More metric hijinks.

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Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Will you people please stop with your logic and precision. I will never convert, there's 5280 feet in a mile for a reason.

CLICK

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:58 pm

Agreed!

Cutie pastor wrote:

there's 5280 feet in a mile for a reason.

It's so a drag race can be a nice even 440 yards, right?

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:03 pm

No, its so a cricket pitch can be 22 yards! (Or a chain - you don't get Metric ones AFIK)

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:33 pm

Wow, you people can toss a cricket 1/80 of a mile? I'm impressed.

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:41 pm

Did someone say midget tossing? My record is 36.125" not sure what that converts to as a fraction of the arc of the Paris meridian.

Edit: meant to clarify that was in the 35-45 lb weight class. Once again I don't know how many cubic decimeters of water that converts to. We only use the metric system here in the US for illegal drugs.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Yeah
you'll never get me converting from mony a mickle maks a muckle

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:18 pm

Lets hear it for spans and cubits!!!!

Embarassed

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

and furlongs

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:54 pm

Rods...

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

We could get tied up in knots in this thread

Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:26 pm

They'll Bar us all. Shocked

Mods, have a Grain of pity. Wink

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:53 am

Pastor Frank wrote:

Will you people please stop with your logic and precision. I will never convert, there's 5280 feet in a mile for a reason.

CLICK

And there is a very good reason too!

The measurement known as a mile is a vestige of the Roman Empire's rule over Britain. At this time, the Romans had a measurement known as mille pasuum (ME-lay PA-soo-em), or a thousand paces. A pace comprised five, possibly sandal shod, Roman feet. Using a simple mathematical calculation, we arrive at 5,000 feet per mile.

The demise of the Roman Empire left the Britons in a quandary. They now had a mile, consisting of 5,000 feet, and their own agricultural measurement, the furlong, used to measure the farmers' fields for the purpose of property deeds, etc. Instead of using the Roman foot in calculating the measure of a furlong, they used the distance a horse could pull a plow, in a linear fashion, before the nag needed a nap. They agreed that this measurement consisted 660 feet.

Now came the dilemma. The British wished to marry the furlong to the mile, but, as they wanted a mile to comprise eight furlongs, totaling 5,280 feet, instead of the Roman 5,000 feet per mile, they had no choice but to select one of the two. Not surprisingly, they chose their measurement over the Roman measurement because, as property deeds at the time were measured in furlongs, or 660 feet, a change to the Roman measurement would short the farmer or landowner.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:11 am

I will Mark all this historical stuff down, though i might need a Hand, as i can't Fathom it.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:27 am

I'm clearly out of my league here.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:55 am

Wow Rooted that was a ton of information.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:56 am

bravo95 wrote:

We only use the metric system here in the US for illegal drugs.

And legal alcohol. Wink

But in its infinite wisdom, the Treasury Department requires that alcohol be bottled in metric units, but all production and import reports must be filed in gallons. Confused

When I worked as a wine importer years ago I had to file monthly reports of all my imports and calculate the total quantity of each shipment from 9 liters per case to 2.3775 gallons, then multiply by the number of cases per shipping container.

Question for the US geezers: who remembers when wine and liquor was sold by the "fifth"? That was 25.6 fl. oz., versus today's standard 750ml bottle which holds 25.361 fl. oz. I can well remember the huge battle the liquor industry put up when metric bottling was first proposed. The new bottles were called "cheater bottles" because they shorted the consumer by nearly a quarter of an ounce compared to traditional bottles. Shocked

Somehow the public failed to become outraged by this heinous shortfall, and ultimately producers realized that they would come out way ahead if they went metric and sold the new bottles at the same prices as the former fifths. They saved 3 ounces per case, or 14 gallons in a typical 600 case truckload.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:16 am

Very interesting Juan. I only drink adult beverages in 12 or 40 ounce containers so I never thought about the evil metric system creeping into our alcohol.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 2:58 am

That's right -- under Federal law, beer is still packaged in ounces but liquor and wine must be packaged in milliliters. That's logical, right? Rolling Eyes

Packaging Regulations for Alcoholic Beverages

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:20 am

Can you still get a "slug" of whisky like in the old movies?

Am i going to regret asking that? (cue post with bottle of spirit containing gastropod) puke

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:39 am

I think this thread will remain a high caliber one.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 10:25 am

Quote:

We only use the metric system here in the US for illegal drugs.

Also the larger bottles of pop (2 liter), car engine volumes, film and lenses. Btu what do I know.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 12:51 pm

Your right! This metric system infiltration is worst than I thought. Watt I'm going to just hide out in my hohm until it's all over.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:05 pm

Quote:

This metric system infiltration is worst than I thought.

I know. It keeps pecking away at life as we know it.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:10 pm

This is no way to conduct ourselves, no Mho of this,i can't take it, any Moh's just too hard, i got no strength, no force left, it's killing me, i'm Dyne here.
I'm joining the navy, a Siemens life for me.

Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 1:51 pm

this thread has many fine points