Road Signs: Time to change to Metric?

[lyron]

just leave well alone, i work in imperial because thats what i did at school, i don't find it too dificult to do metric but would sooner not.


ron.

[850Chris]

Looks like the No's have it I'd say!

[TurboZutek]

Having just moved to Canada, where the speeds and distances are all Metric I can say with certainty that it takes about 24hrs of driving to convert over in your head. The speedos of modern (and even older) cars are marked in both so no problem.

This 'Oohh, I want to use pounds, inches, groats, hogsheads etc etc because that's what my granny used during the war and it's too hard to think in a more logical, modern system' mentality is holding back the UK.

Add up the cost to manufacturing to make systems in metric and then add on a system that should have died 30 years ago and you'll see a lot of things would get cheaper too. At my work we produce documentation and tooling in both Metric and Imperial for our products; adding another pointless 30~45% onto the cost of the project. A cost that we are more than happy to pass on to the client.

You want a metric installation? $1000, thanks.
Want that in Imperial with Imperial screws, fittings and documentation? No problem, $1300, thanks!

As for the beer argument? Call it whatever you want. You can still order a 'glass of lager' or 'a pint' in Ireland and they are metric and have been since 2005.

Have we Metricated a 'slice of cake' ? A 'sprinkle of salt' ? No, of course not, so by all means order a pint of Lager, just know that it converts and is sold in ml. Personally I'd rather have a litre stein any day.

This is all academic, of course, as the UK (and indeed, the US) will be dragged, kicking and screaming into the 19th century on this issue eventually anyway.

Chris...

[Paddler Ed]

Originally Posted by lyron

just leave well alone, i work in imperial because thats what i did at school, i don't find it too dificult to do metric but would sooner not.


ron.

That's fine if you went to school pre 1970's, but most people since then have been taught primarily the metric system, with less emphasis on the imperial system. It's a bit like saying "I was taught £, s, d therefore I do not work in decimal currency because I wasn't taught it."

There will be a point in the next 10 years or so where the majority of the population have been taught metric measurements; that's made up of a number of factors:
-Schooling in the UK
-European Immigration
-Asian Immigration (India and China spring to mind)
-Old people dying off (sorry to be blunt)

We need to start switching over; the cost is only ever going to rise, and at the moment we need the capital spend injection into the economy!

[Chris_C]

I've been reading through some back issues of a well known hobbyish engineering magazine recently, the editor only made the call in ~93/94 that designs from that point on would have to be metric. That seems stunningly late to me.

[tt82]

The New European Language!!!

The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

This of course after we have adopted the Euro as our money and the Euro flag.

Then we will all have regulation hairstyles, just like good old North Korea, have the same meals - horse burgers and all drive the same car.


Brilliant.

[GMad]

Originally Posted by tt82

and all drive the same car.

We already do that!
I have to look very closely at the badge on the boot lid to tell what it is nowadays..

[johnjp]

Originally Posted by DaveNP

or do timber yards in metric countries work in 0.3m multiples?

Yes, the suppliers agreed to that a very long time ago, multiples of 30cms, eg 4' = 1.2m, 18' = 5.4m.

[johnjp]

Originally Posted by Paddler Ed

We need to start switching over; the cost is only ever going to rise, and at the moment we need the capital spend injection into the economy!

see ya back in Oz!

[NewVolvo]

Originally Posted by Chris_C

I've been reading through some back issues of a well known hobbyish engineering magazine recently, the editor only made the call in ~93/94 that designs from that point on would have to be metric. That seems stunningly late to me.

From memory I think Autocar is one mag that refuses to stop doing their measurements/power measure in Metric or even Nm, despite many customers/readers protesting.

Perhaps time for them also to enter the 21st century and realise that what worked 30 years ago, no longer works!