NON-STANDARD MEASUREMENT UNITS

[BFcaster]

14 Imperial pounds, although it wasn't standardized until the 19th century.

A stone is 14lbs.
As in 'this Les Paul weighs a stone'.

Interesting that you both referred to Imperial pounds, and not kilos....

 

[BigDaddyLH]

Interesting that you both referred to Imperial pounds, and not kilos....

A stone is 6.35kg, not nearly as memorable as 14 pounds.

 

[notmyusualuserid]

Interesting that you both referred to Imperial pounds, and not kilos....

Because that's what a stone is.

You don't say you weigh 14 stones and 3 kilos. You're either 14st 6lb or 92kg.

 

[BFcaster]

Interesting, and I didn't realize 'stone' is actually Imperial.

 

[Bendyha]

Wales is a standard measurement, but so are whales. used for weight and size comparisons

The blue whale is as long as...
1 Boeing 737
3 double-decker buses
5 African elephants
11 Smart Cars
17 humans

The blue whale is as heavy as...
4 Boeing 737s
15 double-decker buses
40 African elephants
270 Smart Cars
3,333 humans

 

[ClashCityTele]

Interesting that you both referred to Imperial pounds, and not kilos....

I never mentioned 'Imperial'.
How many pints in a gallon? You wouldn't say 4.55 litres!

We don't use kilos & litres around here. That's for soft Southerners & the French!

 

[Masmus]

Yeah, that whole nautical measurement system is whacky. 'fæthm' was an old English word which meant 'outstretched arms', i.e. the distance between the outstretched fingertips. Whose fingertips though?

Weren't old English measures standardized under Henry VIII's rule?

If I remember right American measures are closer to those since we broke away in the 1770's and when the English standardizes their system in the 19th century we kept the old one.

I'm surprised no one has said so close I could hit it with a rock from here.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

I actually prefer metric for small things, like string height/action and even distance in some cases. What confuses me, as a long-time BBC America viewer (Clarkson's Top Gear), and Escape to the Country as well, is that sometimes you Brits use both. Do other common-wealth countries use both? Australia, New Zealand, Canada, territories in the Caribbean??

Canada is metric, but some things linger in the popular consciousness in Imperial. For example, people tend to refer to their height in feet and inches and their weight in pounds, but doctors record these in centimetres and kilograms.

I just grabbed a box of cereal and it says "350g with 3g of sugar per 30g serving"

My car shows speed in km/hr, temp in Celsius, and fuel efficiency in l/100km.

 

[aging_rocker]

I actually prefer metric for small things, like string height/action and even distance in some cases. What confuses me, as a long-time BBC America viewer (Clarkson's Top Gear), and Escape to the Country as well, is that sometimes you Brits use both. Do other common-wealth countries use both? Australia, New Zealand, Canada, territories in the Caribbean??

Many of my generation (including Clarkson, and me) are to this day, still thoroughly confused.

This is because we turned up to school one day at some point in the 1960s, and were told to forget all the 'Imperial' stuff we'd been taught previously, and from that day on we were going to use metric system like the Imperial stuff 'never happened'. I guess I'd have been 8 or 9 years old.

My parents generation, and all previous generations, were all Imperial, and my younger siblings were all metric. I was stuck firmly in numerical limbo, where I remain.

I still sometimes use both/either, particularly metric for small measurements and the old stuff for larger measurements, e.g. I can 'visualise' an inch, but not 25 millimetres, or 10 miles, but not 16 kilometres.

I can't speak for the rest of the 'colonies', but the situation is similar in New Zealand, even though (for instance) all the road signs, speedometers etc,. are in kilometres, lots of people still use 'miles' and 'feet' in conversation.

 

[String Tree]

Random New World Order Measurements.
Octave - 10 notes
Pound - 12 ounces
Ton - 1,700 Pounds
Scratched and Rented - Reliced

 

[billy logan]

The "far see"

A distance measurement. Somebody (probably in empty, flat west Texas) says "It's 3 far sees" that means go in a line, as far as you can see, 3 times. You know, to the visible horizon thrice.

