I'll tell you what annoys me - when a report mixes metric and imperial measurements and when its very hot and suddenly Fahrenheit is back in fashion!
It's funny when the reporter has very obviously converted a measurement into metric and got it wrong! Or what was obviously just a rough estimate in inches or feet is converted into a precise measurement in metric units.
A previous government tried to force metric on the UK by using the power of law to harass people over quite trivial matters. Understandably this just increased opposition to the use of metric units when they could have done like most other countries and allowed people to choose the most suitable unit for a particular measurement.
The OP is young and, unlike us oldies, obviously has difficulty in mentally converting between metric and imperial. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter which units are used, but for some things I think imperial is more suitable than metric such as pints of beer, height and weight, and metric more suitable for other things like lengths of fabric. Different units have a different impact such as a baby weighing 7 pounds or 10 pounds more impact, and therefore meaning, than one weighing 3.175 kg or 4.5 kg.
The OP wasn't born when we converted to decimal currency, and many of us don't have difficulty comparing old and new prices - everything seemed cheaper in pounds, shillings and pence even though it probably wasn't - or converting between metric and imperial. Really made me laugh when my nephew asked how a comic could be in 3D, when that was the price of it in 1969!
As for using the American system of cups for cooking, that makes more sense than any other system because it's based on comparisons, not on weight. Doesn't matter what size your cup is - it can be egg cup sized or pint sized - the proportions remain the same provided you use the same cup for all measurements in one recipe. You don't have to calculate how much of everything you need to downsize a recipe for six people into a recipe for two - just use a smaller cup. Eliminates mistakes.
The OP is young and, unlike us oldies, obviously has difficulty in mentally converting between metric and imperial. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter which units are used, but for some things I think imperial is more suitable than metric such as pints of beer, height and weight, and metric more suitable for other things like lengths of fabric. Different units have a different impact such as a baby weighing 7 pounds or 10 pounds more impact, and therefore meaning, than one weighing 3.175 kg or 4.5 kg.
The OP wasn't born when we converted to decimal currency, and many of us don't have difficulty comparing old and new prices - everything seemed cheaper in pounds, shillings and pence even though it probably wasn't - or converting between metric and imperial. Really made me laugh when my nephew asked how a comic could be in 3D, when that was the price of it in 1969!
As for using the American system of cups for cooking, that makes more sense than any other system because it's based on comparisons, not on weight. Doesn't matter what size your cup is - it can be egg cup sized or pint sized - the proportions remain the same provided you use the same cup for all measurements in one recipe. You don't have to calculate how much of everything you need to downsize a recipe for six people into a recipe for two - just use a smaller cup. Eliminates mistakes.
Measurement should not be about conversions from one system of measurement to another.
Most countries throughout the world use only one system of measurement. They have the advantage of not needing to convert. They use the international language of measurement, the metric system.
In most situations they have a clear perception of what a measurement is, and how to describe that measurement to not only their neighbour, but also globally through the internet to the world.
Regarding cups and cooking. Most professional chefs and cooks will use metric (kilograms and grams) because weight/mass is a more precise unit for all types of ingredients. The cup is a unit of volume not weight, and different ingredients have different volumes, when measured by cup, but have consistent weight.
[QUOTE=wjong;73549867
No .. Not all air traffic control heights throughout the world are measured in thousands of feet. China and Russia are exceptions they use metres.
And most measurements in aviation are measured in metric.
Aircraft weight, fuel weight, runway length, air temperature, air pressure, are all measured in metric. The only exceptions are aircraft height (feet), visibility ( mile and sometimes nautical mile) and most times wind speed (knots).
g.[/QUOTE]
IIRC, there was an air incident caused by mixing up fuel on a flight - aircrew measured by imperial, fuel deliverer went by metric (or it was the other way round) - the mix up meant the plane ran out of fuel half way across its journey
Babies are all weighed in Kgs and then their weigh tis converted to pounds and ounces. All parents, apart from those from other countries, always ask for the pounds and ounces weight.
