Imperial measurements

[medhead]

I know someone has mentioned national measurements legislation. Many years ago at a past workplace there was some concern about the use of non-SI units like curies, rems, rads, and roentgens. A policy person investigated the national measurement legislation requirements and it turns out that it was perfectly acceptable to use non-SI units in Australia.

 

[Foreigner]

I reckon hotel pools can do with both imperial and metric in indicating depths. Will save lives and losses through claims.

 

[anat0l]

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

In Switzerland (and, I'd imagine, a few other European places where they have stores), Subway sandwiches are marketed in 15 cm and 30 cm variants, rather than 6 inches and 1 foot. When it is ordered, most of the time, they say "small" or "large", not the measurement of the sandwich desired.

 

[TomVexille]

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.

Are you sure? When I was doing GA flying in the US airspeed was in knots.

 

[flying_duck]

Airspeed and height in skydiving (including physical altimeters) are in feet and knots. I believe that is worldwide. Probably for similar purposes - most manufacturers of equipment are US based. Also, there are plenty of places that don't advertise the metric measurement next to the imperial measurement, although I understand the UK is more stringent on that than we are.

 

[prozac]

Well now I am not...my comment was based on interaction with a number of US based a/c owner pilots who persist in quoting airspeed in mph. That said I have just had a quick look at the Cessna and Maule website. Maule still specify performance in mph with knots in brackets. I have seen older Maules with ASI in mph and newer models fitted with ASI in knots. Cessna quote performance now in knots with (kmh) in brackets. Looks like a mixed bag.

 

[prozac]

Piper used mph in older (post war) US a/c ASI. See link to Cub site - http://www.pipercubforum.com/cubdash.htm

Here is a modern panel layout for a Supercub. Note the ASI primary calibration in mph with a smaller inner display indicating knots.

 

[Moopere]

Canada is a metric country, right?

Well, only so far. I have been involved in the design and engineering of an industrial plant in Canada - designed by a Canadian engineering firm, for a Canadian client, in Canada.

Yet, the plant has been largely specced in imperial units.

No prizes for guessing why - many of the components are sourced from the USA, including most of the internal machines and equipment.

Ha! This makes me laugh and takes me back.

Many years ago I was involved in some work off the gulf of Mexico. It involved commissioning some equipment that had originally been built in the UK and Australia. Somehow all the tools required for the job went missing, or weren't sent so we had to source locally.

The USA is a wonderful and energetic place, you can pretty much buy anything, any time, anywhere - but when I went to a professional tool shop to buy several sets of metric spanners and sockets I was told "sorry, we only sell standard tools here" ... that made me smile and I still remember it now ... of course I know the context he was using, standard for the USA, but it still made me laugh a little on the inside given that almost the entire world has long converted to the metric system.

 

[SeatBackForward]

Who's this Ric that everyone but met has had a meeting with.

 

[Mattg]

I must admit, I don't really know how many centimetres "30 inch seat pitch" or "32 inch seat pitch" equals to (exactly). But I do know that 29 inches = poor legroom and 32+ inches = good legroom (for Y).

 

[Hermes]

Few posters have dealt with my OP, but I'll bet a penny to a pound that those who have, and those who espouse inches, mph and the like, were brought up in imperial days, I certainly was, and still know how long a foot etc is, but I am trying to live in the present which, in Australia, is metric. Mrs Hermes, also brought up an imperialist, has a fanciful notion that The Age and the SMH use the old measures as a sop to online readers in the US, but suspect the poster closest to the mark was the one who said the papers are merely copying and pasting info handouts from the makers of the aircraft.

 

[marki]

In Switzerland (and, I'd imagine, a few other European places where they have stores), Subway sandwiches are marketed in 15 cm and 30 cm variants, rather than 6 inches and 1 foot. When it is ordered, most of the time, they say "small" or "large", not the measurement of the sandwich desired.

I believe they have changed to the small and large vernacular due to false advertising. A foot long sandwhich was shorter hence and did not fit the advertising of x foot long. Somebody sued them over it. ( MMV )

 

[anat0l]

Few posters have dealt with my OP, but I'll bet a penny to a pound that those who have, and those who espouse inches, mph and the like, were brought up in imperial days, I certainly was, and still know how long a foot etc is, but I am trying to live in the present which, in Australia, is metric. Mrs Hermes, also brought up an imperialist, has a fanciful notion that The Age and the SMH use the old measures as a sop to online readers in the US, but suspect the poster closest to the mark was the one who said the papers are merely copying and pasting info handouts from the makers of the aircraft.

Actually - and I think I gave a response to your OP - I was brought up on metric. I learned about some imperial through some activity books that were produced for US kids, the rulers we had strewn through the house that were calibrated in both scales, and through my parents (one is imperial-fluent, the other metric).

If I need to get some perspective on the size (etc) of something in imperial, I need to convert it to metric, sometimes a fairly dirty conversion. For example, I know a foot is about 30 cm (actually 30.48 cm), since dual-calibrated school rulers came like this. This is OK for some of the basic ones, but if you ask me how many metres in 50 furlongs, I'll have to look it up. Same with fluid ounces, which I haven't committed to memory. And whilst I know water boils at 212 deg F, body temperature is about 100 deg F, water freezes at 32 deg F and it's numerically equal at -40 deg F... I still need to take a bit of time to convert temperatures, e.g. weather forecasts, recipes...

I remember one time in an engineering tutorial - and although 97% of our work is in metric, we were expected to be fluent in converting imperial to metric if needed (using a conversion guide sheet as necessary) - we were given a heat transfer problem where the numbers were all imperial. So being studious as I was, I converted all the measurements to metric - the longest bit - then proceeded with the problem. Then I read the second part of the question that asked for the answer in metric. I realised then that the problem would be considerably easier - i.e. the numbers would have meant the problem would have been solvable without a calculator - had I left the numbers in imperial, solved it, resolved the units then converted the final answer to metric.