On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:46:30 +0100, "Bru Peckett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Not very accurate though. 21m x 2.1m would be closer to 70' x 7' but >accurately it's 21.336m x 2.1336 and most modern boats are 6'10 not 7' >which would be 2.0828m - both 7' and 6'10 when rounded to one decimal >place result in an identical metric measurement which is not very >useful! > NOW look here Mr P ;-) I know only too well what the size of historic boats are - the point I was trying to make there was how to visualize a metric size - I bet even you Bruce could not tell if a boat was 70 ft or 70 6.5 inches even if you were standing next to it. >I'm totally bilingual and will happilly work in whichever system seems >to suit the job at hand. I find metric measurement to be easier when >working to a high degree of accuracy but find I have a tendency to >revert to feet and inches for rough work. > Me too - I was at college in '68 and did MKS >It mattered not a jot whether we went metric or Europe went imperial. >What mattered is that a standard system of measurement was in use >throughout the Western world. The Americans are foolish in not going >metric IMO. Actually, their imperial measurements are bl**dy crazy too! >I've never understood why the US insisted on having pints, gallons, >miles etc. that were similar but different to the established imperial >measures. hence my point earlier about the guy who filled up with US gallons a nd then thought he had UK gallons - and promptly ran out of fuel. Long ago I made a conscious effort to think metric - because I was working abroad - well actually working for a British firm selling abroad. Like it or not we live in an international world. >What I do think is kind've stupid is clinging on to quantities etc. in >imperial measures but stating them in metric units - eg; 2.272 litres of >milk ie; 4 pints! Exactly - but I'm not sure what the tolerance is in Weights and measures. As a fellow real ale drinker - I'm sure you campaign for tighter control of pubs which regularly sell beer under a pint. By the way why is most wine sold in 70cl bottles - oh yes it comes from abroad most if it. :-) >To get back somewhere near on-topic (for a change) there is one area >where I do think it makes no sense at all to try and go metric and that >is in heritage situations dealing with structures, buildings and so on >that were built in feet and inches. You either end up dealing with >memorable (not) measurements down to the millimetre for accuracy or >horribly inaccurate approximations. If something was built 70 foot long >by 7 foot wide then it's 70'x7' not 21m x 2.1m or it's 21336mm x 21336mm >:-) was it 6' 8.5 , 6' 10". 6' 10.5", 7' - in otherwise what is the average size and mean deviation of all the narrow boats built. Oh yes those metric speed limit size to 3 decimal points - totally daft I agree. But even if the canals were designed and built to imperial - they were still all different sizes - their adherence to standards was not their brightest move. I bet BW architects and civil / mechanical, electrical engineers work in metric ??? All maritime charts are metric - and although I don't have the facts to proof it - I bet fewer bridge bashes occur because navigators get the tide tables wrong, but when I learned navigation in the Navy in 1973 - I'm 98% certain we were still using fathoms and feet !!!. But then again canal boaters almost contrarily do things differently to river and sea going sailors -even though hydrodynamics works exactly the same way for both - :-)) -- [ oh no not springs again ] What really puzzles me is why the country has really muddled it's way through the process. Those wonderful Victorian engineers - were the ones that started it all. The process started in about 1862 - long before the Common Market or EU. Interesting article here - http://www.metric.org.uk/ http://www.metric.org.uk/press/releases/pr070911.htm I think part of the reason many are against it now is that they perceive it as the EU telling us to change. All the EU is doing - or was - is saying get your act together - finish what you started. We adopted MKS units long before we joined the Common Market, we had a Metrication Board - which just failed to perform - or didn't have backing from government. -- Malcolm