Babies are all weighed in Kgs and then their weigh tis converted to pounds and ounces. All parents, apart from those from other countries, always ask for the pounds and ounces weight.
True.. And there is a very good reason why new born babies are weighed in grams.
The gram is a very small unit and is more precise compared to the ounce. 28 g = 1 ounce.
Variations in weight, are early indications as to the health of new born babies.
Often when a baby loses weight it's an indication of an unwell baby.
Because the gram is smaller than the ounce, and more precise, it's a better unit to monitor, small variations in weight that occur with babies.
Measurement should not be about conversions from one system of measurement to another.
Most countries throughout the world use only one system of measurement. They have the advantage of not needing to convert. They use the international language of measurement, the metric system.
In most situations they have a clear perception of what a measurement is, and how to describe that measurement to not only their neighbour, but also globally through the internet to the world.
Regarding cups and cooking. Most professional chefs and cooks will use metric (kilograms and grams) because weight/mass is a more precise unit for all types of ingredients. The cup is a unit of volume not weight, and different ingredients have different volumes, when measured by cup, but have consistent weight.
I would have thought that most countries use one particular unit to measure one item in a particular context but that unit can be either metric or imperial/local depending on which has been found to be most suitable. There seem to be lots of examples around the world where non-metric units are used for some measurements because they have been found to be most convenient.
There seem to be lots of examples around the world where non-metric units are used for some measurements because they have been found to be most convenient.
When I was in the prestigious Stockmanns department store in Tampere, Finland recently, I could have bought a 42 inch television. What's that in centimetres? I don't know and neither do the Finns - the inch measurement only was given. The bar over the road was selling exotic foreign beers: Newcastle Brown and Guinness. These were sold by the pint, whereas the local Lapin Kulta was sold by the decilitre.
Measurement should not be about conversions from one system of measurement to another. Most countries throughout the world use only one system of measurement. They have the advantage of not needing to convert. They use the international language of measurement, the metric system.
In most situations they have a clear perception of what a measurement is, and how to describe that measurement to not only their neighbour, but also globally through the internet to the world.
Regarding cups and cooking. Most professional chefs and cooks will use metric (kilograms and grams) because weight/mass is a more precise unit for all types of ingredients. The cup is a unit of volume not weight, and different ingredients have different volumes, when measured by cup, but have consistent weight.
Tell that to the USA. If they had used the "international language of measurement" there wouldn't have been mismatches of components on the International Space Station. Measurement aren't international, they're national and need to be agreed between nations for a particular joint project.
As for cups and cooking, even professional cooks say that the US system of cups is more useful when quantities have to be increased or decreased. Metric or imperial measurements are fine if the recipe is always produced in the same quantities (or halved or doubled) as originally written, and I'm sure you're not suggesting that they think a volume of sugar weights the same as the same volume of flour. Try accurately reducing an ingredient in a traditional recipe from the 1940s of 7 oz (or 198.45 grams) for 8 portions to 3 portions by weight - much easier to reduce 8 cups to 3 (whatever size cup you choose to use).
And what we generally refer to as weight is actually mass, because the mass will be the same wherever it is, but weight will vary depending on gravity where the object is weighed.
Cups is an absolutely appaling system for baking. It works well for liquids but with solids like flour the density can shift massively from settling or aeration. There's a great shift towards weights in recipes by the newer generation who want reproducable results.
Got a lot of email friends around the world (USA, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, South Africa, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, e.t.c.) where we swap recipes, and we all use cups for consistent results. Haven't had a failure yet.
Tell that to the USA. If they had used the "international language of measurement" there wouldn't have been mismatches of components on the International Space Station. Measurement aren't international, they're national and need to be agreed between nations for a particular joint project.
There are some famous examples of errors in conversions but I have always been suspicious that there are far more errors within metric measurements, confusion between centimetres, millimetres, metres etc which rarely happens with inches, feet, yards etc.
