Imperial measurements

[jb747]

Let's hope it is not measured in tons then.

In my world, it is. Tonnes, anyway.

Aviation mixes the two standards. Nautical miles are also used. As often as not, the reason for any particular system is simply one of convenience. Imperial altitudes give nice round thousands as a useful separation standard. Nautical miles relate to the mapping standard used on the Earth. Knots for the same reason.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Of course standards do lead to problems sometimes.

BBC News | Sci/Tech | Confusion leads to Mars failure

 

[TheRealTMA]

Fahrenheit (°F) or Celsius (°C) ?

I can't come to terms with the big F.

Just stick to -40 and you'll be safe!

 

[TomVexille]

... and one of the major (if perhaps the biggest and oldest) players in the aircraft game is based in the US. Competitively or commercially, it probably didn't make sense for, say, Airbus, to try and market their craft in metric and forcing their potential customers to try and decide between two totally different looking sets of numbers (although that said, most of those numbers likely involve a mixture of imperial and metric measurements!).

Important point. Historically until Airbus became a player in the market, almost all of the major manufacturers were American. Boeing, McDonnell, Douglass, Lockheed Martin and Convair to name a couple.

 

[prozac]

Important point. Historically until Airbus became a player in the market, almost all of the major manufacturers were American. Boeing, McDonnell, Douglass, Lockheed Martin and Convair to name a couple.

As indicated in my earlier post Airbus stick with the industry standard on their website even when a European language option is selected. The printed media is only regurgitating the information they have been provided in the press release by the aircraft manufacturer.

 

[Foreigner]

Just stick to -40 and you'll be safe!

I'll go for centigrade. That's metric right?

 

[medhead]

Found myself reading a report recently that used SI units. As I was on a plane and didn't have references to hand I found myself wishing they'd used the non-SI unit: WL months.

 

[kelvedon]

Canada's West Jet has dispensed with the confusing 24 hour clock and moved over to Decimal time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcbO3hl3_F0

 

[jb747]

Canada's West Jet has dispensed with the confusing 24 hour clock and moved over to Decimal time.

Star date?

 

[prozac]

Very funny.
I like their Kargo Kids program...no more pesky critters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcbO3hl3_F0
"Introducing Kargo Kids, an exciting new program allowing guests to travel on select child-free flights, creating a quieter and more relaxing inflight experience, while children travel in a "special VIP" area of the aircraft."

 

[kelvedon]

Star date?

I believe the implementation date was early April.

 

[andye]

My Lancastrian neighbour tells me he got off the plane in the 1980s, walked into a Sydney pub and asked for a pint of beer

Barmaid said, "We only have schooners"

Neighbour, "I'll have a pint of schooners then"

 

[JohnK]

I hit a 260m drive but miss a 2 foot putt. Go figure....

 

[dk4]

Interestingly, frequent flyer currencies are often based on statute miles, even in metric countries. Very few programmes - LAN LANPASS comes to mind - are based on metric units.

Ansett and Qantas both use to use kilometre based points earning (last century)...up until Ansett went belly up, and a Qantas bean counter proposed "if we move to miles, then we can rip our frequent fliers off with an almost 40% devaluation, and mask it as an enhancement". (And so started the culture of "enhancement" at Qantas.)


In regards to seat distance measurements - I have always wondered if the seat tracks in the floor have ratchet slots in them, and if so are they physically positioned at half inch intervals? Maybe that is why inches are used to define seat pitch in the industry?

 

[Foreigner]

I hit a 260m drive but miss a 2 foot putt. Go figure....

,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[prozac]

....

In regards to seat distance measurements - I have always wondered if the seat tracks in the floor have ratchet slots in them, and if so are they physically positioned at half inch intervals? Maybe that is why inches are used to define seat pitch in the industry?

The female form is still expressed imperially.

Maybe expressing seat pitch imperially is a male idea so passengers believe they are getting more than there really is available.

 

[medhead]

The nautical mile is an interesting one - related to one minute of arc on the meridian. minutes of arc is SI, so is NM both imperial and SI?

more seriously due to the navigational importance of NM it seems that unit is accepted within the SI system. At least according to wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile

A nautical mile (symbol M, NM or nmi) is a unit of distance, set by international agreement as being exactly 1,852 meters (about 6,076 feet). Historically, it was defined as the distance spanned by one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth (north-south), and developed from the sea mile and the related geographical mile.

It is a non-SI unit (although accepted for use in the International System of Units by the BIPM), and is commonly used in international law and treaties, especially regarding the limits of territorial waters.

​

The nautical mile is also generally used by navigators at sea and in the air,[SUP][1][/SUP] and also in polar exploration, and remains in use worldwide because of its convenience when working with charts.[SUP][2][/SUP] Most nautical charts use the Mercator projection whose scale varies by about a factor of 6 from the equator to 80° latitude, so charts covering large areas cannot use a single linear scale.[SUP][3][/SUP] The nautical mile is nearly equal to a minute of latitude on a chart, so a distance measured with a chart divider can be roughly converted to nautical miles using the chart's latitude scale.

 

[Foreigner]

Subway, the fast food chain, sells Subs as foot-long and six-in but the nutritional values are expressed in metric form:

https://www.subway.com.au/menu/traditional-subs/veggie-patty

 

[TomVexille]

Subway, the fast food chain, sells Subs as foot-long and six-in but the nutritional values are expressed in metric form:

https://www.subway.com.au/menu/traditional-subs/veggie-patty

There's something about saying 15.24cm sub that just rolls off the tongue...

 

[prozac]

The nautical mile is an interesting one - related to one minute of arc on the meridian. minutes of arc is SI, so is NM both imperial and SI?

more seriously due to the navigational importance of NM it seems that unit is accepted within the SI system. At least according to wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile

Air miles are generally related in knots (nautical miles per hour) in many countries except in US general aviation (unsure about commercial aviation in US...JB747?) where they seem to be in the dark ages using mph.