Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gman on August 28, 2011, 01:43:27 AM
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Britain seems to have a very confused system for measuring things. Fuel price is by the liter, yet road distances and vehicle speeds are in miles and miles per hour, non metric units. Is fuel economy miles per liter then in the UK?
A persons weight is by "stone", while "pounds" has nothing to do with weight, but instead measures currency. WTH is going on over there?
Throw in "fortnight" and "score" - it all adds up to oblivion.
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lol
It looks weird for you just because your not use to it. I'm sure they are saying the same about us.
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lol
It looks weird for you just because your not use to it. I'm sure they are saying the same about us.
No, the envy us. They are just to proud a people to admit it. I'm sure my point will be validated by their protests to the contrary.
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No, the envy us.
I really don't think so. I'm sure some people do, but in general I seriously doubt that most do.
Wow I'm not even British and I'm defending them, where are all the Brits on this forum? Get over here and do your job! LMAO
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Britain seems to have a very confused system for measuring things. Fuel price is by the liter, yet road distances and vehicle speeds are in miles and miles per hour, non metric units. Is fuel economy miles per liter then in the UK?
A persons weight is by "stone", while "pounds" has nothing to do with weight, but instead measures currency. WTH is going on over there?
Throw in "fortnight" and "score" - it all adds up to oblivion.
fortnight:
Hadrian's Wall, built to guard the Romans northern England border against the marauding Scots, had forts situated at regular intervals along its length. Every two weeks the soldiers got to sleep inside them and this is where our term for two weeks, 'Fortnight' comes from.
score:
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the ordinary decimal numeral system is based on ten). A base unit in the vigesimal is often referred to as a 'score'.
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confuses me. :headscratch:
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fortnight:
Hadrian's Wall, built to guard the Romans northern England border against the marauding Scots, had forts situated at regular intervals along its length. Every two weeks the soldiers got to sleep inside them and this is where our term for two weeks, 'Fortnight' comes from.
score:
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty (in the same way in which the ordinary decimal numeral system is based on ten). A base unit in the vigesimal is often referred to as a 'score'.
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STONE:
Refers to what the guy was who came up with the British units of measure
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I'm just glad they haven't switched to metric time yet.
(http://i1.cpcache.com/product/47463250/metric_clock.jpg)
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I think the measurements systems are so mixed up between Metric and Imperial because of the very long history of measuring things in Britain and also what kind of a 'feel' people have for things.
A stone is roughly 14 pounds and was commonly used to measure a persons weight. Unless you fought in boxing or martial arts competitions then you're measured in kilogrammes.
Lengths are especially mixed up. My Father was a farrier and blacksmith, so he used feet, inches and fractions of inches. I use mostly millimeters (actually we both use a mix depending on what you're doing). I have a good feel for an inch, 10 mm, one foot and a Metre, but I prefer yards for shooting distances etc. (archery, not allowed firearms). If I have to run a bit then I think in Metres :headscratch:
Temperature is an interesting example, because for warm temperatures I use Fahrenheit but in the winter I use Celsius, again I think because I have a good feel for what 75 degrees Fahrenheit is but not 32 degrees Fahrenheit, I do however know fairly accurately what 0 degrees Celsius and lower 'feels' like though (mostly feels like you want to go inside ).
Petrol (gasoline to you colonists) used to be measured in Gallons. However it was cleverly realised that by suddenly switching to litres, people would get confused and forget just how expensive it was getting. People still tend to measure fuel economy in miles per gallon however.
Measures in public houses are interesting, some spirits are measured in Gills, lost of people drink their beer in pints and often quite a lot of pints before going outside and looking for fights, which are measured in aggros and arrests.
(http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9965/hitoverhead.gif)
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It's really not hard to learn two or more scales of measurement. We actually do it all the time. Although I worry that public schools may no longer provide enough math for working with SAE scale as it requires learning the fractions of 16.
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been living in the usa for over 35 years. still cant figure out what's the deal with ounces/pints/gallons. and what the hell is a quart?
semp
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been living in the usa for over 35 years. still cant figure out what's the deal with ounces/pints/gallons. and what the hell is a quart?
semp
1 Gallon = 4 Quarts
1 Gallon = 8 Pints
1 Gallon = 16 Ounces
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1 Gallon = 4 Quarts
1 Gallon = 8 Pints
1 Gallon = 16 Ounces
And people say public school education isn't quality.
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and just to confuse things, the US gallon is quite alot less than the Imperial gallon :confused:
and dont even bother with ton/nes ... :uhoh
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1 Gallon = 4 Quarts
1 Gallon = 8 Pints
1 Gallon = 16 Ounces
sure and a gallon of gasoline is a gallon :). i drank 2 24 ounce beers last night. i got the empy cans and used that to refill a gallon of milk. surprised that 48 ounces of beer can didnt fit into a gallon of milk.
this is like what weights more a pound of cotton or a pound of gold? a pound of cotton weights more than a pound of gold. about 4 ounces more to be exact.
semp
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Don't try using a British 1/2" wrench on an American 1/2" bolt.
At one time, the British gallon differed depending on what you were measuring and where you were measuring it. But, by the 19th century, two definitions had survived: the Queen Anne (or Wine) gallon, which was 231 cubic inches, and the Winchester (or Ale) gallon, of 282 cu in.
In 1824, the British abandoned both the Ale and the Wine gallons in favour of the Imperial gallon, based on the volume of 10 pounds of water (which works out at 277.41945 cu in). America, by this time, had already standardised on the Wine Gallon of 231 cubic inches (strictly speaking, this was defined as the volume of a cylinder 6 inches long and 7 inches in diamete, or, using the old approximation for pi, 231 cubic inches).
The result is that the US gallon is 83.267% of the British gallon. In more usable terms, the British gallon is about a fifth greater than the US gallon, and the US gallon is about 5/6 of the British gallon (or a little under 7 British pints)
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You think that's bad, we Irish are in total confusion. Because we're former Brits and comverted to Metrics we don't know what the hell we are. Road speeds are in kilometres but no one knows what that means. Temps are in centigrade but we don't think it's hot until it hits the eighthies in Fahnrenit. Worse still the Irish mile is quite different to the English mile.
In Australia one group met an Irish gauge railway meeting an English gauge railway. The Irish gauge was bigger. Bit messy that.
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I usely on hear grams ouces quaters from were I live?
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Would rather drink an America quart, or a British quart, of Irish whiskey?