Cups is an absolutely appaling system for baking. It works well for liquids but with solids like flour the density can shift massively from settling or aeration. There's a great shift towards weights in recipes by the newer generation who want reproducable results.
I wonder if the availability of cheap digital weighing devices is a factor? You can read off the weight very accurately and quickly compensate for the weight of the container.
It's true, there is no metric equivalent to the imperial foot, but there doesn't need to be.
If television and film studios are measured in metric feet, then they are measured in millimetres, or possibly metres and millimetres.
No .. Not all air traffic control heights throughout the world are measured in thousands of feet. China and Russia are exceptions they use metres.
And most measurements in aviation are measured in metric.
Aircraft weight, fuel weight, runway length, air temperature, air pressure, are all measured in metric. The only exceptions are aircraft height (feet), visibility ( mile and sometimes nautical mile) and most times wind speed (knots).
Metrication doesn't change old traditional names like Mille Miglia and the Livre is 500 g.
Aviation visibility is reported and judged in metres, also the separation distance rule is in feet.
There are some famous examples of errors in conversions but I have always been suspicious that there are far more errors within metric measurements, confusion between centimetres, millimetres, metres etc which rarely happens with inches, feet, yards etc.
Errors can occur with any measurement, regardless of the system of measurement, and humans are not perfect.
However if the measurer, fully knows, metric measures, and the instrument, he/she uses to measure, then errors are minimal.
The metre is the metric base unit for measuring linear length/distance, area, and volume. Centimetres, and millimetres, are scalable divisors of the metre, and the kilometre is a scalable multiple of the metre. The metre is the unit, not centimetres, millimetres, or kilometres. However, errors can be minimised by using whole numbers, and removing the decimal fraction.
For example. 1.83 m should be 183 cm
or 2.453 m should be 2453 mm
or 1.456 km should be 1456 m
However, errors can be minimised by using whole numbers, and removing the decimal fraction.
For example. 1.83 m should be 183 cm
or 2.453 m should be 2453 mm
or 1.456 km should be 1456 m
Actually, using powers of 10 other than in multiples of 3 (positive or negative) is deprecated. So centimetres should not be used scientifically - 1.83m should be expressed as 1830mm.
Prefixes corresponding to an exponent that is divisible by three are often recommended. Hence "100 m" rather than "1 hm" (hectometre) or "10 dam" (decametres). The "non-three" prefixes (hecto-, deca-, deci-, and centi-) are however more commonly used for everyday purposes than in science.
Actually, using powers of 10 other than in multiples of 3 (positive or negative) is deprecated. So centimetres should not be used scientifically - 1.83m should be expressed as 1830mm.
I agree
The most widely used numbering system worldwide is the power of ten decimal system. By convention it's usual to group columns or powers in groups of three.
For example.. 567 543 323.965 345 (both to the left of the decimal point.. multiples.. and to the right of the decimal point ..divisors, are in groups of three numbers).
One of the basics of the metric system is to use the decimal system within its structure, and " the groups of three" is applied within the metric system structure.
However suffixes deca, hecto, deci, and centi, are the exceptions to this rule, and are generally not used as much, as the other suffixes.
Although the metric system and it's measures are universal, there are different ways on how it's used, and different countries put different emphasis on different suffixes.
For example ..In Europe, particularly in Scandinavian countries, emphasis is put on the centilitre, (cL) and centimetre, (cm) whereas in Australia and New Zealand the centilitre is not so usual, and is replaced by the millilitre, (mL) and the centimetre although there are exceptions, has been replaced by the millimetre (mm). The centimetre is used to measure body measurements, height and waist etc, and clothing sizes.
The millilitre, and the millimetre, follow the three grouping rule.
From an Australian perspective the following link explains the reasons for using millimetres rather then centimetres.
