Head + Rocker cover torques...

[Lobo]

...aviation is actually a mess.
Much the world is indeed FL in feet, parts of (Russia, China etc) it in metres eg FL10800m. Aargh
Ditto masses... eg UK a/c weighed in Kgs... yanks use pounds on their load sheets.
Fuel... and accidents are recorded here... uplifted in Kgs most parts... yanks uplift in Lbs
Visibility... much of the world in km (or m in low vis).... yanks in statute miles
Wind velocity... mostly in knots, many places in metres / sec...
It’s a wonder there isn’t more prangs as aircraft fly between countries 😱

[Nurse Julie]

I much prefer sailing measurements and terms....all originated mainly from the UK in the 16th and 17th Century, they are used world wide and understood by everyone, including me. This does not help me one bit when I'm faced with buying a Kg of apples though as i only understand Imperial weights and measures.

[MrDavo]

Yesterday the wife rang me while I was in town and asked me to buy two medium potatoes, as that was enough for our tea, and would fit in my jacket pocket (I was on the 450). No weights needed.

US gallons do my head in, trying to convert mpg figures and tank capacity to real imperial gallons, to give an idea of range is a nightmare.

Didn’t some multi million dollar Mars probe make its own crater because someone got a measurement’s units mixed up?

[K2-K6]

It's funny that all measurements are notional,  we just adopt whichever system we are introduced to, with most people being able to visualise their preferred calibration.  Except when estimating pasta or rice portion size  it never looks enough when dry.

It's one of those areas that can catch people out on these Honda engines.  The discussion of bore clearance being one obvious topic.  The engineering suppliers generally working on British biikes and cars never want to believe or accept how small a tolerance is quoted,  usual response is "that can't be right" and followed by "what you need is".

[Lobo]

Bloody Hell MrDavo.... years of failed diet control, and you’ve cracked it. All grocery shopping now to be done on the 400F. 💀

[ka-ja]

I spent many years of my working life swapping from imperial to metric, confused by USA imperial (different threads but close to UK's), but I quickly learned not to convert and often used a combination of both, ie. 10 inches of 6mm stud bar from stores, metric just slowly took over, except for USA equipment, even they had to adapt to metric in the end, their export markets demanded ISO rated produce so goodbye American pipe threads, while UK pipe threads became the ISO standard.

[Nurse Julie]

Bloody Hell MrDavo.... years of failed diet control, and you’ve cracked it. All grocery shopping now to be done on the 400F. 💀

There's a lot to be said about doing the shopping on a bike. In the summer, 9 times out of 10, I will go to the supermarket on a bike with a ruck sack. The food shop bill goes down drastically when all i can buy is what i can fit in the rucksack 😀😀😁

[taysidedragon]

Another aviation shambles was the change in air pressure measurement from Millibars to Hectopascals just to please the French.
Both measurements are metric and they are exactly the same! Just a name change.
Absolutely pointless!

Oh, and America still use inches of mercury instead. 😣

[MCTID]

My Dear old Mum was in her 70's and had studied French at Night School for two years........then she went to the South of France on her jollies where - in her best French, she confidently asked a Barrow Boy selling Fruit and Veg for 'Two kilometres of apples'. He resisted the urge to take the P and replied in perfect English (as he'd lived in the UK some years before)' 'Certainly.....does Madame have a Truck' ?

She also visited Rimini in Italy in her later years....and asked about catching the Bus into town. The Hotel Concierge told her which number Bus, and explained that she would know the right Bus because it would say 'Rimini' on the front, and they ran every 10 minutes. After an hour she went back and told the Concierge that she had not seen a bus in all that time........he looked a bit puzzled and apologised profusely........he then went outside with my Mum and after some discussion, he explained that she had been standing on the wrong side of the street and all the traffic on that side of the street was coming out of Rimini - not going to Rimini !

Maybe being my Mothers Son helps to explain why I'm a dopey git ! (no rude comments please....I'm rather sensitive these days).

[ka-ja]

Don't start me off again Tayside, pressure was a good example, inches water,mm water ditto with mercury, psi, bars, bars absolute. Working in industrial instrumentation was heady.