Mixed up units

BubbaP

BubbaP

Occasional Player of Golf
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
5,839
Location
Oxfordshire
Visit site
Was thinking how messed up I am with respect to various measures.

Playing golf, it is yards.
Driving, it is miles & miles per hour.
Fuel, I have mostly adjusted to litres when topping up, but still think of miles per gallon.

DIY measurements, I am metres, cm & mm.
But someone's height am most likely back to feet and inches.
Larger heights I favour metres (probably hang over from winter sports trips), someone posted about golf xx feet above sea level and it didn't resonate for me.

Pints for beer, ML for water.
Buying meat, fish, veg etc. am mostly okay with grammes these days.

Probably plenty more. Not alone in this am I?
Maybe living in the UK doesn't help!
 
Real head wrecker when golf courses put out marks in meters. Very common in the Republic of Ireland. You soon realise when you are at the 150 marker and come up really short only to realise distances are meters to front and the pin is actually at 180 yards because the green is massive.
 
palindromicbob said:
Real head wrecker when golf courses put out marks in meters. Very common in the Republic of Ireland. You soon realise when you are at the 150 marker and come up really short only to realise distances are meters to front and the pin is actually at 180 yards because the green is massive.
Click to expand...

Buy a DMD.

On the rare occasion I now play golf without my garmin watch, I am occasionally caught out when you work out your yardage wrong.
 
When it comes to own weight I can never think in kilos. I always have to reset the scales to stones and pounds.

As an ex engineer I can never think it cms it always has to be mms.
 
I'm X feet Y inches tall and x stones Y lbs in weight, I drink pints and my car goes x MPH and does X to the gallon, I measure rooms for carpet, wallpaper, wood etc in feet and inches, the fence panels I put up were 6 feet square.

Yet when I'm cooking weights and measures are kilograms grams, litres and millilitres,
 
londonlewis said:
Buy a DMD.

On the rare occasion I now play golf without my garmin watch, I am occasionally caught out when you work out your yardage wrong.
Click to expand...

Have one and this is one of the reasons why. Did have GPS but some courses weren't mapped right due to updates and stuff so got a laser.
 
When I had a real job I worked in mm, unless whatever I was measuring was large, in which case it was feet and inches.

I find it difficult working out remaining journey times when travelling in Spain. So used to gauging it in miles, this KM thing is just flippin' awkward.
 
Hobbit said:
When I had a real job I worked in mm, unless whatever I was measuring was large, in which case it was feet and inches.

I find it difficult working out remaining journey times when travelling in Spain. So used to gauging it in miles, this KM thing is just flippin' awkward.
Click to expand...

Divide by 8 Multiply by 5 gives you miles. :thup:
 
Hobbit said:
When I had a real job I worked in mm, unless whatever I was measuring was large, in which case it was feet and inches.

I find it difficult working out remaining journey times when travelling in Spain. So used to gauging it in miles, this KM thing is just flippin' awkward.
Click to expand...


Half it, then add a quarter is how I do it.

80 kms....... 1/2 is 40 miles, plus a quarter of 40 (10) = 50 miles.
 
Hobbit said:
When I had a real job I worked in mm, unless whatever I was measuring was large, in which case it was feet and inches.

I find it difficult working out remaining journey times when travelling in Spain. So used to gauging it in miles, this KM thing is just flippin' awkward.
Click to expand...

How old is your car? I have not driven one in years that does not show KPH as well as MPH on the speedo.
 
Timber & ironmongery! I have to buy 50mm nails - but i only ever use and hit 2 inch nails. And although the piece of wood in my shed is a piece of 4 by 2, I'll measure & cut it in centimetres.
 
backwoodsman said:
Timber & ironmongery! I have to buy 50mm nails - but i only ever use and hit 2 inch nails. And although the piece of wood in my shed is a piece of 4 by 2, I'll measure & cut it in centimetres.
Click to expand...

You'd be really confused in USA then! They call it a 2 by 4! And their gallon is less too - 5 UK gals = 6 US ones! Many of their words are 'reduced' too (e.g. colour/color). Supposedly, that was for simplification, but adding 'Ar' to 'Kansas' is a classic anomaly! And their version of 'bum-bag' is distinctly different! Even names can be entertaining...can you imagine a UK father opening the door to be informed 'Hi, I'm Randy and I'm here for a date with your daughter'!

The metric system DOES make far more sense though - even if 'traditional' systems were logically based! Cubit was supposedly length of middle finger to elbow - with some standard 'cubit rods' providing the consistency required to build pyramids etc! Foot was exactly that - length of a person's foot! Acre, furlong (and some others) came from ploughing attributes! Then, of course, there are Beer/Wine measurements!

There is definitely an argument for 'standards' that are simple!
 
Oh, and avoirdupois weights is a complete monster!

16 ounces in a pound; 14 pounds in a stone; 112 pounds in a 'hundredweight'!! and 20 hundredweight in a ton!

Metric system works much better, once it's committed to - something I've never really done! I still buy butter (Anchor of course!) by the pound (454gms) and check my weight in Stones and Pounds!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top