The grandparents are in steady conflict with their grandchildren, because the grandchildren mesure in cm, meters and kilometers while the grandparents are still with their inches, feet and miles ! That's the same with the temperatures.
As 1 inch is 2.54 cm, it is far better to use inches when you measure your waist, it makes you slim !
If your waist measures 60 cm, the number sounds a lot, but if it measures only 24 inches, it is a small number ! That sounds much better and would look better on a paper when you want to be a model. The numbers are not so high and that counts for everything. That's maybe because the Americans keep with their inches, because if they had a waist of 60 that would be 153 cm !
Anyway I have learned at school that inches exist, for the rest I must have slept, because I didn't like Math classes. When I stayed with my aunt in Madison Wisconsin, we never talked about the system of measurements, and I didn't care about how many km or miles we made per day when we travelled or how many inches her cat's tail measured.
Even though we have been using metric measures in UK for decades we still refer to height in feet/inches. Eventually, we'll catch up - just as we leave EU, if we ever do . . .
ReplyDeleteI have a tape measure that has inches on one side and centimeters on the other side. My Dad once used it to put up some curtain rails. Unfortunately because it also had the inches, the tape measure was 2,5 cm longer than the normal ones we would use. And my Dad never measures from the beginning (0-15 cm), he measures from the end (150-135 cm) to get to his 15 cm. As he measured from the end, instead of the 15 cm, he cut off 17,5 cm! He had to get new curtain rails...
ReplyDeleteConverting between US customary units or imperial units (they're a wee bit different) and metric is a real pain in the backside, and it gives odd values. 16 fluid ounces comes out as 473 ml, you have to divide gallons by 3.8 to get liters, and don't get me started on A4 versus letter-sized paper...
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Google+ goes away in April. Just thought you'd like to know...
My grandfather worked in the tulip industry in the Netherlands before immigrating, and at the time there was a transitioning into metric going on. He recalled hearing some people complaining about the change, but said that metric made much more sense, that you could divide or multiply things in metric that worked more easily than the imperial system.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was driving, I pushed a wrong button. The speed meter of my car showed speed in kilometer instead of miles, and I got quite panicked!
ReplyDeleteAustralia is slipping backwards with metrics. Now because of American made tyre pressure checking equipment, everyone has gone back to pounds per square inch. We often now hear new baby weight in both pounds and kilos. More people are using calories rather than kilojoules too. Not good.
ReplyDeleteBut we will always say when asked how far a place is away, it is miles away. But if you asked how many, the answer would be in kilometres.
From a teacher's point of view the metric system makes more sense to kids and is easier for them to learn as all measurements and money are based on the power of 10.
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