John Nicholls said: | I know my weight in stone, but not metric even though I first started in | metric in 1972 at school. | | And yes it was an advertisement. I was merely pointing out the use of | metric lengths but the stubborn hold to the unit of pressure. It will die | slowly, but using humour will hasten the death.
Although us British-born folk were brought up with the ifp system at school, you might like to know what made me convert. Everyone has their own reasons I suppose, but here's mine:- This is a true story about when I was 9 at school in Bideford, North Devon back in 1952. We all had the standard wooden rulers with 12 inches duly marked, but my attention was drawn to the printing down the middle of the ruler. It was a conversion table and said:- "10millimetres = 1 centimetre. 10 centimetres = 1 decimetre. 10 decimetres = 1 metre. 10 metres = 1 decametre. 10 decameters = 1 hectometre. 10 hectometres = 1 kilometre". And under it: "Made in England". I remember thinking "If these measurements are so much easier to use, why doesn't the teacher use them instead of inches?" The only answer I could get was "because we all use inches" which didn't seem like a logical answer to me. Ever since then I was fascinated by this easy system that nobody wanted to use, and the more no-one wanted to know about it the more interested I became. As I got older it seemed that it wasn't the done thing to use something made in France - so why were so many people driving Renaults and drinking French wines? As the teacher wasn't going to teach me to use centimetres etc, I was going to teach myself. And the more that we had to use non-base 10 measurements (especially the money system using 12s and 20s) the more I became disenchanted with England's preoccupation with things old, just for the sake of it. Needless to say I measured things in centimetres whenever I could, only because it was easier than using fractions. Adding, say, 1 1/8" to 3 5/64" was as difficult as adding "10s 6�d" to "�1 19 11�d" - not my cup of tea thank you very much. I did not like getting the wrong answer most of the time! I just wanted to let you know how a good British citizen like me got to become pro-metric and who is not a 'traitor' in any way. Just trying to make British people see some common sense in what should be a very simple exercise, i.e. using metres instead of yards. So I will always be thankful of the nice English gentleman who had the foresight to put the metric tables on our school rulers so soon after the war, and who therefore made it so much easier for me to have the right attitude to accept this system. I've never looked back! Regards Mike Joy
