LOL Active Resistance to Metrification. Really?

You know being from the US, I'm not going to lie, I can only do metric well. I don't know jack for imperial conversions. It's just so damn stupid.

Plus it screwed up our Mars Rover.

Long live metric. Adding a zero is infinitely easier.

 

Even worse, you lot still use gallons for measuring liquid and your gallons are different to our gallons. Worse still, we sell fuel in units of litres but fuel consumption is still measured in miles per gallon. WTF? It's not even as if converting gallons to litres is an easy thing to do in your head - there are 3.79 litres in one (US) gallon.

Agreed. 1 kilometre = 1000 metres. 1 metre = 1000 millimetres. 1 kilogramme = 1000 grammes. 1 gramme = 1000 milligrammes. Simple.

1 mile = 1760 yards. 1 yard = 3 feet. 1 foot = 12 inches. WTF?

 

This is this where i make things worse, and mention the metric system was originally French

 

Don't worry, you're not alone. I happen to pride myself on being proficient with both but am a minority. Then again, a frightening number of people don't have a basic understanding of either system.

The worst part is things like BLC's complaints. One that really bugs me is drink container sizes: A can is typically 12 fluid ounces. A smaller sized bottle is then half of a liter, but labelled as either 16.9 or 17 fluid ounces. A larger sized bottle is either 20 or 24 fluid ounces. The largest typical bottle is then 2 liters, labelled as such.

Why?!

 

This makes my head hurt

 

i dislike the use of 2 systems in the US.... its ****ing expensive.

 

If you both a: take it further and b:include weights it gets even worse.

1 furlong = 220 yards. 1 furlong = 10 chains. And many other useless and varying meaures like shackle, league, fathom etc. A league is vaguely 3 miles (at least in britain) so was Jules Verne writing about being 52,000miles out of the other side of the Earth?

Weights are the worst in my opinion.

16 ounces = 1 pound. 14 pounds = 1 stone. 112 stone = 1 hundredweight. 20 hundredweight = 1 ton.....wtf?! lol

EDIT: and don't even start on liquid volumes with regard to pub measures.......they're just taking the piss

 

I wonder how much it would cost to properly convert the UK to metric? That and getting us driving on the right.

 

Why would we want to drive on the right?
And I like weight in imperial, everything else (pretty much) I'm ok with metric though

 

In ireland we had signs in kms but speeds in miles/h for years before everything was changed to kms. Stupid when you think back on it

 

I still use both. SI units were taught to me in science classes, imperial by daily conversation with the family.

Sweets were sold by the quarter (4 oz or 114 g) but with metrification comes a hideous habit of rounding enerything down so 114 g became 100 g when the change to metric was made. As a child this distressed me greatly - where was my extra 14 g going? The price hadn't changed so why did the quantity? Rip off!

I still think in pounds and ounces for weights, they just make sense to me. Distances in inches, feet, yards and miles the same (never did get furlongs, chains and leagues though - a bit too much). However, volumes in metric make sense (except for the pint - only if you drop the price will I accept my extra 68 ml being taken off me) as does anything below a quarter inch as fractions are too fiddly compared to SI units when you're being that precise.

 

Can I just say that I hate it when people use this condescending tone on internet forums. It's mild trolling.

/tangent

 

How do you make a German laugh?

Try to explain the imperial system to them.

 

Erm, it's not our damn metric system.

Imperial... of the Empire. Whose Empire? The British Empire, of course. Just look at where in the world uses imperial units: The UK, Canada, Australia, India, Hong Kong, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Burma, the Cayman Islands, Ecuador, Grenada, Guyana, etc.

 

the US doesnt use the imperial system. by the time the imperial system was introduced, the US was already independent, and so didnt recognize the change to imperial units.

the system we use is based on measurements that were in use in england at the time of settlement, which are similar to the imperial system...but not the same. thats why our gallons are not the same as imperial gallons, for example.

but at any rate...i was just kidding. the US' system of measurements is quite obviously retarded.

 

Thank you, Cptn-Inafinus, for likening us to Nazis. Are not in fact T.S.O. raids on traders who sell fruit, veg by the pound, on butchers, on fishmongers more in line with the method of governance of National Socialism?

You will forgive our delay in getting back to you; the name of our group, spelled properly is 'Active Resistance to Metrication.'

Our methods are direct. There is no doubt of this. If you were paying attention, in June 2001, however, you would realise that it was a matter of tit-for-tat. We found it unacceptable that small local traders who wished to trade in lb and oz, with no complaints from their customers, were having their scales seized, and being charged with criminal offences.

What part of your enlightened, progressive, liberal Britain do you believe allows this sort of fascist, reactionary behaviour? We have it on good authority, from a Frenchman, that IN FRANCE there are public houses that are Irish- or English-themed that sell by the Imperial pint. This in the country that INVENTED THE METRIC SYSTEM.


You will forgive us, sir, for expecting a certain amount of latitude, and freedom in allowing small traders and their customers to sell by the pound. Since this remains illegal, we shall continue to hold councils and T.S.O.'s who are so zealous in prosecuting and persecuting small men of business to the same exacting standards.

We have amended over 3,000 signs to Imperial, AS PER THAT SAME LAW, and we have no intention of ending our activities until the Metric Martyrs are pardoned and shop owners are again allowed to sell by a legally calibrated pound, defined, by statute, as 453.59237 grammes.

 

Hold thread revival batman! In the future it might be worth checking to see if your reply is to a current thread rather than a thread that's over 3 years old and to berate a member that's not been online for best part of a year...

 

I am impressed. That's quite possibly one of the best acts of necromancy I've ever seen.

 

Ha ha ha! This is either trolling at its finest or the sweetest irony I have ever tasted. Someone who believes in using outdated measuring units takes years to post a defense for using aforementioned units.

Excellent.

 

I just get confused as as far as I know we still measure distance travelled on roads miles and our speed is still measured in miles per hour. Why then does the BBC, though other TV channels are equally to blame, always quote in kilometres per hour?

Do we not still have pints in this country?

I am an old yin and quite happy to measure in metric though I was not taught it at school.