Imperial to metric.

[Tha Ulsterscot]

Just wondering today why our cars, pick ups, etc. tell us Miles per gallon, when we buy our fuel in Liters? Is it because. for example 30 MPG. sounds a lot better than 6.666 MPliter.

 

[bravheart]

No it’s because £1.50/litre sounds like a bargain compared with £6.75/ gallon!

 

[bovrill]

An EU rule in 93/94 made us change to selling in litres rather than gallons. But it was just about the time that the price rose past £2 per gallon, so that was a convenient thing to blame.

 

[Moors Lad]

In my case it`s because I know what a mile is and I know what a gallon is.... The road signs are in miles in the UK so a miles/gallon figure seems more rational. A litre is such a small quantity that a miles per litre figure would not give such a good comparison between different vehicles - think about it !

 

[DrDunc]

Ah now, real scotsmen know volume is measured by weight (you're gonna need quarter of a tonne of diesel to plough and seed that field), and distance is measured by time (how far away is town? It's twenty minutes unless Tam is shifting sheep)

 

[David.]

At least our country isn't divided up into mile squares, and measured in kilometres.

 

[ladycrofter]

Oh but it could be check this out if you're feeling nostalgic.

Dad used to have these as wee engineering gifts where he worked*. More useful than a pen! I dodged a bullet, my first year at uni was the first time all the new engineering students didn't have to go to summer survey camp. OH remembers his dad and grandad speaking about "chains". My grandad spoke about the "north 40".

* They also had branded table cigarette lighters, turquoise and silver, happy days

 

[clbarclay]

Changing the units doesn't change what it is, just some units are more convenient than others for specific applications.

I'm often switching between metric and imperial in the workshop, depending on what I'm doing.


Metric and imperial come from two different logics. One says let's have convenient scales for whatever we are doing and merged them all together over many lifetimes. The other logic said let's have one scale that is universal and needs no conversion factors when switching scales, because we don't switch scales...

The latter is a great idea but not always very convenient. The base metric unit for distance is the meter. The base metric unit for volume is the cubic meter. No one talks about how many meters per cubic meter their cars do though because it's those units are just not convenient. Switching meters to kilometers is logical enough, but milli cubic meters is just an awkward mouthful. So metric seems to takes a leaf out of imperial's playbook and gives us the liter instead. It's just the conversation factor doesn't seem so random as most of the imperial conversation factors.


Moral of this rambling is that all measurement systems are as irrational as the humans that decided and use them. Just look at the imperial measurement moulded on the tyre sidewalld of all the European cars.

 

[David.]

Oh but it could be check this out if you're feeling nostalgic.

Dad used to have these as wee engineering gifts where he worked*. More useful than a pen! I dodged a bullet, my first year at uni was the first time all the new engineering students didn't have to go to summer survey camp. OH remembers his dad and grandad speaking about "chains". My grandad spoke about the "north 40".

* They also had branded table cigarette lighters, turquoise and silver, happy days

It's all very well until someone says go north 6 miles and then east 4 miles. The sections are not always obvious in open country, if there is no road allowance, and truck tachos read kms.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

Just wondering today why our cars, pick ups, etc. tell us Miles per gallon, when we buy our fuel in Liters? Is it because. for example 30 MPG. sounds a lot better than 6.666 MPliter.

I prefer to work out my fuel consumption in pence per mile. I have found the pickup is somewhere around 23 or 24 pence per mile, and my old Toyota Aygo (which I haven't used for about 12 months) was hovering around 10p/mile.

 

[shumungus]

It always amazed me that the Space Shuttle and the like was designed and built in feet and inches as this is what NASA still uses.

 

[ladycrofter]

I'm not sure that's true after they smacked the first Mars lander into the surface? Due to everyone else working on it using metric and they were still using miles per hour.

 

[clbarclay]

It always amazed me that the Space Shuttle and the like was designed and built in feet and inches as this is what NASA still uses.

Since 1959, the length of those feet and inches have been defined by the metric system. NASA started switching to metric in the 90s.

 

[MF CI]

Changing the units doesn't change what it is, just some units are more convenient than others for specific applications.

I'm often switching between metric and imperial in the workshop, depending on what I'm doing.


Metric and imperial come from two different logics. One says let's have convenient scales for whatever we are doing and merged them all together over many lifetimes. The other logic said let's have one scale that is universal and needs no conversion factors when switching scales, because we don't switch scales...

The latter is a great idea but not always very convenient. The base metric unit for distance is the meter. The base metric unit for volume is the cubic meter. No one talks about how many meters per cubic meter their cars do though because it's those units are just not convenient. Switching meters to kilometers is logical enough, but milli cubic meters is just an awkward mouthful. So metric seems to takes a leaf out of imperial's playbook and gives us the liter instead. It's just the conversation factor doesn't seem so random as most of the imperial conversation factors.


Moral of this rambling is that all measurement systems are as irrational as the humans that decided and use them. Just look at the imperial measurement moulded on the tyre sidewalld of all the European cars.

Very much this, mpg I now use miles per liter. And if doing DIY big measures are in inches and the tiny detail bits are in mm.

Another thought, as we used miles per gallon in Europe it's how many liters per 100km.

 

[AR Enviro]

I still enjoy asking the youth to go to the workshop and fetch me the imperial adjustable spanner

 

[trebornella]

Remember calibrating a new sprayer for a customer in late 1970's, he worked in gallons per acre, but his keen son wanted it in litres per hectare. We ended up somewhere near the correct figure, so added a bit more chemical 'for luck'.

 

[Cowabunga]

It is ridiculous that the UK still uses miles and miles per hour and miles per gallon, and more. All my tractors have speeds measured in kph and all implement calibrations and application rates have been fully metric for decades.
The individual is perfectly welcome to convert to imperial but official measures, including speed limits and distances should have been metricated at least four decades ago. It’s totally ridiculous.

 

[Cowabunga]

Remember calibrating a new sprayer for a customer in late 1970's, he worked in gallons per acre, but his keen son wanted it in litres per hectare. We ended up somewhere near the correct figure, so added a bit more chemical 'for luck'.

Yes and that was in the 1970’s for goodness’ sake!

 

[ski]

It is ridiculous that the UK still uses miles and miles per hour and miles per gallon, and more. All my tractors have speeds measured in kph and all implement calibrations and application rates have been fully metric for decades.
The individual is perfectly welcome to convert to imperial but official measures, including speed limits and distances should have been metricated at least four decades ago. It’s totally ridiculous.

Not quite as clear as you say, a lot of things work better in fractions than ending in .333recuring. House building was much more user friendly in feet and inches but they took more effort to become competent in. Imperial measurements were built from practicality where as the decimal system is a result of the French Revolution.

 

[trebornella]

Not quite as clear as you say, a lot of things work better in fractions than ending in .333recuring. House building was much more user friendly in feet and inches but they took more effort to become competent in. Imperial measurements were built from practicality where as the decimal system is a result of the French Revolution.

I still ask for 4x2 timber and 8x4 sheet at the builders merchants. They always know what I want.