Some mistake, surely?

[stuart little]

I went to work one day about 30 years ago and someone shouted he's here! I said what's the problem? How many fluid ounces are there in a litre? No one in the kitchen knew, and I was a cellarman. Shortly before they'd had an argument as to whether there two or three feet in a yard.
I found one of my school exercise books from about '64 (I was 10) with sums in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings - miles, furlongs, chains, rods, yards, feet and inches - and even gallons, pecks and bushels. Metric is rather simpler.

Late '80's my nephew did some work experience with me in my workshop, I asked him, one day, to get me a 1/2" spanner; "What's that?", he asked. DUH!!

 

[trvlr]

There was no problem with the good olde feet and inches, and pounds, shillings, and pence...

Worked for yonks and everyone leaving skool - having bin properly tort and so on... cud understand it (lyke wot I did and still duz). Almost everyone in those daze could simple sums in their head - no need of calcuators; and shop assitants didn't rely on the till to tell them what change they have to return to customer (when appropriate).

 

[Amplidyne]

Late '80's my nephew did some work experience with me in my workshop, I asked him, one day, to get me a 1/2" spanner; "What's that?", he asked. DUH!!

The correct question back from him was "Whitworth or AF?"

 

[Cozzer]

The correct question back from him was "Whitworth or AF?"

Think I've a whole socket set in Whitworth somewhere in the attic....

 

[Stuart Moffat]

Think I've a whole socket set in Whitworth somewhere in the attic....

We have miles, and miles per hour. My car tells me my average miles per gallon. But we don’t buy gallons of petrol any more. Hmmm.

 

[Cozzer]

I'm the same with Fahrenheit and Centigrade.
Still feel obliged to use the old 9,5 and 32 during any forecast....
68F feels a lot hotter than 20C!

 

[XTiffy]

During my apprenticeship, for calculating temperature I was taught to add 40 and them multiply by 5/9 or 9/5 (depending which way you are going) and then to take 40 off of the result. I like to do this calc. in my head (stirs up the old grey cells!). I have never forgotten BOMDAS in algebra either, funny how some things stick and others fade away? Where are you youngsters when their phone goes dead?

 

[John Brown]

During my apprenticeship, for calculating temperature I was taught to add 40 and them multiply by 5/9 or 9/5 (depending which way you are going) and then to take 40 off of the result. I like to do this calc. in my head (stirs up the old grey cells!). I have never forgotten BOMDAS in algebra either, funny how some things stick and others fade away? Where are you youngsters when their phone goes dead?

Never come across that method. Why would you add 40 and subtract 40 when you could simply add or subtract 32(depending on which way you are going)?

 

[ajs]

The correct question back from him was "Whitworth or AF?"

Don't, you'll end up down that rabbit hole of using a 3/8" spanner for a 1/2" bolt...

 

[selectortone]

Every time I see the title of this thread I have to say it in a Sean Connery accent.

 

[ajs]

Every time I see the title of this thread I have to say it in a Sean Connery accent.

Shurely some mishtake?

 

[Amplidyne]

Where are you youngsters when their phone goes dead

I don't know, and neither do they.

I read a Sci-Fi story long ago. Can't remember who it was by or much about it really. The gist of it was that virtual immortality had been found, but with the cost that you lost your memory. To counter this everyone carried a pocket computer that they used to record their memories on. Sounds familiar somehow.
The irony from looking at things probably 50 years later, is that we don't have the immortality, but we do have the loss of memory caused by carrying a sort of recording device. An almost inverse case.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Shurely some mishtake?

Been reading too much Private Eye?

 

[Cozzer]

Shurely some mishtake?

....and don't call me "Shurely".....

 

[SammyQ]

Been reading too much Private Eye?

Debatable.

Surely (Shirley?) one cannot have enough of that most discerning publication?
Almost as good as vintage Alan Coren - when I come across tattered copies of "Punch" in charity shops. Facknell.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I always enjoyed Keith Waterhouse and his A.A.A.A.

 

[JAW911]

My late father went to his local wood merchant to buy some 4x2. The guy said “it’s 100 x 50 now…..how much do you want? It’s 20p a foot”

 

[Phil Pascoe]

20p a foot? how many decades ago was this?

 

[highwood122]

A friend of mine works at a local fabricators, and has made all sorts of stuff for me.
He is only about ten years younger but has no idea at all about imperial, just young enough to have never used it.
I find myself doing stuff in imperial in my head, then having to convert it to metric. Just can't think in metric for the life of me

try working out stairs accurately in imperial ,thats how to waste time

 

[Tom K]

Late '80's my nephew did some work experience with me in my workshop, I asked him, one day, to get me a 1/2" spanner; "What's that?", he asked. DUH!!

So you explained the marking on the spanners and he brought you a 12mm?