Aren't the equipment racks still 19 inches and equipment mounted on the rack is measured in units of 1U (1.75 inches).
aye, anything standardized before the mid 1970's i'd imagine would be pretty much done in imperial measurements and racks were standardized with the phone system hardware of the day pre ww2 and the Bletchley park computers were built using phone system parts to save money & secrecy reasons, but for a lot of things its best to use the measurement system it was originally designed in not trying to work out a 6'6" door is 198.12cm etc as those small errors will soon creep up and make everything wrong when you have to bodge it a bit to make the metric door fit the imperial frame
I knew a Swedish lad who was metric to the core except for snow depth in winter as for some reason the foot was a much more expressive term to him and i suppose a 6 foot snow fall sounds better than 1.9 m when you're trying to blag a snow day off from work
I will never in my life understand people who get their knickers in a twist about imperial measurements. What business is it of yours how people choose to measure things? If units can be agreed for construction projects etc. then there's no problem. People think of things in different ways, some can visualise distance better in yards & miles, some in km. Some (most) prefer beer & drinks in pints.
I'm in my mid-20s, and learnt both imperial and metric at school. I use both and can convert between them quite easily (although I never need to do it any more than roughly), as can many other people. I don't care if you don't like doing it. Don't if you don't want to, but leave my and my miles, inches and lbs and ozs alone.
I'm in my mid-20s, and learnt both imperial and metric at school.
Interesting because I am in the 50's and was exclusively taught metric measures at school. They were explicit about the reasons even to me as a child - there was no point in teaching either conversions or the Imperial system as the first could lead to confusion, and the latter because the UK would be all metric by 1975, along with the rest of the Commonwealth as agreed 10 years or so earlier.
Cups is an absolutely appaling system for baking. It works well for liquids but with solids like flour the density can shift massively from settling or aeration. There's a great shift towards weights in recipes by the newer generation who want reproducable results.
Indeed it is. Unlike most other cooking methods, baking is heavily reliant on precision for the associated chemistry to work correctly. A good cake-maker will weigh the eggs for a recipe.
It is true that we have ended up with a mixture of imperial and metric weights/measures but I think it is a question of horses for courses. Pounds and ounces works well for baby weights as people can visualise it easily and there is not the need for absolute precision (to the gramme) that metric provides. I find metric is good for cooking, especially where precision is needed and the conversions, for some reason, seem quite easy to make - I know that 1lb = 454g and so on.
My dad was an engineer for about 30 years and had loads of tools in both metric and imperial as he needed to work on both measurements and the smallest errors could mean a piece of equipment wouldn't work properly and when you're talking 100's of grand equipment for big manufacturing companies you follow the plans be they imperial or metric or god help us when someones gone half and half, so basically if the plans say a 6/17th hole drilled 2 inches deep then a 6/17th drill is got and used or if it say a 6mm drill 5cm deep its used
theres a hell of a lot old equipment built to imperial measurements out there so people need to know what they are so it can be fixed properly
Indeed it is. Unlike most other cooking methods, baking is heavily reliant on precision for the associated chemistry to work correctly. A good cake-maker will weigh the eggs for a recipe.
It is true that we have ended up with a mixture of imperial and metric weights/measures but I think it is a question of horses for courses. Pounds and ounces works well for baby weights as people can visualise it easily and there is not the need for absolute precision (to the gramme) that metric provides. I find metric is good for cooking, especially where precision is needed and the conversions, for some reason, seem quite easy to make - I know that 1lb = 454g and so on.
Well I must just be an intuitive baker. I always use large eggs (of whatever size!) and judge how much of each ingredient by eye. I'm considered an excellent cook. I've also just received a recipe for a variation on pecan pie from an American friend. How do you suggest I convert the quantities in cups into weight. I won't - I'll use volume as the original recipe.
Comments
It's funny when the reporter has very obviously converted a measurement into metric and got it wrong! Or what was obviously just a rough estimate in inches or feet is converted into a precise measurement in metric units.
