I'm very happy that imperial measurements are coming back

[patman post]

Mostly true — but not totally. I'm not a lager drinker, though a hot day can make it welcome. So too can a hot Indian. 
Conversely, I've had some real rubbish real ales and, whatever the weather, they'd still be rubbish...

[papasmurf]

after all, a beer is a beer whether it's in pints or centilitres...

Unless it is lager.
"The human body. The perfect machine for turning real ale into lager."

[patman post]

The only bit of metric/imperial conversion I've needed to do, is to use division and multiplication by 5 and 8 when driving a UK car in Europe and wanting to readily reckon distances. It's accurate enough for me — after all, a beer is a beer whether it's in pints or centilitres...

[johnofgwent]

I might need correcting but from memory
1 inch = 25.4mm
1 pint = 568 ml
1 metre is 39.37 inches
1 km is 0.62ish of a mile.
1 kilogram is 2.205 pounds.
1 gallon is 4.536 litres.

You see, we had a changeover and we learnt how to do both. Add this to my trick memory for facts like this (OK it is waning) and I have no trouble working in either or both.

Or from the imperial perspective


A litre of water is a pint and three quarters, whilst two and a quarter pounds of jam, weigh about a kilogram.

[Borchester]

I might need correcting but from memory
1 inch = 25.4mm
1 pint = 568 ml
1 metre is 39.37 inches
1 km is 0.62ish of a mile.
1 kilogram is 2.205 pounds.
1 gallon is 4.536 litres.

You see, we had a changeover and we learnt how to do both. Add this to my trick memory for facts like this (OK it is waning) and I have no trouble working in either or both.

When I was a lad and when there were four farthings in a penny, twelve pence in a shilling, twenty one shillings in a guinea, we had plenty of opportunity to practice our mental arithmetic and always knew how many blackjacks we could get for sixpence.

Nowadays I see folk using calculators to multiply by ten.

It is not always a good idea to make life too easy.

[Barry]

I am not sure who Boris thinks he is playing too, probably just another one of is, I am representing you moments.

I might need correcting but from memory
1 inch = 25.4mm
1 pint = 568 ml
1 metre is 39.37 inches
1 km is 0.62ish of a mile.
1 kilogram is 2.205 pounds.
1 gallon is 4.536 litres.

You see, we had a changeover and we learnt how to do both. Add this to my trick memory for facts like this (OK it is waning) and I have no trouble working in either or both.

[Sheepy]

We have been using metric for so long now that imperial meaurements are barely understood by the younger half of the nation whilst the older half have been using metric for decades and have surely gotten used to it by now.

Why try turning the clock back at huge expense to business and industry for no good reason other than to pander to the nostalgia of a few pensioners?

What next? Revert back to pounds, shillings and pence pre-decimalisation? And such change ill understood re money would be used as cover for price hikes by profiteers.

Perhaps we should revert back to using groats?

I am not sure who Boris thinks he is playing too, probably just another one of is, I am representing you moments.

[srb7677]

We have been using metric for so long now that imperial meaurements are barely understood by the younger half of the nation whilst the older half have been using metric for decades and have surely gotten used to it by now.

Why try turning the clock back at huge expense to business and industry for no good reason other than to pander to the nostalgia of a few pensioners?

What next? Revert back to pounds, shillings and pence pre-decimalisation? And such change ill understood re money would be used as cover for price hikes by profiteers.

Perhaps we should revert back to using groats?

[johnofgwent]

About now I'll jump in and mention "liver of fat goose" or should I say "pate de fois gras"


It's a laughable short story by Mr Asimov, a man who was acclaimed for his science as well as his science fiction, until the unfortunate accident in which he was strangled by his own sideburns ....


But the story, which is a rather interesting take on modern fairy tales, and heavy metal toxicity, takes on a life of its own when you possess the same understanding of enzyme action and the tricarboxylic acid cycle as he did when he wrote it.


I won't credit Asimov with sending me on my initial chosen career... But a chap with two Nobel Prizes, one for the way certain metals work as a catalyst, also admired that little tale for its neatness.... And reading it again, when I was myself a holder of the same first degree Asimov held, I found a new admiration of it through the new science I had just mastered

[Borchester]

Have you ever read the books by Immanuel Velikovsky?

I have not unfortunately.

I read a couple of articles by Asimov where he went completely ape excreta over Worlds in Collision, particularly when Immanuel Velikovsky wrote jolly responses to Isaac's critiques and the latter revealed himself to be something of a humour free zone on the subject.

But I have yet to read the actual book. That said, I have just downloaded a copy and intend to read it before I meet up with my ex son in law in a couple of weeks. He is a fine lad but also tends to take a rather po faced attitude to the jollier theories on the borders of science. 

[cromwell]

Interestingly enough, although he wrote a book on the metric (and to a lesser extent most other ) systems, he did not push it in his fiction. In fact I have just been been re reading his book Foundation (which is on the telly next month), and all measurements are in imperial, which is I suppose apt as it concerns the fall of the Galactic empire.

I forgot to add for any other lazy sods you can download  BBC foundation series and other excellent free stuff here https://www.openculture.com/2012/01/free_isaac_asimovs_foundation_trilogy.html

[Nick]

Interestingly enough, although he wrote a book on the metric (and to a lesser extent most other ) systems, he did not push it in his fiction. In fact I have just been been re reading his book Foundation (which is on the telly next month), and all measurements are in imperial, which is I suppose apt as it concerns the fall of the Galactic empire.

Have you ever read the books by Immanuel Velikovsky?

[cromwell]

Interestingly enough, although he wrote a book on the metric (and to a lesser extent most other ) systems, he did not push it in his fiction. In fact I have just been been re reading his book Foundation (which is on the telly next month), and all measurements are in imperial, which is I suppose apt as it concerns the fall of the Galactic empire.

Yes read it several times,lazy sod now listen to a recording of the bbc radio adaptation which I thought excellent.

[Borchester]

Bugger me its Isaac Asimov

Interestingly enough, although he wrote a book on the metric (and to a lesser extent most other ) systems, he did not push it in his fiction. In fact I have just been been re reading his book Foundation (which is on the telly next month), and all measurements are in imperial, which is I suppose apt as it concerns the fall of the Galactic empire.

[johnofgwent]

Is that not the guy off The Crystal Maze 😂

No, it was his son who sang of going to the swords of a thousand men