Gas bottle weights

[Buckman]

Between 1958 and 1963 I was taught in both metric and imperial - the metric system, on which SI is based, having been around since 1799

When we came to the UK it took a bit of getting used to stepping back to Imperial as we had been using metric since the early sixties. What was more confusing was that there was a pound in weight and the currency being a pound.

 

[otherclive]

I feel very mixed up because I went through every change on basic units
FPS - Foot Pound Second
CGS - Centimeter Gramme Second
MKS - Meter Kilogramme Second
and finally
SI - which is basically the MKS system rebranded.

It's amazing how often I still tend to think in FPS

Prof What about poundal and slugs, ? A UK hundred weight which actually consists of 112 lbs. At least the US got that one right 😂😂😂

 

[RogerL]

Prof What about poundal and slugs, ? A UK hundred weight which actually consists of 112 lbs. At least the US got that one right 😂😂😂

The Americans work with Short Tons (2,000 lbs) and Long Tons (2,200 lbs) - do they also have two hundredweights, one of 100 lbs and one of 112 lbs ?

 

[Buckman]

Prof What about poundal and slugs, ? A UK hundred weight which actually consists of 112 lbs. At least the US got that one right 😂😂😂

Another thing that I could not understand was when asked how many stone I weighed. I did not have a clue what they were talking about.

We used to wonder why it took so long for us to do a journey of 60km. The realised it was 60 miles. Had to be careful with speed as we were used to 50 in an urban area when in the UK it is 30. Difference being one is km and the other mph.

 

[Sam Vimes]

The Americans work with Short Tons (2,000 lbs) and Long Tons (2,200 lbs) - do they also have two hundredweights, one of 100 lbs and one of 112 lbs ?

The long ton is an imperial measurement as far as I know and is 2240lbs. The short ton is just US.

Then there's the Tonne, or metric ton as it's sometimes known... 1000kg

I remember the Erg as a unit of energy or work.

 

[RogerL]

The long ton is an imperial measurement as far as I know and is 2240lbs. The short ton is just US.

Then there's the Tonne, or metric ton as it's sometimes known... 1000kg

I remember the Erg as a unit of energy or work.

For all the things I need, a metric tonne (1,000 kg) is the same as an imperial ton (2,240 lb / 1016.nnn kg)

 

[Buckman]

Why do ships still refer to "knots" and not miles or kph?

 

[otherclive]

Why do ships still refer to "knots" and not miles or kph?

It’s all down to ships and aircraft needling to determine their position on the globe wrt longitude and latitude and a knot features in the calculations for navigation.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Why do ships still refer to "knots" and not miles or kph?

To expand on Otherclive's response, one minute of latitude (i.e. the vertical scale on a chart/globe) is equal to one nautical mile... It's a truly universal measurement and even our cross channel neighbours use nautical miles and knots (noud) in navigation.

 

[Dustydog]

I cook by minutes to the pound lb.
Measure woodwork in metric
My height in feet and inches
Body weight in stones not Kilos
Fuel by the litre but only understand mpg
Tyre pressures in psi
Car efficiency in mpg yet buy in litres
EV and KWH means nothing😎
I know Edinburgh is 400 miles but 640 Km🤔
🤔
I guess it’s a bit like Franglaise or Spanglaise. I blame the confusion on my primary school in the 50s where they didn’t do “foreign “ stuff😜

 

[Buckman]

I cook by minutes to the pound lb.
Measure woodwork in metric
My height in feet and inches
Body weight in stones not Kilos
Fuel by the litre but only understand mpg
Tyre pressures in psi
Car efficiency in mpg yet buy in litres
EV and KWH means nothing😎
I know Edinburgh is 400 miles but 640 Km🤔
🤔
I guess it’s a bit like Franglaise or Spanglaise. I blame the confusion on my primary school in the 50s where they didn’t do “foreign “ stuff😜

I find it easier using km per litre as we buy fuel by the litre, but no option for miles per litre. I can either convert from Imperial to metric and back, but not mix the two. I cannot deal with Fahrenheit and have no idea how to convert it and have no interest in trying as it is very antiquated.

What I do find confusing is that I can never add .09p of fuel to my vehicle as it automatically rounds up to a whole number. Is the UK the only country that has this weird obsession with fuel being priced in a fraction i.e. £0.009p to try and fool motorists? We always round it up to the next highest figure.

