@ArishMell It may not be difficult, but there's no need for it any more with a metric system that makes complete sense.

Its like having money with no decimalisation, old hat and needed to be eradicated.

@AceOfSpades The original UK plan for metrication from the late 1960s onwards was that we'd adopt metric units for most things but that we'd keep the pint and the mile for some purposes. In my last years at school, we were already using them in science and also in subjects like woodwork. Our distances in sports were also metric - 400 metres, 800 metres, 1500 metres, etc.

@AceOfSpades That a system is merely old is not a reason for "eradicating" it. That was not the reason for the UK going "metric".

The reason for adopting the Systeme Internationale was to facilitate trade and science, especially internationally. Nothing to to with age.


The basic SI units are hardly new anyway. The metre, gramme and litre are all well over 200 years old.

They were invented in post-Revolutionary France in the Eighteenth Century.

France's centuries' worth of a mass of measures specific to trades and even regions were incresingly hampering commerce even within France. So the Government commissioned a new set of units traceable to official standards, and imposed them nation-wide. These new units were still rather arbitrary though, not much less so than Britain's foot, pound and gallon which had largely already replaced much older trade-specific units.

I am surprised the Nautical Mile was not adopted, divided into 1000 etc, because that is a geometrical measure just as the original kilometre had been.

Thge SI is not perfect. Its purely-mathematical "coherence" makes some units useless for day-to-day use, hence it allows the non-coherent Degree for angle and the vaguely-coherent Bar for pressure. The Radian is useful only in certain scientific and engineering calculations. The Pascal [= 1 X 10^(-5) Bar ] is a compound mess of a thing, far too small for any ordinary pressure measurement, but relevant to sound pressure levels. Actually it's not much use even there: the Pa is a million times too high to be the base unit for acoustics!

It is curious that UK schools insist on teaching the cm as an ordinary unit, and the clothes trade uses the cm. It is not a standard SI unit and not normally used in any technical work.

It is also curious that the USA still keeps to its version of Imperial measures (its Gallon is a 16C vintner's measuire), now only the major nation still using them. Obviously US scientists and engineers use SI units, and any imported manufactured items there are made to metric units, but it's anyone's guess when the whole country will comply with all the rest of the world.. Oh, and learn to spell the French words.

@bijouxbroussard only 😭

@ShepherdBard I’m the shortest one in my family. Even my niece is 5’8" now.

@bijouxbroussard tall fam. I still got my mom beat 💪

@ninalanyon I'm afraid you'll need a French medium to know why it was done that way. (One 0.25N knock for Yes, Two for No, 3 milli-taps for Don't Know)

It was odd though to use vaguely practical base sizes for length and liquid-volume (the metre is a bit big for many purposes) but not for mass.

Another oddity: car manufacturers specifying luggage capacity in litres rather than useful metre-dimensions; and power in "PS" or "kP", rather than kW.

(Litres?: I don't know anyone using their car as an aquarium...)

I have a very old engineering text-book whose pages of measures and conversions include some very rum things indeed, such as the "Pood" (I think of mass and Russian).

@ArishMell Salesmen of all kinds prefer bigger numbers. My car has a boot space of 744 litre, or 0.744 cubic metre. Which one sounds big to the average car buyer? Or rather, which one does the sales department think sounds biggest to the average car buyer.

I always have to convert to cubic metre to get some idea of what will fit.

@ninalanyon Interesting point, that. Really, the most useful information would the maximum cuboid that would fit, or the mean length, width and depth, but these might risk making it seem smaller still.

I suppose whatver you use will never suit all situations because, say. 0.75 cubic metre can be of any shape, so while you could fit that volume of small items or clothes into it, it might not take a wooden box of that same capacity.

Perhaps no way of describing the volume will ever be anything more than a very rough guide for comparing car models, largely meaningless for practical purposes.

When I bought my present car I wanted to be able to fit a particular item in it, so took a tape-measure to the dealer. What counted was the available length and width - cars have all manner of internal obstacles that effectively narrow their interiors. The volume did not matter..

@mindstruggle i saw you irl your 2"6 not 6"2 🙄

@XDHyperGirlXD1
That's too short. 😒

@mindstruggle fine i take it back your not 2"6 your 2"7 happy now 🙄

@ShepherdBard Fun-sized ! 😊

@Degbeme More like one Scrabby Doo high

@DrScissorhands 🤨

@Monaschandroff86 179 tall

@Atlotto

Are you a horse...? 🤔

@Thinkerbell No, just hung like one...jk. 😉

@Bexsy Kawaii desu! how petite.