wolfi

Thanks, jetsam, for your clear words!

If you're still interested in "liberal politics" or opinions, here is a blog that I've subscribed to:
Liberal England by Jonathan Calder (he's also a big rock muic fan - just like me)

and also interesting reading:

Cicero's song

Peter_in_Hungary

Although the ring main IMO is not the best and is the reason that plugs have fuses in them.

The UK has given the world inches which is still used here for sawn wood boards (now degraded to 2,5cm) and of course iron pipe work the world over uses inch measurements (measured as the internal diameter)
And of course until 1940(ish) Hungary drove on the left like the UK and its colonies.

wolfi

And what about the pound, the ounce, the pint and the gallon?

I always had that problem with US gallon vs Imperial gallon - until I remembered that in the US everything's bigger ...

And Fahrenheit vs Celsius/Kelvin?

duztee

Car wheel diameters are still in inches and aircraft still fly at x number of feet.

wolfi

Yes, duztee, that's the funny side of it - diameter in inches, but width in mm ...

Of course, in the age of computers it's no problem converting from unit to another. I kniow, old traditions die hard ...

And another funny aspect:

Actually the "modern" inch/foot/yard etc is defined via the meter!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inch

mikelincs

If you go into a UK DIY store and ask for a length of 5x5cm wood, it's sold by the foot.....

Peter_in_Hungary

Ermm - the US gallon is smaller than the imperial gallon

And I believe one of the space trips failed (was it a Mars shot) because someone mus-converted metric to imperial. An expensive #### up !

amideislas

You can argue the superiority or the perceived "widespread use" of the imperial system, but as an everyday practical matter, the metric system is far simpler and easier to deal with, because it's consistent between length/distance, volume, weight, etc.

For example, how much does a cubic centimeter of water weigh? 1 Gram.

What is the volume of a litre? 1000 cubic centimeters

Therefore, how much does a liter of water weigh? 1 kilogram

How many liters in a cubic meter? 1000 Liters

Therefore, how much does a cubic meter of water weigh? 1000 kilograms, or one metric tonne

Try to do these same calculations without a computer, using the imperial system. And even if you're fortunate enough to have the ability to do the maths in your head, the risk of error is high.

By the way, just for the record, the metric system is by far the most widely used system in the world. Both the yanks and the Brits should really get on board. But perhaps the imperial system remains a symbol of nationalism. You know, "get outta here with your commie metric system".

jetsam1

When I worked on the Oil Rigs it was a tremendously fun melange of imperial and metric and many industry specific oddities. Calculating parameters was not always straight forward and does cause some confusion at first when you have been educated in metric only and then you get dumped monitoring operations with all these weird and wonderful units!

It was a joy to get back into University and only have to worry about metric. Everyone knows exactly what you mean and being base 10 it is straightforward for conversions and calculations and science would be a mess without it. There are very good reasons that the imperial system was dropped for metric and the other SI units. They are consistent and everyone uses them all over the world.

Peter_in_Hungary

Wot - and loose all ,our rods, poles perches, chains and bushels (where on earth would then hide your light!) etc.

By the way Hungary has a measurement of land area which translates as a square fathom.

Fathom that if you will !!

Beaverstate

I will always be 6'0" and not 1.8288 meters.

wolfi

Yeah, it's some kind of fun, playing around with all those crazy units the Brits developed over the centuries ..

Of course the situation on the continent was the same 250 years ago - even in Germany a Bavarian foot was different from a Schwab one ...

I'll always remember the first time I came to Canterbury and London more than 50 years ago when prices for suits still were given in guineas ...

And a hamburger was two shillings, while the cheeseburger cost me a half crown - luckily as a mathematician I had no problems there using those coins and comparing prices in shillings and pence ..

And the pound was 11 Deutsche Marks!

But you could get bed&breakfast for a pound a person - even in Brighton where we moved to follow girls that we met in the language course it was only 25 shillings ...

Beaverstate

An apple per weight, or .50 each. Not necessarily the same.

amideislas

I suppose it's what you're used to.

I've been adapted to the metric system for a long time. Over here it would be perfectly natural to say you're a meter-eighty-two. And everyone would know exactly how tall that is. And if the temperature is 25, everyone would know that's quite comfortable. But if it's 0, we all know that frost is likely, and if there's precipitation, it will be in the form of snow.

fidobsa

[QUOTE=Peter_in_Hungary;12008585]Although the ring main IMO is not the best and is the reason that plugs have fuses in them.

And of course until 1940(ish) Hungary drove on the left like the UK and its colonies.[/QUOTE

I don't agree. In UK I would cheerfully have the kettle, toaster, microwave and fridge-freezer all on at once but in Hungary (in a property wired to modern standards) I would be aware that the whole lot were going through a 16 amp mcb rather than a 32 amp ring main mcb.

I didn't know about Hungary changing to right hand driving so recently but this article makes interesting reading:

Why do some countries drive on the left and others on the right? - World Standards