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a (metric) unit
<< You would also hear many people refer to their weight in 'pounds' or 'stones'. >>
In the metric system weight is given in newtons. 1 newton = 1 Kgm X 1 metre/(sec X sec) Note that: 1 Kgm force = 1 Kgm X 9.8 metres/(sec X sec)
Well by "weight" in kg, pounds, stones... the general population mean mass.
Well by "weight" in kg, pounds, stones... the general population mean mass which is found through their weight measure.
Part of my job is to scan the press daily. Here are two topic related letters in one of today's UK newspapers 28/02/06:
No 1: "The original metric system was invented in England. It has been used for several hundred years. The basis is the fathom. Ten fathoms make a shackle, 10 shackles make a cable, and 10 cables make a nautical mile 0f 6,000 feet. A nautical mile at sea level subtends an angle of one minute of the Earth's circumference. This enables distances easily to be measured in nautical miles. For navigational purposes, kilometres are useless". Sherborne, Dorset. (Shackles and cables sounds a wee bit Biblical I reckon...like cubits etc!) No 2: "Shoppers in our local market ask for "une livre de....." for a demi-kilo of anything. Yet France has been metric since Napoleonic times". Villy-lez-Falaise, France. (A demi-kilo roughly equates to a pound weight).
"(Shackles and cables sounds a wee bit Biblical I reckon...like cubits etc!) "
So do "God" and "Adam" but you wouldn't advocate the banning of those names, would you?
Why not? Things might turn out a whole lot better if we banned "God" and "Adam".
"Yet France has been metric since Napoleonic times".
Doesn't meant that everyone else has to be. If French made Klingon its antional language, does that mean that we would have to do that? And the metric is a Napoleonic weight. Another good reason why the English shouldn't adopt it.
Adam Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:54 pm GMT
"Yet France has been metric since Napoleonic times". Doesn't meant that everyone else has to be. If French made Klingon its antional language, does that mean that we would have to do that? And the metric is a Napoleonic weight. Another good reason why the English shouldn't adopt it. If that's the best reason you can find, you haven't got one!
>>And the metric is a Napoleonic weight. Another good reason why the English shouldn't adopt it.<<
Ha ha. The imperial system is also French.
Yeah, none of these grams and tonnes for Adam, no, it's avoirdupois all the way.
I'm completely metricated (a painless operation) as that's the way I was taught at school, but you can't escape imperial as long as we still use miles on the roads in the UK!
Is it only a matter of time when Shylock in the Merchant of Venice starts to demand his four hundred and fifty four grams of flesh?
Is it only a matter of time when Shylock in the Merchant of Venice starts to demand his four hundred and fifty four grams of flesh?
Nice to hear you are "completely" metricated, so it should be easy to demand your kilo of flesh :-). You rightly rounded it, but it still is an awkward mouthful to say 450 g. The worst one can do is imperialise the metric system. If it can't be converted it is better to stick with the imperial version. To wit, people will never say a kilometre stone, or 0.61 milestone. May I give you some other tips, avoid converting if possible and never buy a dual metre stick it makes life so much easier and reduces possible mistakes.
Well, I'm staying metricated.....have you seen all those old tables of weights and measures? What the heck are bushels, pecks, gills, Chains and fathoms and all that old fasioned crap? How did they cope in those days? Give someone two point five four centimetres and they'll take one point six zero nine three kilometres I reckon.
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