Measurement and number

[Modge]

I could show you 1km, 1m, 10cm, 1cm or 1mm, I very much doubt that I could do the same in imperial measures.

Freddie

I could show you an inch, a foot and take you for a mile long walk. Granted I could also do you a number of things in mm, but get above about a foot and well...feet it is.

The odd thing of course about living in a country were we're meant to use one system but stick doggidly to another (I think ease of estimation is a part of that, all be far smaller than not wanting to be the same as the French) is that I can very happily convert between the two, if approximately. (Wieghts on the other hand I can do pretty exactly deli counter as teenager). 1.6KM is a mile, 300mm is ABOUT a foot, a yard is 9/10th a meter. 1 pint is 560 something ml. If all else fails google can convert for you. I'd never dream of doing anything engineering related in imperial, nor anything else where any serious maths was needed or use of data not collated in the UK but for day to day life 37mm is a bit pointless.

[bobd]

A worse aspect of this is when a programme uses two different sets of units simultaneously; it becomes impossible to make sense of it.

 

For example, try following one of those documentaries about plane crashes when the dialogue refers to speed in knots, distance in miles and altitute in feet while the narrator talks about speed in kph, distance in kilometres and altitude in metres.

 

Bob.