Imperial units are stupid

[unbeliever]

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

 

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

 

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

 

This is an utterly beautiful poem. Now try it in metric.

 

 

Right because if we switch to metric, all poetry and prose using outdated units will vanish in a puff of conformity.

[DnAuK]

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

 

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

 

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

 

This is an utterly beautiful poem. Now try it in metric.

 

Didn't Jasper Carrott do something similar in a sketch some 40 years ago? I vaguely remember him harping on about the poor old inchworm now having to be referred to as the 2.54cm worm... Besides, the only bit of that poem which needs editing is the last 'kilometres before I sleep'.

[Harrystottle]

Right because if we switch to metric, all poetry and prose using outdated units will vanish in a puff of conformity.

No, it's just harder to write beautiful poetry using metric terminology.

"My front lawn has never been neater,

It stretches for nearly a kilo metre"

[spilldig]

What gets me is 'miles per gallon,' when we buy petrol in litres. All we need to add to the mix is distance measured in Kilometres and that's me stuffed.

 

Isn't it great to be British..?

 

I noticed they did that when petrol prices shot up when Arabia tripled the price, presumably because it sounded less. I noticed it also happened to radiation measurements when the government were panicked by the wind coming from Chernobyl and they converted the unit from rads to sieverts.

 

---------- Post added 08-09-2016 at 15:50 ----------

 

I prefer Imperial, one because that's the system I was educated in and two for cultural reasons. The words describing imperial measurements fit better into the English language than the metric ones do (unsurprisingly).

 

"How tall are you?". "Six two". It's a lot neater than "One hundred and ninety two centimetres"...

 

Also when I were a lad, petrol was 33p a gallon! Has to be better.

 

I also prefer Imperial for the same reason, but they are stupid measurements. Metric makes a lot more sense.

When I were a lad petrol was 15p a gallon. Ooh eck.

Edited September 8, 2016 by spilldig

[Phanerothyme]

English gallon is 10lb in weight. An early example of metrication at its finest...

 

A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter.

 

Imperial works mentally for making things. Halving, doubling, thirds, all handy "rules of thumb" when you are putting something together.

 

Metric has arbitrary precision and scale, which is great, but still can't do thirds.

[unbeliever]

A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter.

 

Imperial works mentally for making things. Halving, doubling, thirds, all handy "rules of thumb" when you are putting something together.

 

Metric has arbitrary precision and scale, which is great, but still can't do thirds.

 

What's a third of a pound, or of a pint (US or UK)? Of a ton perhaps (long or short) ?

Edited September 8, 2016 by unbeliever

[Harrystottle]

Third of a pound = 5.33 ounces, third of a pint, 6.66 fluid ounces.

 

"A litre of water's a pint and three quarters" (about).

[unbeliever]

Third of a pound = 5.33 ounces, third of a pint, 6.66 fluid ounces.

 

"A litre of water's a pint and three quarters" (about).

 

Right you are. That's "doing thirds" do you suppose?

[Harrystottle]

I dunno, ask the person who posted that.

[unbeliever]

I dunno, ask the person who posted that.

 

I'm trying to tempt him to respond. We've rather destroyed his point.