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posted by LaminatorX on Monday February 24 2014, @12:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the How-many-slugs-to-the-stone? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"I have the following requests to members of this new forum:

1) Please use SI Units wherever possible. Alternative comparative units such as swimming pools, size of Florida, cars, libraries of congress, etc are also welcome ...

2) Please cover tech/science related stories from around the world. Please do not make this a US only website !!

Cheers and best wishes,

AnonTechie"

[ED Note: We as a community welcome submissions from around the world, as befits our international userbase. The Editorial team in particular is looking closely at including voices from outside the U.S. as we continue to grow. As for the units question in particular, stories will certainly arrive with a variety of units depending on the origin of the submission. We encourage, though do not require, submitters to include conversions where appropriate for clarity out of courtesy to your fellow readers. Though we try to use a light touch when making edits to story submissions, Editors may add these from time to time as well, should clarity demand and time permit.

Soylentils, does the current ad-hoc approach meet your needs, or do you favor a more formal approach from your news discussion site?]

 
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Niggle on Monday February 24 2014, @09:18AM

    by Niggle (477) on Monday February 24 2014, @09:18AM (#5694)

    Our pints are 25% larger than the US ones, as are gallons. So using non-SI units is quite likely to cause confusion even for those of us that still use some vestiges of imperial measurements.
    Probably the only imperial units still used by the majority of the population in the UK are pints (almost exclusively for beer and milk) and miles. Weirdly, we buy petrol by the litre, but always quote fuel efficiency in miles per gallon.
    I'm old enough to think of people's heights in feet and inches, but a lot of people I know use metres and centimetres. And even I think of weights in kilos rather than stones and pounds.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by jalopezp on Monday February 24 2014, @11:27AM

    by jalopezp (2996) on Monday February 24 2014, @11:27AM (#5745)

    I ruined a batch of homebrew after moving to London because of the difference between british and american pints. Idiotically, the british have bigger pints but smaller ounces than the americans. Nowadays when cooking and brewing, I insist on converting everything to metric, and if possible from volume to weight. As for standard use, I find people are familiar enough with kilos and centimetres for it not to be a problem.

    As far as beer is concerned, recall Orwell's 1984: 'A 'alf litre ain't enough. It don't satisfy. And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running. Let alone the price.' I agree with this statement very much. Nevertheless, a pint of beer is too close to a half litre (568mL) to make much of a difference. I would prefer to see barmen pull my beer into a 666mL glass. One day.

    • (Score: 1) by Nuke on Monday February 24 2014, @08:09PM

      by Nuke (3162) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:09PM (#6121)
      Wrote :-

      As far as beer is concerned, recall Orwell's 1984: "A 'alf litre ain't enough.... And a 'ole litre's too much. It starts my bladder running." Nevertheless, a pint of beer is too close to a half litre (568mL) to make much of a difference.

      I read 1984 before I was familiar with the conversion (when it was still future in fact) and for years I assumed half a litre was about 0.6 pints because of it. Now, I am now puzzled by the guys' problem - the difference between half a litre and a pint is only 13%.

      The reason people have stuck with pints for beer is that it goes with the Olde Worlde atmosphere of most UK pubs.

  • (Score: 1) by mojo chan on Monday February 24 2014, @01:32PM

    by mojo chan (266) on Monday February 24 2014, @01:32PM (#5785)

    We really are in a muddle here. Most people seem to use stones for a person's weight, but most of the ones under 40 can't tell you how many pounds in a stone for comparison to Americans. We use miles for long distances on roads but signs for pedestrians usually use metres. MPG is a really bad unit for measuring fuel efficiency, we should switch to litres/100km.

    Some people have newer metric gas meters, a far fewer still have the old Imperial measure ones. Heating and cooling equipment is still rated in BTUs, tires still inflated to a given PSI. Schools have not been teaching Imperial units for decades though - I certainly never learned them.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday February 24 2014, @11:45PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday February 24 2014, @11:45PM (#6285) Homepage
      > MPG is a really bad unit for measuring fuel efficiency, we should switch to litres/100km.

      Absolutely not. As mpg increases efficiency increases. As l/110km increases, efficiency decreases - that's completely the wrong relation.
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
      • (Score: 1) by isostatic on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:26AM

        by isostatic (365) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @02:26AM (#6337) Journal

        Litres per 100000 metres is an arbitrary number to try to get a human readable value for cars. It's terrible. I'd rather ml/km

        However the idea is "I need to drive 420km, my car uses 3l/100km, I therefore need 12.6 litres of fuel, which at £1.40 per litres costs £17.64

        The higher the l/100km value, the more it costs to drive. Makes more since than an arbitrary lefty "higher mpg is higher efficiency"

        The mpg is "I've just put 10 gallons (45 litres) in my tank. When will I need to fill up again"

        I find gallons/mile harder to wrap my head around than mpg but that's because I was brought up on mpg. And feet and inches for height. And miles for road length. And metres for middle lengths like building heights, shelf sizes, cupboard dimensions etc,. I use kg for weight of everything except people (stones and pounds). litres for volume aside from beer, unless said beer is in Germany at Oktoberfest and served by a buxom wench in litre glasses.

        The uk is a crazy country with units, but at least we got rid of Fahrenheit

  • (Score: 1) by Wakaranai on Monday February 24 2014, @04:00PM

    by Wakaranai (486) on Monday February 24 2014, @04:00PM (#5902)

    >...are pints (almost exclusively for beer and milk)...

    A pint of beer and milk?! Eew.

    Maybe either a posset or a pint...
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posset [wikipedia.org]
    http://www.japanprobe.com/2007/01/31/milk-beer-bil k/ [japanprobe.com]

  • (Score: 1) by cykros on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM

    by cykros (989) on Monday February 24 2014, @08:30PM (#6141)

    So much for "A Pint's a Pound the whole world 'round".

    It's been my understanding that the 20oz "pints" (be they in the UK or American craft beer stores) are more like a baker's dozen than an actual discrepancy in what an actual pint is. Sure, a pint is 16 fl. oz, and a dozen is 12, but go to a bar and ask for a pint, and you get 20oz, just like you get 13 items when you ask a baker for a dozen.

    Am I living a lie on this one?

    • (Score: 1) by xorsyst on Tuesday February 25 2014, @10:10AM

      by xorsyst (1372) on Tuesday February 25 2014, @10:10AM (#6523)

      Yes - 20oz is the standard for pints outside the US.