1 hour ago, yellowjack said:

 Its odd that of a country that refused to go metric now starts lambasting a monetary system no longer in use after the UK going metric.

Lambasting?  I apologize if my original post was taken as lambasting anything or anybody.  I was merely expressing my confusion of the British monetary system when watching old movies.  I was still confused after looking it up.

It appears I'll have to be more careful in future so as not to ruffle anyone's feathers.  On second thought, no I won't.

6 minutes ago, W2DR said:

Boy, I sure hope so. At least that will give us a start on converting. Now all I need is an odometer that measures metric distances.....

Lucily, my speed-o-meter reads in mph and kph.  I'm sure it will cost a pretty tupance, thrupence, or farthing or a quid or two to change over the odometer reading mecanism.  I still can't call a cookie a biscuit or a truck a lorry, a hood a bonnet, or a trunk a boot, or a fender a wing!

Modern education, phonics reading classes, and 'new math' significantly dumbed down the populace to where it became almost necessary to move to a decimal system which even morons can comprehend.

Still dont understand why its called "math" in the States, while the rest of the world says maths !

49 minutes ago, Freo said:

Still dont understand why its called "math" in the States, while the rest of the world says maths !

The same reason we dont call it mathsematics.... 😊

Edited March 30, 20215 yr by HiFlyer

4 hours ago, charliearon said:

Luckily, my speed-o-meter reads in mph and kph.  I'm sure it will cost a pretty tupance, thrupence, or farthing or a quid or two to change over the odometer reading mechanism.  I still can't call a cookie a biscuit or a truck a lorry, a hood a bonnet, or a trunk a boot, or a fender a wing!

Or a battery an accumulator, or switch an actuator, or a glove  compartment a cubby box, or a generator a dynamo, or a windshield a windscreen. As my grandfather used to say, those people don't speak no good English.

1 hour ago, Freo said:

Still dont understand why its called "math" in the States, while the rest of the world says maths !

It's because most places still go a bit linguistically 'old school' by insisting on being strictly 'grammatically correct'. The word it is derived from was originally a plural - mathematica - which means 'all things which are studied/learned'. So its modern form - mathematics - still needs to be a plural by having an S on the end of it, since it refers to things, rather than one thing.

Thus when abbreviating mathematics to maths, it still makes sense grammatically to add an S to the end of it in order for it to remain a plural. Grammatically, this is the same as abbreviating the word aeroplane to plane with of course no S, but you would retain the S if you abbreviated the plural aeroplanes to planes, since if you dropped the S, it would change it to a singular. Although bizarrely, the plural of aircraft, is aircraft, which just goes to show you that linguistic and grammatical rules often don't follow a good deal of logical consistency.

Not that it really matters these days, since words evolve all the time and the meaning of the word mathematics is these days taken to refer to numerical studies, and everyone knows what you mean if you say 'math'.

Just for a laugh though, you should start using Omnibus and Pantechnicon, for buses and trucks. 🤣

Edited March 30, 20215 yr by Chock

Of course, that is kind of a very old issue 🙂

I recall that a number of years ago, there was a plan afoot (no pun intended) to convert the entire U.S. to the metric system.  But that plan fell flat on its face. Most people here were not in favor, and there was much resistance to a change-over.  Probably the major stumbling block was the expense involved. 

Today, the latest push is to eliminate the penny (or one-cent coin) that used to be almost all copper.  It actually costs the government more than a penny to produce them.  But again, there is resistance by American retail establishments, i.e. 99-cent items for sale.  Plus, the public at large - there seems to be sentimental reasons in the current generation to keep them... 

Some in the UK never lost the old system Pony=£25  Monkey=£500 Pavarotti=£10 (Tenner) 😆 Born in the South East living in the north now.

Edited March 30, 20215 yr by G-RFRY

And now, the "old" crown - 5 bob - has become the "new" crown, worth 5 quid [pounds].  I am old enough to remember spending farthings in the sweet - candy - shop 🙂

M.

8 hours ago, Fielder said:

move to a decimal system which even morons can comprehend.

Not just morons, but scientists too...

15 hours ago, Chock said:

I'm only just old enough to remember some of the pre-decimal coins in Britain and I don't really remember using the old pre-decimal coins as they were

 

I do. On the way home from school I made sure I had my little card, my little calculator, so I could figure out the new fangled decimal system and what is was in old money. 😀

Decimalisation was of course a very good thing. It's like comparing metric measurements to imperial, in that metric makes far more sense and is easier. 

We in the UK though, it has to be said, use both metric and imperial. Our cars have MPH in big letters and KPH in tiny letters, just in case we venture into the strange land of the Europeans and have to read their road signs. Our speed limits too are in MPH. 

For measurements  I use feet for course measurements and metric when I need accuracy. And lightyears when I'm measuring how far my latest warp drive has travelled. 

What baffles me though is why our US friends call solder "sodder".  One of life's mysteries. 

And please, please, please American friends, please stop referring to "aircrafts" it's aircraft. 

Edited March 30, 20215 yr by martin-w

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

And please, please, please American friends, please stop referring to "aircrafts" it's aircraft. 

There kind of is a bit of an excuse for that one, and that's to avoid confusion with people for whom English is a second language. It is not unknown to see signage around Manchester Airport with 'aircrafts' although it's not the norm and so you don't see it a lot, but if you were not a native speaker of English, it might just help to prevent confusion. There is, for example, a poster in the Menzies Crew Room which uses 'aircrafts'. I kind of used to cringe every time I saw it, but there you go.

Lets go back over 600 years to Geoffrey Chaucer's English.  I had to memorize the prologue to The Canterbury Tales in English Literature in my Junior year of high school.  All I remember now is the first line.

Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licour Of which vertu engendred is the flour.

Roughly translates to April Showers Bring May Flowers.

Or more correctly;

When the sweet showers of April have pierced The drought of March, and pierced it to the root, And every vein is bathed in that moisture Whose quickening force will engender the flower.

To make a long story short when I was in Korea knowing those lines got me promoted from PFC to Corporal and a job as the company clerk.  I use the story whenever I talk to young people on the subject of 'why do I have to learn this, I'll never use it.'

Noel