UK pledges to restore pounds and ounces as Brexit benefit

[Murox]

Don't order any more labels yet
UK pledges to restore pounds and ounces as Brexit benefit

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Read the whole thing - it will be the individual's choice of using pounds or grams. for the trader it's going to mean one more unneeded expense as new weighing equipment will be needed or old recalibrated/assayed. Added to that, apparently there is already a shortage of trained weights and measures officers!

 

[Markthebuilder]

I hope not

 

[Angry_Mob]

Going the wrong way, bad enough we still have measurements like miles instead of KMs.

 

[madasafish]

Any rational person would use a rational system.
The metric system is rational. Fact.
It is also easy to use. Fact.

The imperial system is irrational. Fact.
It is also difficult to use. Fact.

Conclusion :Anyone supporting the Imperial system is irrational.
And wants to make life more difficult.

(the above is the polite version)

 

[RJC]

Whilst I agree with madasfish's general conclusions about rationality, the logic argument becomes more interesting when you consider what the units actually represent. For example a yard was originally defined as the length of pendulum needed to deliver a 1 second 'tick' at sea level on the Greenwich meridian. The metre on the the other hand is the distance light travels in a vacuum at some obscure fraction of a second. Or so I am told.

 

[roche]

Whilst I agree with madasfish's general conclusions about rationality, the logic argument becomes more interesting when you consider what the units actually represent. For example a yard was originally defined as the length of pendulum needed to deliver a 1 second 'tick' at sea level on the Greenwich meridian. The metre on the the other hand is the distance light travels in a vacuum at some obscure fraction of a second. Or so I am told.

That is the current definition of the metre - the original came from around the French revolution and was defined as one tenmillionth of the earths quadrant. Great book - The Measure of all things.

 

[Karol]

Any rational person would use a rational system.
The metric system is rational. Fact.
It is also easy to use. Fact.

The imperial system is irrational. Fact.
It is also difficult to use. Fact.

Conclusion :Anyone supporting the Imperial system is irrational.
And wants to make life more difficult.

(the above is the polite version)

Are you casting aspersions on our American friends?

 

[Amari]

Let's hope we won't be reverting to imperial currency.

My 11+ years were plagued by exam questions such as this:

Mother opens her piggy bank and finds £7 17s 6d. She divides it between her three children. How much does each child get?

You sell 11 jars of honey at £1 2s 6d each. What is the total take?

Ans 1: £2 12s 6d
Ans 2: £12 7s 6d

The farthing was abolished in 1960 when I was 19 and the ha'penny in 1984. At least they introduced us to the concept of fractions.

 

[Poly Hive]

The most logical thing our American friends did was to measure oil well depth in decimalised feet. Truly!

Was the yard not defined by Henry the 8th's shoulder to finger tip length? I'm pretty sure that's what I was taught.

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The most logical thing our American friends did was to measure oil well depth in decimalised feet. Truly!

Was the yard not defined by Henry the 8th's shoulder to finger tip length? I'm pretty sure that's what I was taught.

PH

No Henry I In actual fact there was no yard in Henry VIII's time, it had been superseded by the Ell (which was a yard and a quarter) but Elizabeth I reintroduced the yard

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

3 grains of barley dry and round do make an inch, 12 inches make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard, 5 yards and a half make a perch, and 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth make an acre

And in the Liber Horn (1311)

And be it remembered that the iron yard of our Lord the King containeth 3 feet and no more, and a foot ought to contain 12 inches by the right measure of this yard measured, to wit, the 36th part of this yard rightly measured maketh 1 inch neither more nor less and 5 yards and a half make a perch that is 16 feet and a half measured by the aforesaid yard of our Lord the King.

 

[roche]

The most logical thing our American friends did was to measure oil well depth in decimalised feet. Truly!

Was the yard not defined by Henry the 8th's shoulder to finger tip length? I'm pretty sure that's what I was taught.

PH

And just when you thought it was safe... 1 foot [survey] to inches = 12.00002 inches
The American survey foot is different from an imperial foot! Possibly due to the war of independence...

 

[Apiarisnt]

The most logical thing our American friends did was to measure oil well depth in decimalised feet. Truly!

From my oilfield days I can remember having to calculate the volume, in barrels, of an oil well that was 7 1/2 inches in diameter, with the depth given in metres.

 

[pnkemp]

If you want a weirdly anachronistic measurement, I give you the U, or rack unit.
It is used to measure the height of IT equipment that goes into racks, so some of the most modern equipment out there. So a thin switch might be 1U, and a big old server might be 12U.

The racks are,19” wide, and a U is 1.75 inches. I try not to think about how odd it is.

 

[roche]

If you want a weirdly anachronistic measurement, I give you the U, or rack unit.
It is used to measure the height of IT equipment that goes into racks, so some of the most modern equipment out there. So a thin switch might be 1U, and a big old server might be 12U.

The racks are,19” wide, and a U is 1.75 inches. I try not to think about how odd it is.

I have a tape measure that is graduated in U...How the unit was ever arrived at I cannot imagine.

 

[gmonag]

Any rational person would use a rational system.
The metric system is rational. Fact.
It is also easy to use. Fact.

The imperial system is irrational. Fact.
It is also difficult to use. Fact.

Conclusion :Anyone supporting the Imperial system is irrational.
And wants to make life more difficult.

(the above is the polite version)

There is nothing rational about the decimal metric system. It exists only because we (most of us) have 10 digits. Try dividing 10 by 3!
A truly rational base is 60, as used by the Babylonians. It is a highly composite, unitary perfect, abundant, semiperfect number.

Also many of the SI units are impractical in that they are too large or too small. e.g. 1 farad is a huge capacitance, most capacitors are in the pico or micro range.

 

[user 20297]

Don't order any more labels yet
UK pledges to restore pounds and ounces as Brexit benefit

Have I got my date wrong? We are in the middle of September, aren't we?

 

[Apiarisnt]

Any rational person would use a rational system.
The metric system is rational. Fact.
It is also easy to use. Fact.

The imperial system is irrational. Fact.
It is also difficult to use. Fact.

Conclusion :Anyone supporting the Imperial system is irrational.
And wants to make life more difficult.

The prime minister's official spokesperson said:

"Pounds and ounces are an easily understood and widely used unit of measurement. This is one small part of a wide-ranging drive across government to establish the right regulatory environment to support jobs and growth across the UK."

 

[pargyle]

I've always had a bit of a penchant for chains, furlongs and rods ... we still use acres (which relate to furlongs and rods). What's wrong with trying to confuse the rest of the world with units of measure that we invented eons ago ?

Units of length

1 yard = 3 feet [1 yard is approximately 0.914 metres]
1 chain = 22 yards
1 chain = 100 links
1 rod = 1 perch = 1 pole = 25 links or 5.5 yards = 16 1/2 feet = 1/4 chain
1 furlong = 10 chains = 40 rods = 220 yards
1 mile = 8 furlongs = 80 chains
3 miles = 1 league
3 barleycorns = 1 inch

Units of area

1 acre = 1 chain x 1 furlong = 10 square chains = 4840 square yards
1 acre = 4 roods
1 rood = 1 furlong x 1 rod = 40 square perches or square rods = 1210 square yards
1 square perch = 1 square rod = 30.25 square yards