We use tons and ounces. I assume they are the same as yours. (2000 lb = 1 ton, 16 oz = 1 lb)
I'm surprised. I thought you used grams and meters. Are your speed limits in mph or kph?
Road signs and speed limits are in mph. Rail signs and speed limits are in kph. I only know my weight in stone and pounds and my height in feet and inches. Mostly because that's what my mum always used to weigh and meaure me, she doesn't "do" metric.
Officially the Uk is metric, but, it's more of a token gesture to the EU than an actual working practice.
Yes we use miles, and all our road signs quote miles. We don't use kilometres, but, we do use metres/cm/mm, but as Bob suggests, us oldies still use good old feet and inches.
Yes we use ounces/pounds/stones(14 lbs) and tonnes...but, you'd be hard pressed to buy many things that arn't sold in grams or kilos these days.
We moved to decimalisation and the metric system back in the 70's, but seeing as the Brits simply don't like change, it's taking time for us to adjust.
edit, too slow...again (listening to the cricket, and it's not going well)
I've no idea how old you are, but, lets be honest here. Before reading this thread and Googling for the info, had you really heard of the short scale and long scale billion ? honestly ?
Chances are, if you're under 40 and didn't go to the same school as Tristan Cliffe, then you would have been taught 1,000 million = 1 billion. I'm in my 40's so i was just on the cusp of the changeover to decimalisation and the metric system, so i was taught both old and new, which only led to outright confusion, mainly with the teachers. Although the definition of the word billion isn't necessarily a metric term, it was changed at the same time mainly to make global financial dealings easier, bit like when the UK changed from Railway Time to GMT in the 19th century (or whenever it was).
Progress brings change (usually) but us Brits have a history of resisting change. Which may explain why we didn't develop into the superpower we perhaps should have been.
For what it's worth i didn't mean to be patronising in my previous post, but if it came across that way then i apologise.
I have had very rare oval races where I have been racing in a pack of drivers who actually know how to drive, and I've had some perfectly clean races with them. Also I can have a pretty clean race on any oval in N2003. But from experience, quite a lot of those who populate oval servers are complete idiots, perhaps because they think oval racing is within ther limited capabilities when it really isn't.
A good oval is one that has 'quirks', one example being Darlington, with its odd double banking and ridiculously narrow width in the turns and extremely wide on the straights, or Nazareth (R.I.P) with its elevation changes, or Poccono, which nobody seems to like apart from me.
Kyoto is good because it's not your average oval, i there is one thing I would like it to have is a tarmac apron round the whole circuit length, to drive onto in the case of a big pile up. And the pitlane could be made straigh while keeping the kink in the front stretch, creating a grass area inside the tri-oval, perhaps the kink could be made into a proper sweeping curve with a larger radius.
Clone tracks such as Texas, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Atlanta are not good, on their own they are great tracks, but why do we need 3 of them? We need interesting ovals, I'd like to see a relatively flat banked oval between 1 and 1.5 miles in length, something like Phoenix or Rockingham (UK).
I create tracks for N2003 sometimes, and I always try to make them a bit 'odd' somehow.
Yes we use pounds in weight, and pounds in money too. But you'd have to be either very very stupid or come from Liverpool (same thing really :razz to confuse lbs for £'s
There are still so many many similarities between us Brits and you Merrycano's. Don't forget that most of theAmerican Founding Fathers are descended from crazy puritanical English christians who were essentially chased out of the country for being crazy, and puritanicals, and christians, and Northern, and just generally, odd...
Tristan's rather wealthy (but he'll deny it) He's also rather posh (i.e he's a Southern softy) But, he's also got a genuine sense of humour, best to not take him so seriously, or take anything he says personally, he'd never say anything nasty to your face (chiefly because he's a Southern softy)
No no, we're not crap, we're just not terribly good at anything, but it's the taking part that counts, not the winning, right ?
Since time immemorial the younger generation have always been percieved in a negative light. It's nothing new, and i doubt it'll ever change. Best thing to do is don't believe the hype, but if there is a problem with the younger generation as a whole, then don't turn a blind eye to it. But yes, this is a whole new subject and nothing to do with this bloke spending his whole life driving round in big circles at full throttle...
I realise that was a mere quip, but it's still a bit of a misnomer. There's a fair few Americans on here that are some of the most clued up people you'd likely meet. Although admittedly their taste in music can be considered...questionable
I would!!! But you'd need to be extra deserving of it. Some people get an earful in real life, but at LFS meets everyone (EVERYONE) is about ten times more polite and laid back...
