W2DR Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 ...need to start teaching the metric system in our schools (I found this in a CNBC news article this morning): "The rocket will launch from Blue Origin’s private facility in West Texas, aiming to reach above 100,000 kilometers (or more than 340,000 feet altitude) before returning to Earth safely a few minutes later." 1 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stillwater Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 Plus two questions to the Brits: How far is this in Inch? How many ounces of fuel were used? 3 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adambar Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 They tried to use the metric system once in the US back in thr 80s or something and everyone hated it including me. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 While it's true that there was some effort toward metrification back in 1981-82 it was never seen as a serious attempt. As in most all things, politics ruled the day. Industrial America was the real opposition to adopting the metric system. The crying and complaining to Congress was not wholly unexpected but the voracity of the opposition, particularly from the automobile manufacturers (and especially from General Motors) was something that the politicians wanted no part of. They found it easier to just eliminate the whole plan and satisfy their major campaign contributors. We would have been wholly on a metric base here for the last 30 years had we simply the courage to do so. Now we're alone in the industrialized world as the only nation still using an insane system of measurement. I remember asking an automobile-mechanic friend how he felt about switching over to a new system. After listening to all his complaints about having to have two sets of wrenches,etc.,etc.,etc. I asked him if he ever worked on any Japanese or German cars. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Stillwater said: Plus two questions to the Brits: How far is this in Inch? How many ounces of fuel were used? Hello, while we may have left the EU, as far as I am aware there is no intention to return to the imperial measurements in day to day life. Most people under the age of 50 or so have no idea what they are in any case, as the imperial system has not been taught in schools since 1974. Quaintly, we continue to mark our road distances in miles and measure our speed in miles per hour, even though every commercial vehicle over 3.5 tonnes must be fitted with an EU spec tachograph which does everything in kilometres and kph and every car speedometer is calibrated in both mph and kph. 7 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradB Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 Need to start teaching the metric system in our schools , they are way to busy teaching C.R.T ...... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lifejogger Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 I am to old to try and learn the metric system. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 I have been using the metric system since I joined the military back in 1989...everything we do in the Infantry is measured by the metric system. When I go hiking and camping with my friends now, when they ask how far the hike is, I tell them about 15-20k. I get some strange looks in return. I further confuse them when I tell them we will be starting the hike at 1700 Landon 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Abernathy Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 1 hour ago, Sniper31 said: I have been using the metric system since I joined the military back in 1989...everything we do in the Infantry is measured by the metric system. When I go hiking and camping with my friends now, when they ask how far the hike is, I tell them about 15-20k. I get some strange looks in return. I further confuse them when I tell them we will be starting the hike at 1700 Landon ha ha So true Landon. Bit of a late start for a hike though! 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 39 minutes ago, Rob Abernathy said: ha ha So true Landon. Bit of a late start for a hike though! All depends Rob...some of the best hikes are during the evening sunset Also, in hot places around Utah, Arizona (Grand Canyon) etc, much cooler and safer to hike in the cool of the evening. But, a good morning hike is also a very nice thing as well Landon 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 13, 2021 Author Share Posted October 13, 2021 All I know is my concealed carry companion is 9mm and I could care less how many inches that is. 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gulfstreamtwo Posted October 13, 2021 Share Posted October 13, 2021 There are some things that are best measured in non-metric; altitude and speed are my favorite. Meters is too coarse for altitude, especially for IFR minima. Try a flight with metric turned on and the slow movement of the altimeter will get your attention during climbs/descents. Nautical miles/knots are my preference for distance and speed, especially for VFR. 60 NM is 1 degree of latitude (and nearly so in lower latitudes), so useful for quickly finding rough distances without a plotter. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 7 hours ago, Nick Cooper said: Quaintly, we continue to mark our road distances in miles and measure our speed in miles per hour, As a friend from The Colonies I appreciate that. Now, if you would only learn to drive on the other side of the road...(but I've learned to do fairly well on left-hand turns ). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adambar Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 4 hours ago, W2DR said: All I know is my concealed carry companion is 9mm and I could care less how many inches that is. GLOCK 9mm among others. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Q Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 49 minutes ago, W2DR said: As a friend from The Colonies I appreciate that. Now, if you would only learn to drive on the other side of the road...(but I've learned to do fairly well on left-hand turns ). Back in 1990 I was stationed in Naples during Desert Shield. I had leave over Christmas, so rather than going home to the 'States, my wife and I decided to meet in London, so we could spend the Holidays with my cousins in Hythe, and her friends in Beccles. In setting this up, my wife arranged A rental car, and to save A few pounds, opted for a manual transmission. Should not, it seems, have been a problem, except I had never shifted gears with my left hand! Until I got used to it, it was an adventure. Learning to drive on the "wrong" side of the road was the easy part. Getting the gear shift was another thing. Ken 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanmo Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 10 hours ago, adambar said: They tried to use the metric system once in the US back in thr 80s or something and everyone hated it including me. I loved it, if only because it made infinitely more sense and was far, far easier to do math in. The added bonus that I understood measurements as I travelled the world was nice once I became an adult. What a shame. By the way, guess who is looking to abandon it? