Pints all round as Register Special Projects hacks hack off feet
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Poll Result It's official: El Reg's Special Projects Bureau will henceforth be operating almost exclusively in SI units.
Yup, it's pints all round today as our imperial versus metric poll found readers overwhelmingly in favour of permanently chopping off feet and consigning quarts and ounces to the dustbin of history.
No less than 1,773 of you voted for "Metric only, with the exception of pints of beer and aircraft altitude in feet". In second spot, with 946 thumbs-up, was "SI Units only, under punishment of a lick of the cat o' nine tails (imperial), or ten tails (metric)".
"Imperial and metric side-by-side" limped in third, with 647 votes.
The first exception to the SI unit-only rule – ale in pints – is granted on cultural and political grounds. Sure, half a litre is almost the same, but we're not prepared under any circumstances to be relieved of our extra 68ml of vital liquid nourishment.
Indeed, any foreign power which attempts to squash the pint under the jackboot of metrication will find itself on the wrong end of a gunboat, and no messing.
Aircraft altitudes, meanwhile, are commonly given in feet, as any pilot will tell you. Sure, there's a slow slide towards metres, but we're continuing the imperial tradition until ordered to desist by the relevant aviation authority.
So, there you have it. Privately, of course, we'll still be driving the five miles to the wood yard to demand "an eight by four sheet of 20mm MDF" and "three metres of four-by-two", but for reporting purposes that'll be an 8km jaunt for a 2,440mm by 1,220mm slab of 20mm MDF, and three metres of 101.6 by 50.8. ®
COMMENTS
Re: I shall celebrate with
"So not just an unnecessarily accurate metric conversion, but also the wrong unit for the dimension involved anyway. Nice."
It is what we, on my planet, call "humour", at a guess. In the UK, we still have a thing call "a yard of ale", beloved of drunken stag night pub crawls and the like. Google it.
Re: Interesting...
Actually, 2x4 is not the same as 4x2. You need a left-handed saw to work with 2x4; right-handed for 4x2. Of course, most pros will have both, but for the money-conscious DIY enthusiast it's a bit of a pain at times. That's why the UK officially standardized on 4x2 after the B&Q scandal of 1987, although you can still find the occasional timber yard willing to sell you 2x4 "under the counter".
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