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UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

newcivilengineer.com

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Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#51

Post by cmrdporcupine »

codazoda wrote: post #45
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #15

Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…

I’m American and feel like I live in the “in-between” too. I measure people in ft and lbs. I measure wood in ft and inches. I design 3D objects in cm and mm unless I’m building in wood, in which case I’m back to feet and inches. I measure speed in miles per hour. I use tools mostly in metric but sometimes in SAE (depending on where it’s made and what it is).

Yeah that's basically the situation here, too.

Basically it all comes back to the construction trades. If you own a home, and tools to work on it... you're stuck with imperial.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#52

Post by gpderetta »

Reason077 wrote: post #31
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #15

Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…

> "As Canadians we typically measure our height and weight in ft and lbs. But temperature in celsius and travel distances and speeds in kilometres and km/h. Except for cooking/recipes, where oven temperature is measured in fahrenheit and we have to deal with recipes with cups and ounces and so on. ... But recipes are also often in litres and grams. So.." As British we typically measure everything in metric, including…

And human weight in stones. Been living here for more than 10 years and still can't remember how much is a stone.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#53

Post by NoImmatureAdHom »

Everybody's shitting on Imperial, U.S. customary, or whatever you want to call them units...

Allow me to give a slightly different perspective: as a scientist, if I'm doing chemistry then metric is the way to go. Conversions are easier, centigrade and Kelvin just make a lot more sense...

But for many day-to-day things I think the Imperial units are better. Temperature? Fahrenheit is a 0-100 scale, where 0 is pretty much as cold as it gets in temperate climates, and 100 is pretty much as hot as it gets. A mile is 5280 feet? Wtf? Well, it's 1000 paces (each pace bringing you back to the same state, so two steps = 5.28 feet).

I don't know if any good work has been done on it, but my guess is people who were raised with inches are better and quicker at estimating length than people who were raised with metric. Millimeters are too small, cm are also too small (and nobody uses them really). Inches are a good, intuitive unit for measuring human-scale stuff given our cognitive constraints, I'd guess.

Does anyone know of work looking at this?

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#55

Post by heynowheynow »

andrewstuart wrote: post #23

This is an example of the dead cat strategy, named by an Australian political strategist “throwing a dead cat in the table”. It’s a distraction so shocking that it can’t fail to divert media attention. It’s a favorite technique of Boris Johnson who is even mentioned in the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_cat_strategy The imperial measurement thing is a dead cat Boris threw on the table during his…

There is an entire category of fallacies of distraction. People, especially those of the political persuasion, use them when they don't have valid or just arguments to support their position.

Personally, I prefer goat brains, monkey testicles, and the shrunken heads of vanquished enemies.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#56

Post by Inhibit »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #15

Observation as a Canadian: Until the US decides to finally convert (e.g. never), the rest of the anglo-sphere will be forever stuck in an awkward inbetween zone anyways. We supposedly converted to metric in the 70s but it's only ever been half-hearted, as many trades (especially construction) continue to work in imperial measurements, and most people work in an awkward combination of the two. As Canadians we typicall…

Oddly enough all the automotive fasteners and bolts switched to metric some time ago here in the USA. Which makes the (relative) lack of available metric bolts/screws doubly frustrating.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#57

Post by cuttysnark »

gpderetta wrote: post #52
Reason077 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "As Canadians we typically measure our height and weight in ft and lbs. But temperature in celsius and travel distances and speeds in kilometres and km/h. Except for cooking/recipes, where oven temperature is measured in fahrenheit and we have to deal with recipes with cups and ounces and so on. ... But recipes are also often in litres and grams. So.." As British we typically measure everything in metric, including…

And human weight in stones. Been living here for more than 10 years and still can't remember how much is a stone.

1 stone = 14lbs. Learned this "whilst" (another chiefly British word) at study abroad in England. Ever after thought of the Bush album "Sixteen Stone" in a different light.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#58

Post by bitcharmer »

323 wrote: post #48

UK is a confused place. I still don't know whats the "official" temperature scale - F or C. In the same paper, I would see the weather map with C, but the title with F (heatwave of xx F). Or the reverse, or both. Or in the same shop you can buy milk in liters, or in pints.

I feel like you're making this up. No one here uses Fahrenheit.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#59

Post by jacknews »

LOL, they're having a larf.

Of course it's a ridiculous proposal, and so an obvious smokescreen to keep the plebs discussing irrelevancies.

But on top of that, the particular proposal, to revert to an olde-worlde measurement system, is surely a troll at all the olde people who were conned into voting for this ridiculous mess.

Re: UK Engineers raise concerns over proposed switch to imperial measurements

#60

Post by heynowheynow »

andrewstuart wrote: post #41
zoltrain wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this, all smoke and mirrors. But you can’t argue with it’s effectiveness.

Once you know it’s an explicit strategy, you can watch for it and call it out when you see they’ve chucked a dead cat.

It's pining for the fjords or maybe it's just stunned.
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