General > General Technical Chat

UK back to "imperial" measurements ?

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tggzzz:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on June 02, 2022, 09:14:21 am ---
--- Quote from: IanB on June 01, 2022, 07:09:14 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on June 01, 2022, 06:37:23 pm ---I must be an American thing. It's such an easy thing to program. My kitchen scales can even be set for pounds and ounces, although the resolution drops from 0.05oz to 0.1oz on the pounds setting, because the display doesn't have room for the extra decimal place.

--- End quote ---

I don't think it's entirely about programming. It would be so confusing. Suppose your receipt said this: "0 lb 8.5 oz at $8.99/lb thus $4.76"

Can you imagine the confusion? How could you ever check whether you had been charged the correct amount without a calculator?

The reality is that America is decimal, and has been for quite some time.

In engineering, weights are in pounds (lb), thousands of pounds (Mlb), or millions of pounds (MMlb).

Distances are in feet, hundreds of feet, or thousands of feet. Road signs will say "500 ft" when giving a distance to a hazard.

Also in engineering, measurements are in inches and thousandths of an inch (mils). The dimension of a part will be given as 2.351 inches. Pins on ICs or headers are 0.1 inches apart.

It makes sense. Decimal is the only sensible way to make measurements and do calculations.

--- End quote ---
Why not use ounces? I personally fine 1.25lb more confusing than 1lb 4oz or even 20oz. I'm pretty sure things were sold in pounds, as well as ounces before the UK went metric.

--- End quote ---

Because I always forget whether I should be using base 14 or base 16 arithmetic.

Currency decimalisation in 1971 was a wonderful thing. I remember having to do far too many LSD[1] calculations in school arithmetic lessons. Life's too short for that crap.

It is rumoured that our minister for Top Hats and Fob Watches (Jacob Rees-Mogg, may he rot in hell) is going to insist on using Roman numbers for dates. It is unclear whether or not that implies reverting the Julian calendar so we can reclaim our 10 days.

[1]Librae Solidi Denarius, i.e. pounds shillings and pence. But the "alternative" meaning is equally valid.

f4eru:

--- Quote from: IanB on June 01, 2022, 07:09:14 pm ---In engineering, weights are in pounds (lb), thousands of pounds (Mlb), or millions of pounds (MMlb).

--- End quote ---
Hmm, nope.
In Engineering, weights are in Newton (N), lengths are in meters (m)
Even in the USA.

bd139:

--- Quote from: f4eru on June 02, 2022, 11:19:07 am ---
--- Quote from: IanB on June 01, 2022, 07:09:14 pm ---In engineering, weights are in pounds (lb), thousands of pounds (Mlb), or millions of pounds (MMlb).

--- End quote ---
Hmm, nope.
In Engineering, weights are in N. (even in the USA).

--- End quote ---

Apart from the Mars Climate Orbiter…

f4eru:
Yeah, they had one supplier using customary units for space distances.
but is corrected now, amateurs at the suppliers are no more, and NASA was metric from the start.

Zero999:

--- Quote from: tggzzz on June 02, 2022, 11:13:46 am ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on June 02, 2022, 09:14:21 am ---
--- Quote from: IanB on June 01, 2022, 07:09:14 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zero999 on June 01, 2022, 06:37:23 pm ---I must be an American thing. It's such an easy thing to program. My kitchen scales can even be set for pounds and ounces, although the resolution drops from 0.05oz to 0.1oz on the pounds setting, because the display doesn't have room for the extra decimal place.

--- End quote ---

I don't think it's entirely about programming. It would be so confusing. Suppose your receipt said this: "0 lb 8.5 oz at $8.99/lb thus $4.76"

Can you imagine the confusion? How could you ever check whether you had been charged the correct amount without a calculator?

The reality is that America is decimal, and has been for quite some time.

In engineering, weights are in pounds (lb), thousands of pounds (Mlb), or millions of pounds (MMlb).

Distances are in feet, hundreds of feet, or thousands of feet. Road signs will say "500 ft" when giving a distance to a hazard.

Also in engineering, measurements are in inches and thousandths of an inch (mils). The dimension of a part will be given as 2.351 inches. Pins on ICs or headers are 0.1 inches apart.

It makes sense. Decimal is the only sensible way to make measurements and do calculations.

--- End quote ---
Why not use ounces? I personally fine 1.25lb more confusing than 1lb 4oz or even 20oz. I'm pretty sure things were sold in pounds, as well as ounces before the UK went metric.

--- End quote ---

Because I always forget whether I should be using base 14 or base 16 arithmetic.
--- End quote ---
Then why not simply go metric instead of using decimal imperial, which is more confusing?

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