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heaton Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Doing 160 sounds much better than 100 and 25mm of rain -- sounds more wetter than 1" and 20 degrees a lot cooler than 70 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfko Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 4 hours ago, Ken Q said: Back in 1990 I was stationed in Naples during Desert Shield. I had leave over Christmas, so rather than going home to the 'States, my wife and I decided to meet in London, so we could spend the Holidays with my cousins in Hythe, and her friends in Beccles. In setting this up, my wife arranged A rental car, and to save A few pounds, opted for a manual transmission. Should not, it seems, have been a problem, except I had never shifted gears with my left hand! Until I got used to it, it was an adventure. Learning to drive on the "wrong" side of the road was the easy part. Getting the gear shift was another thing. Ken Yeah, and mixing up the levers for the windscreen wiper and the turn indicator. 1 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boetie Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Inch by inch the imperial world will embrace the metric system 2 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boetie Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 4 hours ago, wolfko said: Yeah, and mixing up the levers for the windscreen wiper and the turn indicator. Your wife will inform you you're the wrong way round Wolfgang 1 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, Ken Q said: Getting the gear shift was another thing. Before our first trip to England I'd never even thought about the "left hand" shifting problem. And I'm soooo glad I rented a car with an automatic gearbox. I can't even imagine the problems I would have had. It was hard enough just to remember which side of the road to drive on. If I would have had to also remember which hand to shift with I think my brain would have gone into overload. PS: And I'm also glad that the only time I drove the car in London proper was to get out of town for our trip through the countryside. Edited October 14, 2021 by W2DR kant spel 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Heaton Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 1 hour ago, W2DR said: Before our first trip to England I'd never even thought about the "left hand" shifting problem. And I'm soooo glad I rented a car with an automatic gearbox. I can't even imagine the problems I would have had. It was hard enough just to remember which side of the road to drive on. If I would have had to also remember which hand to shift with I think my brain would have gone into overload. PS: And I'm also glad that the only time I drove the car in London proper was to get out of town for our trip through the countryside. I once met an American Gentleman who sent a whole 2 days trying to leave the Hyde Park Corner roundabout 2 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stillwater Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 7 hours ago, wolfko said: Yeah, and mixing up the levers for the windscreen wiper and the turn indicator. Don’t mention this to often, the rental car companies may charge us for the extra wear of the wipers… 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodger Pettichord Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 I liked it when track and field went to metric. It was a lot easier to run 400 meters than 440 yards. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flying_fish Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Well my American friends, if you ever visit England, I will buy you a drink, when you will discover to your delight that an English pint of beer is 568ml in volume, whereas the US pint is 473ml. This is because you foolishly declined to update the definition of the gallon in 1824, preferring to stick with the 1707 'wine gallon'. Cheers! 3 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 1 hour ago, Rodger Pettichord said: I liked it when track and field went to metric. It was a lot easier to run 400 meters than 440 yards. I agree with that. What I still can't understand, though, is what happened with the hurdles? When we switched from 110 yards to 100 meters nothing changed, i.e., the track had the same number of hurdles spaced the same distance apart. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
W2DR Posted October 14, 2021 Author Share Posted October 14, 2021 4 hours ago, John Heaton said: I once met an American Gentleman who sent a whole 2 days trying to leave the Hyde Park Corner roundabout I don't know if it's available in Australia but there's a movie called National Lampoon's European Vacation. It's a comedy about an American family's first trip to Europe. One of the best parts of the movie is seeing what happens when they encounter the roundabouts in England. Great stuff...... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Abernathy Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 Kids and I went to Ireland couple years ago and always had to remember to enter the roundabouts to the left since I'm an American. They had too much mead one night so I drove us back to the hotel in Shannon. Got to a round about and I faked like I was going to go right.......their reaction was priceless! Personally I always thought the metric system was easier it use. At least here in the USA we kept the width of railroad tracks the same as in Britain. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BradB Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 6 hours ago, John Heaton said: I once met an American Gentleman who sent a whole 2 days trying to leave the Hyde Park Corner roundabout I've had the same experience in Boston MA on many occasions . 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucevan Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 In aviation in the UK altitude is measured in feet, distance in nautical miles, and visibility in metres or kilometres. Confused? 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sniper31 Posted October 14, 2021 Share Posted October 14, 2021 2 hours ago, W2DR said: I don't know if it's available in Australia but there's a movie called National Lampoon's European Vacation. It's a comedy about an American family's first trip to Europe. One of the best parts of the movie is seeing what happens when they encounter the roundabouts in England. Great stuff...... Colorado is chock full of roundabouts...they are everywhere, from the small mountain towns to the mid-size towns to large cities like Colorado Springs and Denver. Lucky for me, about 5 years before I moved to Colorado, I had gone on a ten day bicycle ride across northern Italy, along the southern edge of the Italian Alps. Negotiating a road cycle through those roundabouts, where the motorists could give two hoots if you were on a bicycle, well, now that was an adventure Landon 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flying_fish Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 I remember my father driving around this the wrong way towing a caravan. Cried with laughter, better than Disneyworld! 2 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingleaf Posted October 16, 2021 Share Posted October 16, 2021 On 10/13/2021 at 12:02 PM, lifejogger said: I am to old to try and learn the metric system. John if you can count to Ten, then you know the metric system. 3 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caleb1 Posted October 17, 2021 Share Posted October 17, 2021 On 10/16/2021 at 1:33 PM, flying_fish said: I remember my father driving around this the wrong way towing a caravan. Cried with laughter, better than Disneyworld! That's a crazy one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickel Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) Imperial measurements clearly explained, Jason… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GDUt-Kbxqsg Edited October 21, 2021 by Mickel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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