A previous government tried to force metric on the UK by using the power of law to harass people over quite trivial matters. Understandably this just increased opposition to the use of metric units when they could have done like most other countries and allowed people to choose the most suitable unit for a particular measurement.
The OP wasn't born when we converted to decimal currency, and many of us don't have difficulty comparing old and new prices - everything seemed cheaper in pounds, shillings and pence even though it probably wasn't - or converting between metric and imperial. Really made me laugh when my nephew asked how a comic could be in 3D, when that was the price of it in 1969!
As for using the American system of cups for cooking, that makes more sense than any other system because it's based on comparisons, not on weight. Doesn't matter what size your cup is - it can be egg cup sized or pint sized - the proportions remain the same provided you use the same cup for all measurements in one recipe. You don't have to calculate how much of everything you need to downsize a recipe for six people into a recipe for two - just use a smaller cup. Eliminates mistakes.
Measurement should not be about conversions from one system of measurement to another.
Most countries throughout the world use only one system of measurement. They have the advantage of not needing to convert. They use the international language of measurement, the metric system.
In most situations they have a clear perception of what a measurement is, and how to describe that measurement to not only their neighbour, but also globally through the internet to the world.
Regarding cups and cooking. Most professional chefs and cooks will use metric (kilograms and grams) because weight/mass is a more precise unit for all types of ingredients. The cup is a unit of volume not weight, and different ingredients have different volumes, when measured by cup, but have consistent weight.
No .. Not all air traffic control heights throughout the world are measured in thousands of feet. China and Russia are exceptions they use metres.
And most measurements in aviation are measured in metric.
Aircraft weight, fuel weight, runway length, air temperature, air pressure, are all measured in metric. The only exceptions are aircraft height (feet), visibility ( mile and sometimes nautical mile) and most times wind speed (knots).
g.[/QUOTE]
IIRC, there was an air incident caused by mixing up fuel on a flight - aircrew measured by imperial, fuel deliverer went by metric (or it was the other way round) - the mix up meant the plane ran out of fuel half way across its journey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider
True.. And there is a very good reason why new born babies are weighed in grams.
The gram is a very small unit and is more precise compared to the ounce. 28 g = 1 ounce.
Variations in weight, are early indications as to the health of new born babies.
Often when a baby loses weight it's an indication of an unwell baby.
Because the gram is smaller than the ounce, and more precise, it's a better unit to monitor, small variations in weight that occur with babies.
I would have thought that most countries use one particular unit to measure one item in a particular context but that unit can be either metric or imperial/local depending on which has been found to be most suitable. There seem to be lots of examples around the world where non-metric units are used for some measurements because they have been found to be most convenient.
When I was in the prestigious Stockmanns department store in Tampere, Finland recently, I could have bought a 42 inch television. What's that in centimetres? I don't know and neither do the Finns - the inch measurement only was given. The bar over the road was selling exotic foreign beers: Newcastle Brown and Guinness. These were sold by the pint, whereas the local Lapin Kulta was sold by the decilitre.
As for cups and cooking, even professional cooks say that the US system of cups is more useful when quantities have to be increased or decreased. Metric or imperial measurements are fine if the recipe is always produced in the same quantities (or halved or doubled) as originally written, and I'm sure you're not suggesting that they think a volume of sugar weights the same as the same volume of flour. Try accurately reducing an ingredient in a traditional recipe from the 1940s of 7 oz (or 198.45 grams) for 8 portions to 3 portions by weight - much easier to reduce 8 cups to 3 (whatever size cup you choose to use).
And what we generally refer to as weight is actually mass, because the mass will be the same wherever it is, but weight will vary depending on gravity where the object is weighed.
There are some famous examples of errors in conversions but I have always been suspicious that there are far more errors within metric measurements, confusion between centimetres, millimetres, metres etc which rarely happens with inches, feet, yards etc.
I wonder if the availability of cheap digital weighing devices is a factor? You can read off the weight very accurately and quickly compensate for the weight of the container.
