Some mistake, surely?

[Phil Pascoe]

details of a Record 3VS vice on Amazon. So that's one foot eight by one foot eight x eleven inches and it weighs less than two pounds. I wonder what it's made of? Polystyrene?

Material	Ductile Iron, Iron
Brand	IRWIN
Item dimensions L x W x H	50 x 50 x 28 centimetres
Colour	Silver
Style	Safety
Item weight	0.85 Kilograms

 

[Stigmorgan]

Even converting that to mm instead of inches doesn't work

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It doesn't work no matter how you do it. And it's blue.

 

[John Brown]

I think sometimes the people listing these things don't change dimensions after listing other items.

 

[XTiffy]

When making a piece of furniture for a Park Lane, Hotel, I queried a dimension given by the Chief Engineer (Irish) as it was way off. He replied "when I was at school they were changing from imperial to metric, so I never learnt either"!
A few years ago I was turned down for a knee joint replacement as my BMI was too high, the my medical centre had stated that I was 178 Kg (I am actually 103Kg). When I found out, I told the GP that if I was that big I would not get through his door! My guess was that a nurse could not calculate stones to Kg.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've always thought the problem with the decimal system in this Country was that we should have done as Oz and NZ did and changed everything at the same time instead of piecemeal.

 

[John Brown]

I've always thought the problem with the decimal system in this Country was that we should have done as Oz and NZ did and changed everything at the same time instead of piecemeal.

It is strange that our road signs and speed limits are still in miles. What's the reasoning behind that, I wonder?

 

[Geoff_S]

I left school in 1974. We were pretty much full decimal back then. Bits and pieces outstanding for sure, but really?

50 years later, there's still a problem?

 

[Amplidyne]

When making a piece of furniture for a Park Lane, Hotel, I queried a dimension given by the Chief Engineer (Irish) as it was way off. He replied "when I was at school they were changing from imperial to metric, so I never learnt either"!
A few years ago I was turned down for a knee joint replacement as my BMI was too high, the my medical centre had stated that I was 178 Kg (I am actually 103Kg). When I found out, I told the GP that if I was that big I would not get through his door! My guess was that a nurse could not calculate stones to Kg.

I think it was 12 months ago, might have been the year before. I'm about 6' tall. I still use that, although I use the metric system for everything else.
And kg for weight!
Anyway, they measured my height, and according to them I was 5' 10"

So next time I went in a few weeks later, I asked another nurse, and guess what? 6'.

Told "It doesn't matter". Well maybe not, but I like it to be right.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It is strange that our road signs and speed limits are still in miles. What's the reasoning behind that, I wonder?

Bridges' height apparently can be signposted in both or imperial but not metric alone.

 

[John Brown]

I confess that I am only just coming round to metric length measurements. Drill sizes I always think in mm, but still find myself thinking "200mm, that's about 8 inches".

 

[Amplidyne]

Bridges' height apparently can be signposted in both or imperial but not metric alone.

I never, never, ever do that.
At least not more than three or four times a day.
TBH, I'm usually on my own working, so I often just use the most convenient size.

36" is more convenient than 914.4 mm.

 

[niall Y]

I find it a lot easier to design furniture in feet and inches. After all "Man is the measure of all things", so designing in in terms of "feet", makes perfect sense, as should "spans" and "hands". It more directly links the objects to us.
I also find it a lot easier to work out, and play around with proportions, based on the old imperial system.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I can work in metric quite happily but I can't estimate in it.

 

[Fergie 307]

I confess that I am only just coming round to metric length measurements. Drill sizes I always think in mm, but still find myself thinking "200mm, that's about 8 inches".

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

 

[Phil Pascoe]

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.

 

[XTiffy]

I have absolutely no problem in working in imperial or metric, but I find it easier to make a mistake in metric. Yes metric is simpler but most of the great technical advances were made under imperial or the US version of it! The point about all of the peculiar(?) imperial measurements is that they mostly are for certain trades. Surveyors would use chains, a farmer bushels etc. You would know and understand those you worked with and probably ignored others.

 

[SammyQ]

I can work in metric quite happily but I can't estimate in it.

Me too Phil. I was taught Decimal, but spent 37 years teaching S.I. calculations: Litres, Angstroms, Microns and so forth, nae probs, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out my height or weight in it.

 

[paulrbarnard]

details of a Record 3VS vice on Amazon. So that's one foot eight by one foot eight x eleven inches and it weighs less than two pounds. I wonder what it's made of? Polystyrene?

Material	Ductile Iron, Iron
Brand	IRWIN
Item dimensions L x W x H	50 x 50 x 28 centimetres
Colour	Silver
Style	Safety
Item weight	0.85 Kilograms

I’ve noticed a lot of things listed as the packaging size rather than the item

 

[stuart little]

It is strange that our road signs and speed limits are still in miles. What's the reasoning behind that, I wonder?

The cost of new road signs? Look what it cost Wales for 20mph signage.