Imperial vs Metric

[Zogbert Splod]

...Ounces of fluid, aint that a daft idea, almost as daft as American houswives using cups to measure their flour and other dry things with. (dont they ever tap their cups and watch the flour sink ! ? )

Oh yeah!  That was my hobby horse when I moved to Houston many years ago.  Lost count of the number of times I showed American ladies the difference between a cup of flour straight out of the bag and a cup of flour that had been sifted...
But, to get REALLY confyusticated, look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint
Now, try giving a sensible British recipe book to a next door (American) neighbour then sit back and listen for the howls of anguish... 

[joe cassidy]

Do you remember the old Lsd system of currency we had, with half pennies, threepenny bits, six pences, shillings, florins, halfcrowns, ten shilling notes and pound notes? I worked in a betting shop when decimalisation started with the 50p piece. Customers were terrified in case they didn't understand the metric system.

I was a kid when we changed over.

Still remember the jingles on TV :

"use your old coppers in sixpenny lots"

"give more, get change - do what you've always done !"

They were exciting times.

Best regards,


Joe

[Railwaygun]

ISTR that a Mars  probe crashed because the team used a mix of metric and Imperial (US) !!

http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/

[keerout]

I seem to remember an Airbus becoming a glider (above the ocean) becourse of a mess-up with fuel/metric/american pounds?
landed safely  on some mil. airstrip on a nowhere island I think...
Gerard 

[oscar]

One of the biggest cons in this country was decimalisation; it should have been based on the nearest note to a decimal, the ten bob note. 120 pennies = 100 new ones, not 240!

Devaluation by stealth......

[PostModN66]

I seem to remember an Airbus becoming a glider (above the ocean) becourse of a mess-up with fuel/metric/american pounds?
landed safely  on some mil. airstrip on a nowhere island I think...
Gerard 

You might be thinking of the "Gimli Glider" - a Canadian 767: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

Cheers Jon 

[DesertHound]

I seem to remember an Airbus becoming a glider (above the ocean) becourse of a mess-up with fuel/metric/american pounds?
landed safely  on some mil. airstrip on a nowhere island I think...
Gerard 

Hi Keerout

That above incident was actually due to a fuel leak and the subsequent transfer of fuel. I'm not aware of measurements being related, but please share any further info. you have. You are indeed correct in that it made a landing on a military airfield in the Azores. That was Lajes.

Feel free to send me a private message if we're taking this too far off topic.

EDIT: yup, I think Postmod's got it right with the 767.


Dan

[Agrippa]

One of the biggest cons in this country was decimalisation; it should have been based on the nearest note to a decimal, the ten bob note. 120 pennies = 100 new ones, not 240!
Devaluation by stealth......

Not quite, the basic currency unit the pound stayed at the same value, the decimalisation
was just cutting the cake in a different way, whether it was 100, 200, or 240 pence to the pound.

[oscar]

You don't remember the subtle price increases and the 'rounding up' that happened?

[Agrippa]

It happened during a period of rampant inflation, the rounding up would should
only have amounted to a few pence and prices would have gone up anyway.
Any subtle price increases were offset by scrapping a mediaeval system and
at the same time the guinea which a big con used by lawyers etc  was wiped out.
I was working in an accountants office at the time and decimalisation made
the work much easier despite the old fogeys moanin and groanin about the good
old days.

[Yet_Another]

You don't remember the subtle price increases and the 'rounding up' that happened?

That's slightly different to devaluation. Partly caused by the problem of 2d = 1p but 5p = 12d. Rounding up also happened when the half penny was got rid of.

Let's face it, if you were selling stuff, would you round up or down?

[NeMo]

You don't remember the subtle price increases and the 'rounding up' that happened?

My dad told me about this, many, MANY times.

But the problem was that the background level of inflation during the 70s meant that prices went up quite frequently, so it's hard to say whether the overnight rise in prices was really traders ripping off customers on the one hand or the effect of inflation on the other.

Cheers, NeMo

[Agrippa]

The main thing about decimalisation, which by the way is nothing to do
with the topic title, is that it was a good thing and should have happened
years before it did. To people who weren't around at the time the £sd
system is like something from ancient times.

[MalcolmInN]

like something from ancient times.

I could say "Oi mind who yer callin ancient", or I could say " yup I feel really really ancient "  heheee 

But actually, talking of inflation in the Heath era, ( which I know is not in the Subject either ! ) not to mention Healy (RIP) and those price and wages spirals, resulted in my phenominally large mortgage of a few years previously almost suddenly almost overnight became insignificant and got paid off easypeasy !
Even the Brazilians ( where I spent a little time ), who were not exactly used to a stable currency, thought it a great source of amusement.

[Agrippa]

Those were the days, bring back hansom cabs, gas lamps, the Krays,
and the silver threepenny bits.