You got me!
However, I'd still maintain that there isn't anything wrong with the Imperial system. Those that don't like it are either not used to it - people who have grown up entirely with the metric system; it would be like asking anyone to use a new system, it's going to meet with trepidation and an certain amount of uncomfortableness (aren't the letters 'ness' great when you want to make a new word!) - or people too stupid to cope with anything they haven't been formally taught - or those who just want to moan about something.
I work with both, every day. It NEVER causes me problems. I can convert from mm to inches in my head, in both directions. If I'm working with less accuracy and hence are in the realms of metres or yards then I am happy to use the interchangeably depending on who I'm talking to - older people get yards, younger people (or stupid people ) get metres). This, of course, is based on the fact that my world is in the realm of smaller measurements, so I never have to use metres as an accurate measurement. Different trades would probably find that the difference in yards and metres is important, but maybe they won't care about calling one millimetre a sixteenth (for example) because they aren't worried about the descrepancy in this unusual (for them) region.
Is one better? No. That would be like saying blue is better than green. Is one better than the other at different times? Yes; much like blue would be a rubbish colour as camoflage in a green field.
When I'm being accurate (with respect to engine work for example) then I use thousands of an inch. A thou is 0.025mm. 1 is an easier number than 0.025. 1 is an easier number than 25,000 microns.
When I'm measuring accurate with a rule, then I use millimetres - it's an ideal balance on a rule between being visible to the naked eye, and accurate enough for a job that involves using a rule.
I measure speed in mph. I measure distances over a country (e.g. distance to work, or to Leeds, or to my parents' house) in miles. I measure time in hours (not metric, and neither are seconds). I measure my height in feet and inches. I measure my weight (read: mass, but let's assume we're not being THAT anal ) in stone and pounds. I measure ingredients (food) in ounces. I measure the weight of my race car in kilograms. I measure the frequency of my suspension in Hz rather than cycles per second, traditionally the Imperial equivalent. I measure power in horsepower and torque in pounds feet, although that's partly because they are simply better units for engines. I use 9.80665m/s/s as 'G'. I own spanners, allen keys, taps and drills (etc) in both metric and imperial sizes...
One is NOT better than the other. The fact that metric is in widespread use does not mean that Imperial doesn't have it's virtues. Just because Imperial is being 'phased' out (mostly by people that sit in offices and dream up new rules about things they never actually have to use themselves) doesn't mean there is anything inherently wrong with it.
12 divides by multiples of 3 rather more neatly than 10. For that reason alone the Imperial system is sometimes more useful.
Regardless of what 'The EU' tells me to do, or what school kids think I ought to do, I will continue to use units that work best in whatever job I'm doing at any given time. That is my "standard measurement system", and it works best for me.
I would argue against that. 'We' as a country are actually full of extremely talented people. But we started to realise it, and have priced ourselves out of the market. Britain doesn't manufacture much because the people that used to make things started to ask for a wage/salary that wasn't supportable. Eventually the cycle will come round, and China will be sending us stuff to make because we charge less than they can make it for themselves - just don't hold your breathe for that to happen.
Carey - the reason you haven't seen much of my sense of humour is because you've jumped onto this forum and started spouting a load of nonsense that is clearly beyond your level of comprehension. I don't suffer fools gladly (who does - come in you fool, let me get you some dinner and run you a bath), and it's the fools of this forum that don't like me. The intelligent ones (you know who you are) don't suffer my wrath, however ineffectual an internet-wrath is, let alone mine, and hence mostly get along with me, or at least tolerate me - this is because they don't post shit, and therefore don't have me on their backs telling them what they just posted is shit.
does telling that to yourself make you sleep better at night penalty boy?
and the imperial system is a constant annoyance
most of the substrate thicknesses and component sizes i have to deal with are in mils yet what i have to keep in mind when designing are manufacturing limitations in mm
yay for a anachronistic system with random numbers in a base the human brain isnt accoustomed to dealing with
When you get brought up using the metric or imperial systems you 'think' in metric or imperial, you get a sense of scale which you don't get from the other system.
Imperial may seem illogical to you, but thats because you've been brought up with the metric system, in the same way that metric measurements seem a bit daft to me.
Standardisation would be nice, and it would make sense, but when you have that sense of scale engrained in your head it makes it difficult.
EDIT: Bollocks! I have been beaten to it! Again! I never get a chance to appear extrespecially clever or full of wisdom here, my keyboard fingers are too slow.
