Say, how much does a pound sterling weigh, and what’s it made of?
Now that's funny! 
Oh, come on, fact is that it is all totally defined in metric, Imperial is just a leftover, in only about two countries, one being quite large, to be fair. Surprised it’s still called Imperial, we left that baggage behind decades ago. Not that the USA ever adopted Imperial, you chose to make up your own numbers, slightly differently and even less defined but generally smaller (no the width of the King’s thumb isn’t a great standard to choose), but still call them by the same names.
All that 3/8, 5/16, 1/4, etc. mental conversion and comparison and miss-matching spanners is just too tedious, though I imagine it still goes on (I still have an old socket and spanner set that sometimes has to come out)
Metric just seems to be better organized, really, the only thing it has going for it is the conversion within the same unit, otherwise, it’s all the same crap.
Take for example, the base unit of weight is a kilogram. What? First of all, they just changed it. Second, why is the base unit a thousand of something else? It’s like saying the base measurement would be a thousand-ounce. HA!
Metric/SI is also often based on so called “scientific” units, but really things like the meter, etc etc, find their roots in equally arbitrary but seemingly more geeky things. Meter is based on a fraction of the distance from the north pole to the Equator through Paris……… Which North Pole, and can you REALLY guarantee that the measurement is accurate.
Another reason why they like to keep re-defining Metric/SI, without really redefining it.
To that point time is a perfect example why Metric/SI vs Imperial has no real meaning. 60 seconds in a minute? 24 hours in a day? Why? I get why there needs to be 365.25 days in a year, which further proves my point that mother nature prefers Imperial.
Feet, thumbs, lenght of a stride, cesium, whatever. Measurements are measurements, everyone should be familiar with all.
I’m gonna go drink a pint now. Thanks
In my workshop I have three different sets of tools. American Standard, metric and Whitworth (BSW). Life would be oh so much easier if there was one; I would pick metric for everything. Length, weight, temperature, shoe size, etc.
For the youngsters on the forum, Whitworth predates the others. It was the first standardized mechanics/industrial thread system; devised by the Brits in the mid 1800’s to make it easier to make naval spares during the Crimean War.
My pre 1960’s British motorcycles use Whitworth. I have Whitworth tap and die sets too.
Serious question, are all passenger car wheels around the world measured in inches? I genuinely want to know.
Ah decimal time. That didn’t work out too well.
And as all true Brits know, time is defined by the passage of the Sun over the Greenwich Meridian, the Prime Meridian, AKA GMT. Travel here, and stand on it, it is engraved and set into the ground in stainless steel in a dramatic line.
And also defines the zero point of longitude. Quite important.
No, not “UTC”, that’s just a namby-pamby name for GMT.
And used over the world, with chronometers (a Harrison invention). A great period of exploration, discovery and endeavour.
The Frogs tried to get the meridian moved to Paris. The USA is still jealous too.
GPS, Beidou, Glonass, Galileo and the Brexit thing that is to replace and hopefully shut down Galileo (they can’t do it without us, we invented it, made it and have the ground stations to service it, nobody else has a clue, and they know it), all use atomic clocks which tick to a slightly different beat, but still have to be corrected with the occasional leap-second or so to keep them in-sync with GMT.
There was a mad proposal to just let them free-run, and disconnect the official measurement of time from the rotation of the Earth about the Sun, fortunately that failed.
It’s still an odd definition, based on a Cesium atomic clock, but corrected periodically.
Username checks out. Well done.
not to mention that Americans also drive on the wrong side of the road
BSW, and the other rarer variants are a great design, particularly for softer or weaker metals. The USA just had to do their own thing with UNC and UNF and make them incompatible. Protectionism basically.
Still very much in use, particularly model engineering, where some of the sizes are just right for the job, and the metric stuff can be a a bit ugly/compromised.
@Bettie, that depends on which side of the road you are on.
Hey, we could mock up a model of Stonehenge for him to dance around. :laughing:
BlueSwordM….
the right side… 
probably not much material cost
butt you would need a macro lense
Worse than you imagine… eg, a 225/60/14 tire has a tread-width of 225mm, an aspect ratio of 60% (sidewall ÷ width), all on a 14” rim.
Mebbe…
Anyhoo, one thing that right from the beginning scared people off The Metric System™ is the way it was alllllllllllways portrayed in the media. Eg,
“The Monument was over 15 feet (4.572 meters) tall.”
