Why are Irish people so resistant to the metric system?

Johro

peasant wrote: »

No such thing as a metric ounce or metric pound for that matter

The old pound just got to mean 500g in everyday use...but pound is not an official unit of measure. Ounce isn't used at all in non-English speaking countries

In Austria, they have Dekagrams or deka for short = 10g

Okay, but in Holland a 'pond' is 500 g and an 'ons' is 100g. Cant blame me for saying pounds and ounces there:p

Johro

peasant wrote: »

Or you go to buy a "twobyfour", get sold a "twobyfour" and at home you find it's 5 x 10 cm and doesn't bloody well fit

Piece of advice ...when going to the builders yard, bring a tape measure and always check

I know. And what they call a 16ft 2x2 is in fact 15ft 9 inches or thereabouts.
Then there's the 2x2 planed, which 'rough' is close enough to 2x2 but planed is nowhere near.

Mike 1972

up for anything wrote: »

If I asked any of you men how long is your penis, would you answer six inches or 150mm give or take a few millimetres?

Pfft I Laugh at you and your dimintive 150mm penis :pac:

El Siglo wrote: »

Well the metric system isn't perfect either, I remember a lecturer telling me that back in the 70s when he was a science student 1 litre was equal to 1kg of water in a room .

Whats wrong with that

Iwannahurl wrote: »

The metric system is officially in use everywhere except Liberia, Burma and the USA.

The federal government in the US adopted the metric system in the 1970's but nobody thought of telling the individual states seemingly.

Marcus.Aurelius

Mike 1972 wrote: »

Whats wrong with that

One of the proposed definitions is that a kilogram is "the mass equal to that of 1000⁄12 · 6.02214179×10^23 atoms of Carbon 12.”

This includes Avogadro's number but is difficult to depend on because of Planck's constant being uncertain too. The old 1 kilo is equivalent to 1000 mls of deionised water is fairly accurate, but in terms of modern physics it's a pretty weak effort.

:pac:

Johro

Caesar Augustus wrote: »

One of the proposed definitions is that a kilogram is "the mass equal to that of 1000⁄12 · 6.02214179×10^23 atoms of Carbon 12.”

This includes Avogadro's number but is difficult to depend on because of Planck's constant being uncertain too. The old 1 kilo is equivalent to 1000 mls of deionised water is fairly accurate, but in terms of modern physics it's a pretty weak effort.

:pac:

Hmmm... They could've poured water in a vessel on a scales until it weighed a kilo, then poured it into a different vessel and marked the waterline '1000 ml' .;)
The metric system is definite because it is devised.
Taking the metric system and trying to apply it to what already exists in nature is just stupid.

Iwannahurl

Johro wrote: »

Okay, but in Holland a 'pond' is 500 g and an 'ons' is 100g. Cant blame me for saying pounds and ounces there:p

I have to admit I wasn't aware of such colloquial terms in established metric countries like the Netherlands. Looks like the actual weight of the pond once depended on where you lived!

Perhaps such terms actually have a practical daily use then? Maybe it's possible to be metric in terms of the numbers used in practice, with the addition of familiar terms to satisfy the continuing preference for colloquial units.

Iwannahurl

Johro wrote: »

Hmmm... They could've poured water in a vessel on a scales until it weighed a kilo, then poured it into a different vessel and marked the waterline '1000 ml' .;)
The metric system is definite because it is devised.
Taking the metric system and trying to apply it to what already exists in nature is just stupid.

One of Murphy's Laws: constants aren't, variables won't.

K-9

pickarooney wrote: »

I mean who buys 0.03 ounces of cocaine?

We'd have had no heroin or cocaine without Europe.

Seriously, some knuckleheads believe that or not far of it.

thats what she said o_O

its embarressing when my father sends me into the hardware store to get an 8th inch threaded rod and i dont know what im talking about when i ask for one , neigher do they ! then he has to go in and get it himself when i come home with the wrong size ..

Johro

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I have to admit I wasn't aware of such colloquial terms in established metric countries like the Netherlands.
Perhaps such terms actually have a practical daily use then?

Yup, 'pond' and 'ons' is in general use in Holland, you'd ask for a 'pond' of cheese rather than half a kilo, and an 'ons' or two, or half a 'pond' of ham. They were old weight measurements similar to the imperial pound and ounce until the metric system was introduced and a pound became 500g or half a kilo and an ounce 100g.

Johro

pickarooney wrote: »

Imperial is still better for literary purposes - "ten feet tall", "miles away" - for anything else it's just messy.
I mean who buys 0.03 ounces of cocaine?

I'd rather a Dutch ounce of weed than an Imperial one

CokaColumbo

I have no idea how heavy an ounce, gram, pound or kilogram actually is. I don't even know the difference between metric and imperial. A gram could be 10 ounces for all I know. I don't have a clue how long a mile or kilometre is either. They are utterly meaningless to me so it doesn't really matter what system we use.

deise go deo

A KG is very easy to visualize, Its a Bag of sugar.

Iwannahurl

CokaColumbo wrote: »

I have no idea how heavy an ounce, gram, pound or kilogram actually is. I don't even know the difference between metric and imperial. A gram could be 10 ounces for all I know. I don't have a clue how long a mile or kilometre is either. They are utterly meaningless to me so it doesn't really matter what system we use.

You might enjoy some of these then.

TanG411

I know some simple conversions:

1 Kg ~ 2.27 lb

1 In ~ 2.54 cm

For bodyweight, I use Stones and Pounds where 14lb = 1 stone

For food I use Grams and Kilos where 1000g = 1Kg (It's in the name really, Kilo is 'One Thousand'.)

For measuring lengths, like a person, I use feet and inches. 12in = 1 foot.

For measuring things like floorspace, then I use metres.

The only thing that I haven't got used to is speed. I know 1Km = 5/8 Miles, but when someone says a speed like 120Kmh, I have to convert it to 75Mph to get a sense of the speed. I'm playing Gran Turismo 5 in Km/h to try to get used to it.