Aviation visibility is reported and judged in metres, also the separation distance rule is in feet.
Errors can occur with any measurement, regardless of the system of measurement, and humans are not perfect.
However if the measurer, fully knows, metric measures, and the instrument, he/she uses to measure, then errors are minimal.
The metre is the metric base unit for measuring linear length/distance, area, and volume. Centimetres, and millimetres, are scalable divisors of the metre, and the kilometre is a scalable multiple of the metre. The metre is the unit, not centimetres, millimetres, or kilometres. However, errors can be minimised by using whole numbers, and removing the decimal fraction.
For example. 1.83 m should be 183 cm
or 2.453 m should be 2453 mm
or 1.456 km should be 1456 m
Actually, using powers of 10 other than in multiples of 3 (positive or negative) is deprecated. So centimetres should not be used scientifically - 1.83m should be expressed as 1830mm.
From this article:
I agree
The most widely used numbering system worldwide is the power of ten decimal system. By convention it's usual to group columns or powers in groups of three.
For example.. 567 543 323.965 345 (both to the left of the decimal point.. multiples.. and to the right of the decimal point ..divisors, are in groups of three numbers).
One of the basics of the metric system is to use the decimal system within its structure, and " the groups of three" is applied within the metric system structure.
However suffixes deca, hecto, deci, and centi, are the exceptions to this rule, and are generally not used as much, as the other suffixes.
Although the metric system and it's measures are universal, there are different ways on how it's used, and different countries put different emphasis on different suffixes.
For example ..In Europe, particularly in Scandinavian countries, emphasis is put on the centilitre, (cL) and centimetre, (cm) whereas in Australia and New Zealand the centilitre is not so usual, and is replaced by the millilitre, (mL) and the centimetre although there are exceptions, has been replaced by the millimetre (mm). The centimetre is used to measure body measurements, height and waist etc, and clothing sizes.
The millilitre, and the millimetre, follow the three grouping rule.
From an Australian perspective the following link explains the reasons for using millimetres rather then centimetres.
See link.... http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/centimetresORmillimetres.pdf
No, studios are referred to as, e.g. 30x60 metric feet. You would have to do the maths to convert it to metres and millimetres.
Aren't the equipment racks still 19 inches and equipment mounted on the rack is measured in units of 1U (1.75 inches).
aye, anything standardized before the mid 1970's i'd imagine would be pretty much done in imperial measurements and racks were standardized with the phone system hardware of the day pre ww2 and the Bletchley park computers were built using phone system parts to save money & secrecy reasons, but for a lot of things its best to use the measurement system it was originally designed in not trying to work out a 6'6" door is 198.12cm etc as those small errors will soon creep up and make everything wrong when you have to bodge it a bit to make the metric door fit the imperial frame
I knew a Swedish lad who was metric to the core except for snow depth in winter as for some reason the foot was a much more expressive term to him and i suppose a 6 foot snow fall sounds better than 1.9 m when you're trying to blag a snow day off from work
I'm in my mid-20s, and learnt both imperial and metric at school. I use both and can convert between them quite easily (although I never need to do it any more than roughly), as can many other people. I don't care if you don't like doing it. Don't if you don't want to, but leave my and my miles, inches and lbs and ozs alone.
Indeed it is. Unlike most other cooking methods, baking is heavily reliant on precision for the associated chemistry to work correctly. A good cake-maker will weigh the eggs for a recipe.
It is true that we have ended up with a mixture of imperial and metric weights/measures but I think it is a question of horses for courses. Pounds and ounces works well for baby weights as people can visualise it easily and there is not the need for absolute precision (to the gramme) that metric provides. I find metric is good for cooking, especially where precision is needed and the conversions, for some reason, seem quite easy to make - I know that 1lb = 454g and so on.
theres a hell of a lot old equipment built to imperial measurements out there so people need to know what they are so it can be fixed properly