I'm IN Texas but I had never heard that one, except on an interview show on TV. It was UK actor Hugh Laurie, relating lingo he learned on his road trip across the USA.

btw. His American accent is really good, ime. Oh, and he plays piano and guitar good, and likes N.O. LA roots music.

 

[metalicaster]

Many of my generation (including Clarkson, and me) are to this day, still thoroughly confused.

This is because we turned up to school one day at some point in the 1960s, and were told to forget all the 'Imperial' stuff we'd been taught previously, and from that day on we were going to use metric system like the Imperial stuff 'never happened'. I guess I'd have been 8 or 9 years old.

My parents generation, and all previous generations, were all Imperial, and my younger siblings were all metric. I was stuck firmly in numerical limbo, where I remain.

I still sometimes use both/either, particularly metric for small measurements and the old stuff for larger measurements, e.g. I can 'visualise' an inch, but not 25 millimetres, or 10 miles, but not 16 kilometres.

I can't speak for the rest of the 'colonies', but the situation is similar in New Zealand, even though (for instance) all the road signs, speedometers etc,. are in kilometres, lots of people still use 'miles' and 'feet' in conversation.

I can’t talk to my parents without a conversion table. It’s pretty cruel that the only thing we ever use imperial distances for ‘officially’ is driving. Imagine those poor teenagers taking their driving test today, having completed education without ever even hearing the word yard.

“What is the stopping distance from 40mph in yards?”

“What’s a yard? Is that a gnat’s foreskin or from here to the sun?”

65 is supposedly now the cutoff age in the UK to have been taught mediaeval units.

 

[Weazel]

How small is a smithereen?

 

[metalicaster]

I once calibrated a speedometer in furlongs/fortnight

I had a teacher who would assume any number given without a unit meant furlongs/fortnights/firkins.

 

[Teletubbie]

As long as we still buy plywood in the UK in sheets of 8 foot by 4 foot by 18mm I'll not participate in any conversations regarding measurements.

 

[ClashCityTele]

As long as we still buy plywood in the UK in sheets of 8 foot by 4 foot by 18mm I'll not participate in any conversations regarding measurements.

British WWI tanks were measured in feet & inches, but the armour thickness was in mm's, the machine gun ammo calibre was in inches & the cannon ammo was in pounds. Fuel consumption was in gallons per mile not miles per gallon.

 

[ClashCityTele]

How small is a smithereen?

Slightly less than a smither.

 

[ClashCityTele]

Many of my generation (including Clarkson, and me) are to this day, still thoroughly confused.

Why are the Top Gear team totally obsessed with the notion of 'Horse Power' (and torque to a lesser extent).
I am to a certain extent with old aircraft: 1914 80 h.p. engines; 1918 400 h.p. engines.
Later ones went faster & higher.

What on earth is 'Horse Power'.

 

[Crafty Fox]

Wow - meters you can still put coins in - how quaint In these parts you have to wave your phone/debit card at them while chanting something like "...just ****king work, you poxy bast**d..." The chant is optional, but I hear it used a lot.

I used to work with a gentleman of the Glaswegian persuasion many moons ago...who referred to very small measurements as being 'smaller than a ball hair's width'.

At least I think that's what he was saying

Yes that's roughly what he was saying. Or to paraphrase: wee-er than a baw herr.

 

[KeithDavies 100]

Saw a doc years ago - Whickers World, for those old enough to remember that! - about sonmewhere in Florida. Palm Beach, would it be? Anyway - mega expensive place, huge houses, for all the richest of the rich. The Woolworths heiress buys a plot there and wants to build a mansion to top them all.

She commissions a French architect who designs this absolutely enormous palace for her. The plans are then passed to American builders who fail to realise the dimensions are in centimetres rather than inches and proceed to build her absolutely enormous palace 2.54 times as big as it was supposed to be.