Weights and measures

In Pakistan, we measure things like this:

I am 72 KG.
35 C temperature
I am 5 ft 10 (inch is an optional). Some say it or some dont
It is ...kg of potatoes
one day my older sister who is a doctor ( did not have much time for buying stuff from shops, always busy in studies) went to a local fruit shop.. asked him ...give me 2 kg of bananas...the shopkeeper was in stictches and so was I......the bananas are measured in dozens...just like eggs....man that was hilarious......
milk/bottles in liters....
meat in kg....

when someone tells me they are 120 pounds....i feel annoyed.....pound is a currency of uk.... so it sounds like they are available for a sale...ha,ha

units like yard, stones.....excuse me please....

Adam : « And, not forgetting, we tell the time in Imperial measurements (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years) - ».

Ha ha ha !!!

<<Do Americans or Canadians ever use "stones" to weigh things?>>

No, Americans have no idea what a "stone" is, as far as measurements go. And I guess Josh has mentioned that Canadians don't use them either.

A funny thing: I'm so used to British/American spelling variations like programme/program that it took me a long time to realize that "tonnes" and "tons" weren't just different spellings for the same thing!

Adam, surely you are 11 stone, not 11 stones.

Anyway, the best way when you're in Tesco('s) to combat metrication is to ask for unusual imperial measures. They all know 8 oz is 227g, and in theory you can ASK FOR the sliced meat in any measurements you like, but their scales are marked up in metric. So: ask for 7 oz or 9 oz or 6 and a half ounces, just to get them going.

Of course, my favourite argument against metrication is the 30cm ruler. Logically, if you are a metrication fan, things should only be available in multiples of ten. A 1cm ruler would make sense. Or a 1m rule. Or at a pinch a 10cm (what is the word for that?) ruler. But not 30cm. Why are rulers 30cm long..........................because it's a foot, duh! And over centuries English people have worked out that a foot is a very convenient measurement. Shall we ask the EU to ban the 30cm ruler and replace it by its 1cm equivalent?

>> Shall we ask the EU to ban the 30cm ruler and replace it by its 1cm equivalent? <<

Why does the EU have such stringent laws? From what I've heard, the EU seems to be a very authoritarian government. They force Microsoft to waste money, by having to make more Editions of Windows, force everyone to switch over to metric, whether they like it or not, force a new currency, make the wealthier countries use valuable tax dollars to poorer countries, waste valuable money to have official documents translated into all their official languages, force religious freedom on all of the member countries so that the even Vatican can't join it, weaken nationalism in the member countries, ruin the economy by allowing unchecked immigration, and the list goes on and on. At least in the US we are free to have weights in pounds, ounces, feet, and miles, and not to confuse everyone by having to use units that are too small (like centimeters), or in odd increments like 227 grams, and we have a much more accurate temperature measurement--in Fahrenheit (which was invented in Europe, by the way) which is much more precise than Celsius: 100*F is only 40*C, but 0*C is only 32*F.

"Logically, if you are a metrication fan, things should only be available in multiples of ten." I don't see the logic in that. Ten centimetres are a decimetre. "Fahrenheit is more precise." ... a tired old argument: the nearest degree Celsius is as precise as you'd need for most everyday purpose and wherever it isn't we have decimals. But we do stray from the aim of this forum.

<<From what I've heard, the EU seems to be a very authoritarian government. They force Microsoft to waste money, by having to make more Editions of Windows>>

Well, given that Microsoft forces everyone else to put up with its ever more glitch-ridden "versions" and its virtual monopoly over the computing world, I'm having a hard time working up the tears....and every time I read "Neuromancer" and see "microsoft" without a little TM behind it, I'm reminded that Bill Gates stole the very name....

Poor Bill Gates, though, having to waste his money on those Europeans: don't they realise how broke the man is?

>> Poor Bill Gates, though, having to waste his money on those Europeans: don't they realise how broke the man is? <<

LOL

Imperial measures are human-based. 0 degrees Celsius relates to the freezing of water and 100 degrees Celsius relates to the boiling of water. But 0 and 100 degress Fahrenheit are the boundaries within which human life is normally possible anything lower than 0 degrees fahrenheit or more than 100 degrees fahrenheit would be intolerable.

Another example of why metrication is madness: have you tried to pack bottles in a box? If you have to have 10 in a box, then there is only one way to do it: 5 by 2, which is awkard to carry. It makes more sense to pack 3 by 3 and have 9 in a box. or 3 by 4 and have 12 in a box. Metrication does not correspond to life.

What does packing bottles in a box have to do with metrication? Metrication has to do with abstract quantities, not concrete ones. When you work with bottles and boxes, you don't work with just numbers, you have to deal with the physical objects. But when you deal with things like weight and mass, you deal only with numbers. Nobody says you have to put exactly ten objects in a box. Likewise, although the boundaries of the Fahrenheit scale make sense and are useful for practical purposes, it's still arbitrary. Celsius makes sense and is useful for practical purposes as well.

Could you provide an example that demonstrates an actual problem with metrication that has any relevance to anything?

- Kef

I agree with what furrkef wrote, and I would add that the metric system quite definitely is human-based: we have 10 digits on our hands. Why do you think that base-ten is the most common counting system in human languages?

Imperial measurements simply LOOK old fashioned and belonging to times well past. I only wish Britain would diss it's ambivalent attitude of "thinking imperial" on many things on a personal, casual level yet living side by side with strict metrication on a commercial, scientific level. The doctor at the surgery or the dish down the gym will measure you in Kgs and Cms and the specs at the DIY are all in metres and kilos yet so many people unofficially work out what the measurements are in feet and inches. Everyone admires that beanpole of a guy Peter Crouch (Liverpool FC) for being 6ft 7in - nobody ever refers to him as hitting the hights at 2.01m except in the official documentation.

At least Celsius is universally used and AFAIK nobody ever thinks in antiquated quaint looking Fahrenheit, even though to be fair to degrees F they do give a finer (as in scale) range of temperature readings. Rainfall is universally measured in millimetres....inches left to the old diehards. Furthermore, Britain should follow Ireland's lead and diss mileages in favour of Kms once and for all time. Even then people would still think in miles nae doot. I enjoyed my metricated porridge this morning.

Edinburgh's current temperature is +9.9C (that's the same as 49.8F in old fashioned money). Sky: Clear, sunny. Wind: ENE 8kt. Pressure: 1022mb High expected later today: +16C.

Cheers. Happy May Day! Enjoy the holiday (Continent - the UK has our holiday next Monday).

You will find base 20 very common in human languages. Quatre-vingts?

Damian: do you kknow anyone who has had a baby? I challenge you to find one person in the UK who reports his baby's weight in grams...