Right know this will inflame a few passions and kind of goes off the back of the euro debate. Much like the euro debate I believe there are both positives and benefits in the whole UK going full metric, instead of Imperial. I'm leaning towards it if im honest for a start they'll be less confusion atm we use both imperial and metric for different things, on roads we use miles and yards, for liquids we use litres not gallons and tbh the whole thing gets bloody confusing after a bit. I understand there is a generational gap here with older people being used to the imperial system of weights and measurements but personally at school I was always taught metric and the joy of metric is everything just fits into everything else. Personally I have an idea of how long a yard is but not 100%, but I do know how long a meter is, same with weights in shops I mean why carry pounds an ounces when I dont have a clue what they mean. I would say the same is true for most young people but again this is a generalization and what I have been exposed to. At the same time I also understand there would be a large cost in converting speedos on cars to KM/H and all the associated road signs, but it would bring us into line with europe and certainly I'd say make things easier.
I was educated entirely on metric, but have learned many of the conversions and have a good grip of imperial units. Atleast at the basic level, pints, inches. I don't know what a slug is. I don't see how converting road distances to km would help, it's not hard to get a grip of how far a mile is. It's a bit archaic but for informal things, it' fine. I find it much harder to use imperial units for anything technical though. In the US the aerospace industry uses imperial by default, but europe uses metric. The saleability of the metric system is much easier, but I need to know the conversions in between.
...why? Other than the roads, there's not much left in imperial is there? All food and drink is metric to keep the EU happy, would it make much difference?
It's rather sad that you find yourself and your peers unable to hold and juggle the more popular units in the two measuring systems in your heads; I take it you can't communicate in any foreign language either? Education really is in a shite state in this country, with an attitude of "don't care" from the students who should be fighting for improvement. Expand your brain, ffs.
As pistol_pete said, what would be the point? Only road distances and speeds are left in imperial. Everything else is metric now: Nuts and bolts on cars, measures of liquid (except the "pint" glass in pubs), weights etc. Apart from miles and MPH, I can't think of anything else that's not metric. I suppose we still use Stones and Pounds when we weigh ourselves, but pretty much all scales have a dual readout of some kind to give Kg as well. The only thing I can't get my head around "visually" is people's heights. I can visualise 5' 10" in my mind, but not 180cm for e.g. That's the only contentious issue for me, and that's just lack of practice. Nah... leave it as it is. With the exception of travel distances and speeds, pretty much everything that matters is already measured in metric.
Could always be the fact that I've been taught in metric, I know exactly how long a mile is, I can do conversion but tbh I've never felt the need to find out how long a yard is as its a type of measurement I've never needed to use. Same with pounds and ounces, I weigh myself in stones and pounds and know how to do that quite easily it aint hard. But I've never needed to use ounces so never investigated it. I do plenty to better myself so say what you will about the educational systems but don't preach to me when you know nothing about me or the languages I know or am learning. But in general the metric system is better 1000 litres = 1 cubic meter = 1 tonne Care to do 1000 gallons to imperial space and weight measurements please? Not using google. Was meerly making the point that is there any reason to keep imperial since everyone at school learns metric? Possibly but why go half hearted? lol
As many of us have said, apart from travel distances, what exactly is NOT measured metrically? It's not as if what you propose is going to make a blind bit of difference... apart from costing a fortune to replace every road sign that has a distance on it.
Other than roads, we pretty much use metric anyway. The only real argument against going metric would be the cost to convert all the road signs over.
While I would like everything to be in metric due to my hatred of imperial, changing all the road signs does make little sense financially, as it wouldn't bring a whole lot of benefits that are worth the cost. Roads are pretty much the only thing you can't get in metric, I don't think there would really be any advantage in switching completely to metric right now.
I think I must have gone through school as everything was being switched. I see people in feet and inches, weight in stones, and distance for swimming and roads in miles. I see running distance in meters, construction sizes in wood and metal in metric . Recipes I see and read in metric unless it's baking in which case its pounds and oz's, but buying meat i have to look at the pounds and oz's to work out how many it will feed due to working in a butcher's as a youngling. Paper in mm, photograph prints in inches. I used to be ok for liquid working only in Litres, but thanks to current job its now in hec's, gallons and brls. I does make me pause when i have to convert between units I don't normally use but can mostly manage without having to drag along a calculator.
All you need to remember is that a gallon of water weighs 10 lb and a cubic foot of water weighs 62.5lb. Like with length there's only 12" to the foot, 36" to the yard, 1760 yards to the mile and 25.4mm to the inch to remember; the rest is just decimal places. Everybody is allowed to carry a calculator. 16 ounces to the pound is a binary system. Work out the advantages in a society before electricity (or the spring balance). That's how it should be - horses for courses and a flexible brain.
the path of least resistance to going fully metric would just to teach only metric in schools and put dual measurements on any new road signs and so on being put up (km and miles) In 60-70 years time, the overwhelming majority of the population would be used to metric only, so you can start removing imperial measurements from new signs and so on with virtually nobody complaining about it
Doesn't bother me either way - I'm well versed in either, much like whisperwolf. I quite like the mix up anyway, keeps you on your toes. I like giving distances in KMs just to throw people off
It matters precisely because it doesn't matter. We could make a new system tommorow and i'd embrace it as long as we all used it only, other than this ridiculous mish-mash of imperial and metric-whatever other archaic ones we still rely on. If I had the time I'd estimate the cost saved in eliminating the multiple system and instituting the single metric system, the amount of time and money used in printing things, the exact same information...TWICE.
