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Andrew

What's This 'Real Money' Stuff? 

In your article you refer to American Fahrenheit, and the real money being Celcius.

In a land where we buy petrol by the litre but have road signs in mph I don't think we should be too robust in our condemnation of alternative measurement units.

And some of us prefer the real mccoy that the US sometimes offer. Everyone knows that when temperature is measured in Fahrenheit it is warmer.

And when I'm measuring for curtains give me feet and inches any day.

So there.

Anonymous Coward

Re: What's This 'Real Money' Stuff? 

Come on now Andrew, you know that the only reason we still have miles on the road signs is because a) it was too tedious to change them all over to kilometers, and b) it's easier to say 70 miles because it sounds less than the 120 kilometers it really is.

Are you one of those who still count money in sixpence and shillings?

Michael H.F. Wilkinson

Let's be pedantic 

70 mph = 112.65408 km/h < 120 km/h

Not by much, but perhaps just enough to get you fined if you are driving in the UK with a km-speedometer.

However, it is too tedious to change everything over to km. We should all convert to furlong per fortnight (1.0 furlong/fortnight = 1.0 snailpace) instead.

Finnbar

Correct me if I'm wrong 

but Daniel Fahrenheit was German.

Also, it's still widely used in the UK, perhaps not for scientific purposes, but it's used nevertheless (witness last year's headlines about the temperature reaching 100 degrees - they didn't mean Celcius!).

It seems to me to be just a less than subtle dig at our friends across the pond and it isn't necessary.

Hooch181

Snore! 

Get Lives!

Andrew

miles vs km 

Now we're talking sense (....am I on the right forum?). Yup, I'm still got a couple of sixpences lying around somewhere, and thrupenny bits, and old pennies, and half crowns, florins, and ten bob notes. I've seen a lot of things change during my lifetime and I reckon I might just see out the fiver being transmogrified to coinage.

What's wrong with having 240 pence in the pound anyway? Or 1,760 yards per mile?

Fahrenheit is dead simple by comparison. For example if the thermometer reads 100F then I know it's hot, and 50F is time to put the string vest on. But exactly where is the touchy-feely-boily-freezy point in Celcius (or to give it its correct name, Centigrade)?

Anonymous Coward

Gotta love cheap jibes at the US 

As far as I know Fahrenheit is still used by a large number of young and old folk in the UK, I use it myself (much to the annoyance of my metric collegues) oh and isn't the weather still in F or has that been metricised now too?

David Cherry

Metric V Imperial units 

Yet is it still common in the timber trade to sell 2m of 2" X 1"

Anonymous Coward

Units 

length should be in attoparsecs

area is measured in wales :)

as for temp... room temp supposedly being about 22-25 degC

so more than about 18 is "pleasantly sunny" and above 25 is "too f****ing hot for me"

Seán

Binary 

Why don't they ditch this decimal system and use a proper binary system with 16oz to the pound which would be more compatible with our computers.

Andrew

Attoparsecs? 

WTF is that when it's at home then? I've heard of pica, micro and that stuff but atto sounds like diddly squat.

Hmm, that may be why some blokes are referred to with the phrase "Attoboy"?

Graham Dawson

"touchy-feely-boily-freezy" 

Boily = 100

Freezy = 0

Touchy-feely = 33 and a third. Tis a nice warmth.

Aubry Thonon

And just because we need to be pedantic... 

I would point out that the "average room temperature" (in chemistry) is 25 Celsius or 25 degrees Centigrade, but *never* 25 degrees Celsius. ^_^

Andy Davies

¿que? 

"average room temperature" ... is 25 Celsius

25 Celsius whats ffs?

AndyD 8-)#

Aubry Thonon

Re: ¿que? 

(25C / 5 * 9) + 32 = 77F (roughly).