 

[RogerL]

I cook by minutes to the pound lb.
Measure woodwork in metric
My height in feet and inches
Body weight in stones not Kilos
Fuel by the litre but only understand mpg
Tyre pressures in psi
Car efficiency in mpg yet buy in litres
EV and KWH means nothing😎
I know Edinburgh is 400 miles but 640 Km🤔
🤔
I guess it’s a bit like Franglaise or Spanglaise. I blame the confusion on my primary school in the 50s where they didn’t do “foreign “ stuff😜

I mix-and-match but am still gradually moving away from imperial - part way through my ownership of my current VW Touareg I switched from psi to bar for the tyres as i've discovered the TPMS sensors measure in bar and then the car's electronics converts it to nearest psi, so some psi integers are missing as the pressure increases.

I do know that bar isn't a SI unit so I've still got a long way to go.

 

[toad a caravan]

Celcius for cold days, Fahrenheit for warm day,,(feel good factor)🙂

 

[ProfJohnL]

Prof What about poundal and slugs, ? A UK hundred weight which actually consists of 112 lbs. At least the US got that one right 😂😂😂

Just recalcitrant children!

 

[Martin_E]

Somebody I used to work with used to mix meters and inch’s in one measurement as in 3 meters 4.5” 🥴

 

[GUMPY]

Rough measurement in feet and inches
Accurate measurement in mm
Distance in miles or km depending on country.
My weight in stones and lbs
Everything else in kilograms and grams.
Car tyres in bar, caravan tyres in PSI
Cos that's what the labels say.
I switch between both imperial and metric on a whim.

 

[toad a caravan]

Has anyone ever heard of s reoccurring fraction?

 

[Sam Vimes]

You used to be able to buy wood as 2x2" but 2.4m long etc

If it's a slow day for you, look up the Indianna Pi Bill. A bit confusing but the aim was to change the value of Pi. I've come across various suggestions ranging from 3 to 4.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Has anyone ever heard of s reoccurring fraction?

Yes!

 

[ProfJohnL]

You used to be able to buy wood as 2x2" but 2.4m long etc

If it's a slow day for you, look up the Indianna Pi Bill. A bit confusing but the aim was to change the value of Pi. I've come across various suggestions ranging from 3 to 4.

Another example of American Madness!

Seeing as no one has actually worked out the complete value of Pi yet (and probably never will) so far we believe it's an irrational number that will have an "To infinity and beyond" number of non decimal places with no repetition of pattern.

For most practical purposes (as used in caravans) Pi (Greek letter π) can be assumed to have a value of 3.1416 to 4 decimal places rounded up

 

[Dustydog]

Has anyone ever heard of s reoccurring fraction?

No 😉but being pedantic yes to recurring decimals. They are rational numbers.

 

[Lutz]

And, strictly speaking, miles per gallon isn't even a measure of fuel consumption, but of specific fuel consumption because the fuel consumed (in this case gallons) should always come first. Fuel consumption in Imperial units should therefore really be the other way round, i.e. in gallons per mile, in the same way as fuel consumption in metric units is measured in litres per 100km, not km per litre.
For anyone interested, 30 mpg = 0.0333 gallons or 5.33 fluid ounces per mile.

 

[GUMPY]

On the ways of calculating Pi I came across this:

How to Calculate Pi By Throwing Frozen Hot Dogs

Make math fun with a sausage-centric Pi Day celebrationThrowing a pie in someone's face is good. Throwing food to discover pi is better. Believe it or not, of all the countless ways to approximate the most prolific irrational number in the...

www.wikihow.com

Haven't tried it yet 😲


There are more ways HERE

 

[RogerL]

And, strictly speaking, miles per gallon isn't even a measure of fuel consumption, but of specific fuel consumption because the fuel consumed (in this case gallons) should always come first. Fuel consumption in Imperial units should therefore really be the other way round, i.e. in gallons per mile, in the same way as fuel consumption in metric units is measured in litres per 100km, not km per litre.
For anyone interested, 30 mpg = 0.0333 gallons or 5.33 fluid ounces per mile.

The norm for EVs seems to be miles per kwh - like mpg makes it easy to see how many miles you can go on a tankful.

 

[Lutz]

The norm for EVs seems to be miles per kwh - like mpg makes it easy to see how many miles you can go on a tankful.

That's a continuation of practice in the UK. In metric units, electricity consumption of EVs is measured in kWh per 100 kilometres.