Odd Thing I Found

Watching Dr. Who. Lady says "It's 30 feet in diameter. Seems out of place. Wrong thing to say as you guys use metrics. So what's the deal with that?

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

The British use feet and inches. Dr Who is British, what's the problem?

Or do you think a "diameter" is an amount?

a reply to: nerbot

The Doctor is not British, he's Gallifreyan. More to the point the actor playing him is Scottish, not British.

Addressing the OP, the English Use Imperial Units which do include the foot.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher
I believe metric units are taught in schools (I haven't been lately), but there remain people who were taught in non-metric and still think in non-metric.
The result is a mixture of units, as officialdom tries to overcome the "sales resistance" of the older generation.
The weights and volumes of items sold in the shops are metric. Every now and then there is a news story about a market-stall trader being hounded by authorities for providing non-metric information.
Beer is still sold in pints (Imperial pints, larger than American ones). The grumbling conversation in "1984" about a full litre being too much and and half-litre being too small has not yet been fulfilled.
The temperatures predicted in weather forecasts progressed from being measured in fahrenheit followed by centigrade to being measured in centigrade followed by fahrenheit. I think they are now centigrade only.
Distances between towns are still measured in miles rather than kilometres.
A news report or a modern documentary would have been irritatingly punctilious about measuring the diameter in metres.
A drama is more free to use common speech, and "feet" still survive in common speech.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

To be honest I'm from the generation that learned both metric and imperial, so it depends on with whom I am speaking. If I'm speaking to my dad it's feet and inches.Pounds and ounces etc.

If it's my nieces then metres and centimetres, grammes etc.

It's as simple as that

Cody

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Actually, the British are forced, mostly by European Union rules, to be conversant in both the Metric system, as preferred by Europe, and the Imperial system which we have used here for... well you work it out!

So, in terms of work related matters, we often have to use two measurements. Many of our British based lock suppliers (I work in a locksmiths shop), sell their mortice locks in two and a half inch, and three inch case sizes. The same sized cases from a European based supplier would be marked 64mm and 76mm. Euro profile cylinders, of the sort used in UPVC doors however, are always measured in millimeters because they just make more sense that way!

As usual, in this respect, Britain is basically a controlled shambles, measurement wise!

a reply to: Hefficide

lol cause we all know Scotland isn't in Great Britai- oh wait ...

a reply to: cody599

Yup, me too.

I think I was in 5th or 6th grade when Canada switched over to the metric system, so I still use both.

- I understand celsius, but have no comprehension of farenheit.
- I understand cups, but have no concept of millilitres.
- I understand litres, but have no concept of gallons.
- I understand feet and inches, but have no concept of centimetres and metres.
- I understand pounds, but have no concept of grams.

I'm a royally confused mixed breed you might say.

In layman's terms, if I want to get all relaxed with the erb, as an older dude I see a hippy mate and converse in imperial.

If I was unfortunate enough to be a poorly connected youngster I'd over pay for some poor quality ting in metric :p

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
Watching Dr. Who. Lady says "It's 30 feet in diameter. Seems out of place. Wrong thing to say as you guys use metrics. So what's the deal with that?

a reply to: skalla
Haha
I was only taught metric at scool in the UK, although we were given 'awareness lessons' of imperial measurements that 'older people use' lol.
It all makes more sense to me, 1 litre of water is 1 kilo, bag of cement 25 kilos, water boils at 100 Celsius, freezes at 0 C.
100 pence in the GBP£...what the hell was old money about prior to the 1970's, sounds well complicated to me.
I still use miles though, but if/when our road signs switch to kilometres I'll have no problem adjusting to that, 1000 metres to the Km...sensible and easy to visualise in my mind.

*Edit*
Oh but I prefer imperial for my alcoholic beverages, who is ever gonna order 568ml of Thatchers Gold lol.

a reply to: Hefficide
Oh dear Heff. Let me explain. Gallifrey is an imperial planet so therefore uses imperial measurement ie. feet and inches and as I've said before many times the language of space is English. Sorry Russia, China and India if you want to expand into space learn English. Haven't any of you noticed all the aliens visiting earth always converse (whether verbally or telepathically) in English.

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: nerbot

The Doctor is not British, he's Gallifreyan.

Yes, but "Dr Who" is British because it's the series name.

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: nerbot

More to the point the actor playing him is Scottish, not British.

And Scotland is part of where?....

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain

C'mon man, two in one post...

Agreed. The Uk has no system at all, it depends on the question.

We use the metric system apparently but ask someone how tall they are or how much they weigh and watch them try to figure it out in metric.

We are obliged to use metric but still buy a pint of milk although it is labeled as 45some such millilitres.

My quite extensive time in the building trade with a tape measure? Use whatever is the more easy to shout out on the tape measure. If it's bang on 3 metres shout that, if its dead on 9 feet 6 shout that measure once and cut twice

a reply to: TrueBrit

a reply to: nerbot

Wait for a Scotts to show up and see if he considers himself British

They have no choice they are British.

Robbed, they were robbed i tell you.

a reply to: Hefficide

originally posted by: Hefficide
a reply to: nerbot

Wait for a Scotts to show up and see if he considers himself British

I think you mean Scotsman, or someone who is Scots? Nvm though, i think you missed the bit where there was a vote and the majority went "yeah, we're British too, ta".

And yeah, i'm half Scottish. The mean, aggressive, bitter and stingy half, as opposed to the arrogant supercilious land stealing, snobbish half. I'm quite the mix.

a reply to: Hefficide

I know Nerbot kinda covered this, but meh You are confusing the name of the show, being "Dr Who", with the title of the character, being "The Doctor".

But you is forrin, so we'll forgive your various misunderstandings of our obtuse ways

So, let me see if I've got this straight. It's even more confusing for you guys over there as you never fully went metric? Seems to be a mish-mash of both which can't be easy. We have a little of that but right off the top of my head the only major things sold to the public in metric measurements are soda(2-liter bottles) and drugs, in grams and kilos. We are labeled in both but most don't have any clue as to what the metric measurement means nor do they care.

It seemed odd in the episode as I would have thought someone brought up with metrics would think in metrics and then she said feet and I was a little stumped there. I guess if it's as screwy as you guys say then it makes sense.

The actor I was watching was David Tennant. I'm pretty sure he's not Scottish but having never been over there the accents tend to throw me for loops. There was the one girl on the show, Karen Gillan, who I could listen to reading a phone book. Don't know where she's from but just listening to her speak is a joy.

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
So, let me see if I've got this straight. It's even more confusing for you guys over there as you never fully went metric?

Legally and 'officially' but buy pretty much any tape measure, weighing scale, or measuring jug in the UK and it will show imperial and metric.
I prefer metric but there's an old boy I work with sometimes and he refuses to respond if I don't shout an imperial measurement.