So, 15’ someone can eyeball, but wtf’s 4.572m?? Let me get out my abacus and try to figure it out…
All that unnecessary “precision” scared off people.
They thought that instead of ordering a half-pound of cheese from the deli, they’d be forced to buy… wait, whut’s half of 454g?.. hang on a sec… carry the one… no, wait… damn, this metric system is so f’n complicated!!… ARRRGH!!! forget it, gimme a jar of Velveeta instead.
So we’re still stuck with furlongs and fortnights.
And my Japanese Honda, which was built in England and sold in the US, has M12-1.50 thread wheel studs spaced at 4.5”. 
That’s actually a very interesting point. It used to be a pound of pure silver. (Thats 455 grams, a big chunk)
It is the world’s oldest currency, and used to be backed by a huge pile of gold (and maybe silver) in the Bank of England.
The piece of paper that was used instead had to be absolutely trusted.
Until our most incompetent chancellor ever sold that all off in the ’90s in a fit of the most wanton stupidity (and maybe backhanders) since when we’ve just been printing the paper and plastic things and running it up on credit as fast as possible (It’s called quantitative easing)
Scotland was allowed to debase the currency decades earlier, and, amazingly, certain Scottish banks are still allowed to print their own currency. Which is no longer trusted (well it never was really, except possibly in the border regions, and Scottish banks have even a worse reputation than Icelandic ones)
The notes used to be signed, with a promise to “pay the bearer on demand”, by the Governor of the Bank of England (actually a Canadian at the moment).
It’s called a fiat vs. commodity thing, in economics, but it all depends on sentiment. Bars of gold under the mattress, or a small bag of good diamonds might be more re-assuring nowadays. Though I wouldn’t count on the diamonds (synthesis is getting very good, and DeBeers no longer have utter control)
That’s actually close to the height of a UK double-decker bus, or a double deck HGV. Which I can visualise. As well as the length of a cricket pitch or football field, or an acre. But can’t really estimate area in hectares.
Some cheeky retailers tried to “rationalise” the weight of e.g. a “pound” of sausages, or jam, down to 400 grams (at the same price), but that was easily found out. There was even legislation to ban the use of old units in trading, but a popular movement rose up, and the law was changed back, so you can still buy e.g. a stone of potatoes (though the scales used may only be calibrated in metric units, if they are to be legal for trade). Otherwise we buy them by the sack.
AEC Routemaster
Length 27 ft 6 in (8.38 m) 30 ft 0 in (9.14 m)
Width 8 ft (2.44 m)
Height 14 ft 4 1⁄2 in (4.38 m)
Curb weight 7.35 long tons (7.47 t; 8.23 short tons)
With a platform on the back, just a pole to hang onto, no door, hop on and off even in motion if it suited you better than waiting for the stop, pay the conductor (yes buses had conductors, not just drivers), safety elves not invited.
In rural areas we can still hail passing buses, and ask the driver to drop us off where we want. And it’s all free for those old enough to receive their bus passes (not sure I’m going to last that long).
Farthings, halfpennies, threepenny bits, sixpences, shillings, half crowns, ten bob notes, sovereigns, guineas etc. are the proper way to count money IMO, and any shop assistant used to be able to count change mentally without having to see it calculated on their till.
The guinea is an interesting one, still used by gentlemen. And some rogues.
When we decimalised currency, a lot of “rounding up” and price gouging went on in the confusion. Just as happened when the Euro was introduced (fortunately we dodged that bullet).
Britain is almost uniquely blessed with a road network designed for the double decker bus, but those pesky Continentals proposed to ban our tall HGVs, since they themselves can only accommodate up to 4 metre tall transport, and don’t like the competitive advantage that our freight haulage industry has over their puny trucks.
Currently in a “Fog in Channel, Continent cut off” type of meltdown :cry:
In engineering there can also be confusion between the micron, and the mil, which can lead to some interesting errors of scale.
Though my favourite military marching compass is is calibrated in a different type of mil, (the mili radian, but slightly approximated for ease of mental arithmetic) which makes gunnery calculations much easier. As well as my riflescopes, with their mil dots.
Actually, in shooting, metric stuff doesn’t work. Imperial units just fit nicely. Weight in grains, distances in yards, speed in feet per second, etc.