Good news for the Imperialists

[Dextraneous]

The government has stated that all children need to know up to the 12 times tables by heart. Since, historically, the number 12 was chosen due to it's relevance in imperial measurement of feet/inches and also pre-decimal money, it looks like they are setting out their stall to revert to good old fashioned olde English measurements and also to leave the eurozone entirely in an intention to revert to the pound-shilling-pence currency.

Good news all round.

 

[Dave54]

Good news all round.

Or should that be "Good news all dodecagonally" if they bring the old threepeeny bit back.

I wondered about the need for 12 X tables these days too.

 

[Dextraneous]

It's only a matter of time before we sling away calculators and dig out log tables and slide rules. Indeed, since we'll soon run out of electricity, it makes sense to cut back on the use any unnecessary electronic device. I estimate that if we discard existing calculators then the energy saved in a decade will be roughly the same as running my tumble drier for 17.4 seconds. So it's well worth doing.

 

[Whitespirit66]

Can we have our Empire back?

 

[JBR]

I'm not convinced that the 12x table was chosen to reflect the long extinct 12d to the shilling. Why not the 20x table for shillings to pounds? Why not the 24x table for hours to days?

I'm quite happy with imperial measures and, regardless of rampant decimalisation, some items are still sold by the dozen - eggs, for example.

If decimal system measurements are so worthy, why do we still have 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour?

It is quite feasible to have 20 hours to the day, or even 10, as long as hours are a little longer; we could have 100 minutes to the hour and 100 seconds to the minute, yet this suggestion has never really taken off.

I suppose we'd be obliged to have 365 1/4 days to the year, though.

That's an idea. How about the 365x table? A bit too difficult for GCSE, though, although I reckon that 10x is beyond many who pass that exam!

 

[noseall]

I'm quite happy with imperial measures and, regardless of rampant decimalisation, some items are still sold by the dozen - eggs, for example.

If decimal system measurements are so worthy, why do we still have 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour?

Does that also mean that you are happy for businesses to be run on imperial measurements too?

How do you think most people are at multiplying complex imperial fractions? How are you at multiplying fractions JBR?

One of the greatest reliefs of going self employed was losing the imperial measurements system bestowed upon me by my old gaffer and work colleague. Give me metric any day.

 

[Micilin]

My problem with imperial, and I grew up using both it, was it didn't have a 12 number base as a rule, although for maths it's a good system .

If you look at length , twelfth of an inch wasn't really used, 3 feet to yard, 8 furlongs to smile etc

Twenty ounces to a pint, four of them in a quart and so on.

Even these measures are not the old imperials measures, as they had to be reviewed in the mid 1800s to try and standardise them.

With metric it's all base ten so easier ( when you get to SI scientific units it's more convenient)

And all units now have repeatable scientific definitions , apart from the kilo which is just the weight of the Kilo bar held in the French Academie ( Even Hitler did not invade this notionally independent area) .

Now the race is on between two factions to get an independent standard for the kilo.

Which is a bit different from using a King' thumb for an inch!

 

[longdogs]

I was taught how to use an imperial tape measure by my dad. For example: Four feet, three & a half plus one of those and half of that

 

[Micilin]

I worked for a time in a factory making mostly farm machinery.

We used mixed units eg 4"round ,500 mil long

 

[nflowers]

I think tyres are the best mix of units -

Width in millimetres, height as a percentage, wheel diameter in inches

 

[Brigadier]

As above, sometimes it is easier to remember a mixture of units, i.e.

4 ft 4 inches x 1100mm

is much easier than

4 ft 4 inches x 3 ft 7.31 inches, as is

1321mm x 1100mm


Just go with the flow!

 

[JBR]

I'm quite happy with imperial measures and, regardless of rampant decimalisation, some items are still sold by the dozen - eggs, for example.

If decimal system measurements are so worthy, why do we still have 60 seconds to the minute and 60 minutes to the hour?

Does that also mean that you are happy for businesses to be run on imperial measurements too?

How do you think most people are at multiplying complex imperial fractions? How are you at multiplying fractions JBR?

Yes, it wouldn't bother me too much if businesses used imperial measurements; many still do.

I'm quite happy to use imperial measurements, including vulgar fractions, although I suppose it depends upon how complex the fractions are to which you refer.

But what about my proposed decimal time system?
100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, 10 hours to the day.
That would come to 100,000 seconds in a day, compared to 60 x 60 x 24 = 86,400. Not too dissimilar. Seconds would have to be a little shorter, of course, but that shouldn't pose too much of a problem.

 

[Nige F]

I'm not convinced that the 12x table was chosen to reflect the long extinct 12d to the shilling. Why not the 20x table for shillings to pounds? Why not the 24x table for hours to days?

cuz you can use the 12x and then x2 Also the 10xand then x2

 

[ladylola]

I worked for a time in a factory making mostly farm machinery.

We used mixed units eg 4"round ,500 mil long

I grew up using both and do the same using whatever fits best. I suppose if I had a tape with cubits on I'd use that too. Another strange antiquated measure was highlighted to me at the weekend when I visited a friend. She had a staff marked in hands to measure the height of horses .When I was at college we spent a lot of time making doors the height of which was 1981mm , not an obvious metric size to choose but of course a straight conversion from 6'6"
I always remember being asked to measure something by a site agent and giving him the size in imperial to which he said " what size is it in metric?" , to which I replied " the same"

 

[Micilin]

I worked for a time in a factory making mostly farm machinery.

We used mixed units eg 4"round ,500 mil long

I grew up using both and do the same using whatever fits best. I suppose if I had a tape with cubits on I'd use that too. Another strange antiquated measure was highlighted to me at the weekend when I visited a friend. She had a staff marked in hands to measure the height of horses .When I was at college we spent a lot of time making doors the height of which was 1981mm , not an obvious metric size to choose but of course a straight conversion from 6'6"
I always remember being asked to measure something by a site agent and giving him the size in imperial to which he said " what size is it in metric?" , to which I replied " the same"

Hands are a great example of a unit that there is no drive to change.

They are standardised as four inches though