ago

True. They find Imperial measures too complicated!

[Besoeker]

@JBR

True. They find Imperial measures too complicated!

Not correct. My teachers used Imperial units. Example 1.5 inches is Imperial as a decimal. Long division needed decimals to calculated things.

[OldGreyFox]

Logs and anti-logs springs to mind…Do we still use those?

[Besoeker]

I don’t believe so. I think we phased these out after we used slide rules, particularly the logarithmic ones. Then we had calculators and scientific calculators. Now we use computers.

[spitfire]

Foxy and me don’t have a Podge, In Kgs or Lbs, nough said.

[Bruce]

@OldGreyFox

Logs and anti-logs springs to mind…Do we still use those?

@Besoeker

I don’t believe so. I think we phased these out after we used slide rules,

I still have my slide rule but frankly I found log tables quicker and easier, I didn’t like that new fangled technology - kept losing the decimal point position.

When my kids were at high school I was amazed by the calculators that they used. They were able to handle fractions and do all sorts of calculations I never believed possible. I bought my current calculator (which I never use these days) in 1980 and thought that the fact it did square roots was brilliant.

[JBR]

@Besoeker

Not correct. My teachers used Imperial units.

I think you may have missed my exclamation mark!

[Besoeker]

I think did!

[Percy_Vere]

@JBR

@Mups

Whose fat idea was it to go decimal in the first place?

I shouldn’t be surprised if ‘our friends across the Channel’ had a hand in it.

You’re right, JB, of course. The EU more or less forced us to adopt metric weights and measures in the shops, markets, and petrol stations, etc. The only gesture to continuing to use Imperial measurements was the old pint of beer, pint of milk and the like. Don’t you remember all the brew-haha with the greengrocers and market fruit and veg sellers getting into the smelly stuff with Trading Standards over selling their goods by the pound and ounce? That led to the compromise of them having to price things up with £/kg being given prominence over £/lb and having to use dual-scale scales.

[Mups]

And another thing -

What about when the bright sparks (no pun intended) who changed all the traditional light bulb watts to flippin’ lumens? What the 'eck are ‘lumens’ anyway?

[Percy_Vere]

@Mups

lumens

A Lumen is the international scientific unit for the measure of the total amount of visible light (to the human eye) from a lamp or light source.

Wiki explains it thus: Lumen (unit) - Wikipedia Scroll down for a chart that gives the watts equivalents.

[Mups]

Pah! They should stop meddling with everything.
Mutter mutter . . .

Thank you anyway, Percy.

[JBR]

@Percy_Vere

You’re right, JB, of course. The EU more or less forced us to adopt metric weights and measures in the shops, markets, and petrol stations, etc. The only gesture to continuing to use Imperial measurements was the old pint of beer, pint of milk and the like. Don’t you remember all the brew-haha with the greengrocers and market fruit and veg sellers getting into the smelly stuff with Trading Standards over selling their goods by the pound and ounce? That led to the compromise of them having to price things up with £/kg being given prominence over £/lb and having to use dual-scale scales.

I think of all the silly ideas the EU dictators have come up with, the one I detest the most was the ruling that our toilet flushes must be limited in quantity, presumably to save water.
So what am I usually obliged to do?
I usually have to flush twice and often three times.

[Percy_Vere]

@JBR

I usually have to flush twice and often three times.

Same here. Even the “long flush” isn’t long enough sometimes.

[Besoeker]

@Mups

What about when the bright sparks (no pun intended) who changed all the traditional light bulb watts to flippin’ lumens? What the 'eck are ‘lumens’ anyway?

It’s luminous flux but light bulbs are still measured in Watts. These days more people are using LED bulbs, These are much more efficient than the traditional incandescent units. The ones in our living room are rated at 15W and they are very bright - my wife does her painting there.