Post by @SteveClough@metalhead.club

2026-09-27 12:03 UTC

@John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot In fairness, we are very inconsistent. We sell milk in 4 pint bottles, but also in 2L bottles, which is similar in size, but a little but smaller. I think we will become metric in most things in time. But distances, almost certainly we will retain miles and yards, because most people who drive understand these, and it would cause a whole lot of problems to change. I can see in 30 years time, we would be putting up signs in both, and slowly changing over.

Replies (2)

@tiggy@mastodonapp.uk 2026-09-27 12:38

@SteveClough@metalhead.club @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot I have both pints and litres of milk in my fridge. Eggs are still sold in 6s or 12s. Fabric was sold by length in metres but width in inches for a while but is now fully metric. Meanwhile many children don't know what clockwise means because they only use digital clocks. I think one reason younger people have more problems with arithmetic isn't just they can do it all online but also that as young children we had to be able to use £sd, weird weight measures, use analogue clocks, etc.

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@JdeBP@mastodonapp.uk 2026-10-01 00:20

@SteveClough@metalhead.club In reality, we are almost wholly a #metric country. It's just that the two remaining holdouts are prominent, so that people *think* that we are less metric than we are. But even road distances are secretly metric. See those Driver Location Signs along the side of motorways for about 2 decades, now? They are spaced at 0.5km intervals (unless there's a junction in the way) and the mysterious numbers are actually just km measured from some notional start point. Being the U.K., where we number even Scottish roads according to what direction they come out from London on, and we have several infinities on the #MiltonKeynes supposedly Cartesian grid system, the notional motorway start points are sometimes mad, though. If I remember correctly, one of them is in the sea. (-: Low bridge height signs are required to be metric first now, but they only get updated when a sign wears out. @John_Loader@ohai.social @alexf24@mstdn.social @nobrainnopain@social.tchncs.de @kibcol1049@mstdn.social @tiggy@mastodonapp.uk @Fasgadh@mastodon.scot #metric #motorways #DLS

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