Yep, good post, agree with everything you say, except the bit about not being posh
Although, being the old fart that i am, i do struggle from time to time when converting from imperial to metric. Not the actual numbers, but the conceptual side of things. I still find it tricky to visualise any metric measurement under 100m (anything over i'm ok with largely because of athletics) But, just this week i was working on something and as per normal i noted all measurements in feet and inches. But, was then told to change everything to metric. Finding the numbers wasn't a problem (admittedly with the help of an online converter) But, when i looked at the new figures i had found it difficult to visualise for example 2m as a working concept, yeah 6 1/2 foot, no problem, i know exactly how big that is, i can see that in my mind. But 2m, nah, it just doesn't sound right, can't quite fix it in my imagination. So, its a case of trusting the numbers and hoping it looks right when it's all built and finished, and keep a copy of the original imperial plans hidden in a draw.
I guess it all boils down to convention. As long as the people with their fingers on the buttons are all reading from the same hymn book at the same time then there shouldn't really be a problem, similar to the GMT changeover i mentioned in a previous post. However, as time passes, and globalisation really truly does become global, some form of worldwide uniformity has to be introduced. Just look at the internet, English IS the language of choice, yet the worlds most prevalent language is Chinese. Why is that, convienience ? or the fact the people who essentially own the internet speak English.....and i'm getting way of topic here, and completely forgot the point i was trying to make..ermmm
Yeah, Imperialism good, but, i don't think it's gonna last.
{edit} and again, the slowest typist in the world just repeats everything that's been said in the previous two posts, even though he probably started his post before them
Hmmm, that a whole new topic we're getting into there. I'd certainly agree we've got some damn talented people in this country, but, we tend to not let them shine. There are many many reasons for that, but this would probably turn into an extremely long and boring political discourse concerning the British Government since the 1940's, and i'm not sure this is the right place or the right time for that. Needless to say there are very specific reasons why and how we "priced ourselves out of the market" and subsquently sold our manufacturing base to foreign investors, but perhaps another time.
Noo, godwins law, don't mention the war, don't do it!
Anyway, let us not forget England 5 Germany 1 in 2001.
Thats another problem we face in Britain, everyone is looking back on our history through rose tinted glasses, not making history today and looking ahead, which is why we've lost our place at the top, too short sighted.
Ahh yes, those daft looking things with the bent wings and fixed landing gear, designed to scare the living crap outta the enemy. Until the enemy realised it only had one bomb and no guns.
"Shitcher, ve nicht killed zem Tommies vis our boomen, letz uz hope zey vill die of unt heart attack ven zey hear our ziren... ATTACK"
Please accept my most humble apology for that rather embarrasing attempt at speaking pidgeon German. Foreign languages have never been a strong point of mine.
In a word, no. It's not lack of restraint that makes me write what I see, how I see it. Lack of restraint makes it look like I've accidentally let it slip out without meaning to. I can assure you when I call someone or some group stupid/ignorant/foolish (or whatever) then it's entirely meant and, I believe, deserved. I call what I believe to be a spade, a spade. I am happy to be proven wrong - you just have to prove it to me. I don't tend to hold grudges (although that's not always apparent), and I don't generally let first impressions dominate my opinion of someone (or something*) for very long if they change.
I should also add that I advocate the attacking of the post, rather than the poster. I don't know you. I can't actually comment on your intelligence, or worthiness to breathe, or anything actually in real life. I 'know' you only from your forum posts. My opinion is 100% entirely based on those. If I call you an idiot, it's because you've written something that gives the impression of being written by an idiot. Don't take it personally, and give back as good as you get if you need to - preferrably by reasoned and mature discussion, rather than resorting to emoticons, [img] links, or youtube videos to 'describe' your emotion!
I'm nice me. But I'm not nice willy-nilly, and I certainly don't advocate accepting everyone and everything just because tolerance is fashionable.
And finally, you'll be surprised how many 'regulars' are banned from this forum from time to time, and how many "tone it down or else" final warnings are given to people. The moderators are, as far as I can see, as fair and harsh on the 'regulars' as they are on the 'newbies' and 'lurkers'.
*except ovals - I just watched some NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Michigan, and it was the dullest motor-racing I've ever had the misfortune to watch, with terrible commentary, no action, and no impression of speed or driver ability. Montoya's catch as his tyre deflated was by far the best bit - and I'm most definately NOT a Montoya fan...
. ...or do you use the Euro now?
