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| Thread ID: 53435 | 2005-01-17 12:35:00 | Ireland - welcome to the 21st century | Greg (193) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 315099 | 2005-01-17 21:17:00 | Leave poor Jack alone, he's one of our major sources of entertainment. I wasn't intending to 'bully' him. :blush: But I must agree with you, he is a major source of entertainment. Sometimes just ain't sure whether I should be laughing with or at him. :D |
~sy~ (95) | ||
| 315100 | 2005-01-17 22:03:00 | There is no great difficulty in learning to be multlingual as regards sytems of measurement and units. After all when I was at school, (and when Jack was at school) we had to learn both Imperial units and metric units in science. In physics we used to use the centimetre, gram, second, and then later on along came the MKS or rationalised MKS system of units, ie metre. kilogram, second. Then engineers tended to use the pound mass, foot, second. So we had heat units such as BThU, or British Thermal Unit. One had to be bilingual. Then if you read American engineering journals such as The American Society of Engineers ie, ASME, and it's host of sub-journals such as The Journal of Lubrication Technology, you would find that their system of units was mandatory as pound-force, inch, second. This meant yet another system to be fluent in, and of course to know the values of the constants, and the units of such quantities as viscosity. Then later the rationalised MKS became the"ISO" system of units, and most civilised western nations adopted this and from about 1970 all engineering drawings in the UK and presumably Australia and New Zealand became metric. Australia (AFAIK) went further than NZ and made use of Imperial measures illegal. Let's face it Jack, you were relatively a young man when metrication was introduced, so there is no excuse for pretending you were too old to learn. :) The reason Imperial units are still used (again afaik) in aviation, is because of the domination of the industry by America. You will find that serious American science and engineering use metric ISO units. When ISO metric threads were adopted I was a bit sad that the Whitworth coarse threads disappeared, as these were superior for use in materials such as cast iron. Now for something a bit different. Before Napoleon everyone from the Romans onwards drove on the left hand side of the road. This was so that the right arm, the weapon carrying arm, would be on the side of a possible enemy coming the other way. It is psychologically safer to have oncoming danger to your right, and to be able to defend yourself. It is instinctive if you are right handed. Napoleon changed this so that the French and thus much of Europe (except the Swedes) drove on the right. Thus you will find that most nationalities that drive on the right are emotionally disturbed :D The Swedes changed to the right around 1970 'ish, cant remember now, but know it was all done over one weekend. I wonder if they became emotionally disturbed? |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 315101 | 2005-01-17 22:09:00 | [QUOTE= Leave poor Jack alone, he's one of our major sources of entertainment. :D[/QUOTE] Oh well I'm pleased I can make someone smile. I thought I was the only one who remembered the onrush of inflation when decimal currency was introduced. Has anyone tried to work out how many miles per gallon their car does? :D Jack |
JJJJJ (528) | ||
| 315102 | 2005-01-17 22:16:00 | Let's face it Jack, you were relatively a young man when metrication was introduced, so there is no excuse for pretending you were too old to learn. :) Good one. Gotta love your essays Terrt -and no, I'm not being sarcastic. Always lengthy but rather interesting. |
~sy~ (95) | ||
| 315103 | 2005-01-17 22:16:00 | Another thing Jack, while we have been shivering with 10 degrees this summer you have been basking in 50 degrees. | Dally (6292) | ||
| 315104 | 2005-01-17 22:37:00 | Now for something a bit different . Before Napoleon everyone from the Romans onwards drove on the left hand side of the road . This was so that the right arm, the weapon carrying arm, would be on the side of a possible enemy coming the other way . Phew,for a minute there I thought we were in for another tune :lol: Quite intersting the right hand bit,I always knew we had it right ;) |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 315105 | 2005-01-17 22:50:00 | Forgot to say, it was Napoleon of course that was responsible for the metric system. He is to blame, before that all countries had their own variations of units, The Germans had pfunds and still do, the English had pounds and now don't, the Russians had versts for distance measurments, and then there were leagues, miles, knautical miles, the ancient Egyptians used a number of grains of wheat to make an "inch", we have and still do have "hands" for measuring horses, bushells, barrels, gallons, grains, troy weight, avoirdupois wieight, the list is absolutely endless. :rolleyes: |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 315106 | 2005-01-17 23:01:00 | Forgot to say, it was Napoleon of course that was responsible for the metric system. He is to blame, before that all countries had their own variations of units, The Germans had pfunds and still do, the English had pounds and now don't, the Russians had versts for distance measurments, and then there were leagues, miles, knautical miles, the ancient Egyptians used a number of grains of wheat to make an "inch", we have and still do have "hands" for measuring horses, bushells, barrels, gallons, grains, troy weight, avoirdupois wieight, the list is absolutely endless. :rolleyes: And people still ask,what is wrong with frogs,I mean to say! :illogical |
Cicero (40) | ||
| 315107 | 2005-01-17 23:09:00 | Hi folks. Metrication been a long time coming in Ireland. When we were there five years ago signs in some areas for speed limits were metric, while signs for distances were imperial. And in the rural areas every sod wanted to drive down the middle of the road. We took to the roadside verge several times to avoid oncoming overtaking vehicles. Did yu read that they were planning to change to the European standard of driving on the right? Going to do it in vehicle type groups, with heavy trucks and buses changing in 2005. :cool: | Scouse (83) | ||
| 315108 | 2005-01-17 23:15:00 | Did yu read that they were planning to change to the European standard of driving on the right? Going to do it in vehicle type groups, with heavy trucks and buses changing in 2005. :cool: ROFLMAO :eek: |
Miami Steve (2128) | ||
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