Working out miles per litre of petrol

TomsMom

Oh dear, I remember halfpennies, threepenny (or thrupenny) bits, shillings and the rest. Even farthings although I don't think you could buy anything for a farthing when I was a child, 4 blackjacks for a penny but you couldn't just buy one for a farthing.

I think decimalisation of money is a good thing, 100 pence to the pound is so much easier than £1 = 20 shillings, 1 shilling = 12 pence. I'm not so hot on decimal weights and measures though, I still work in imperial, I'd rather be 10 stone and 5'5" than the equivalent in kg and metres/cm.

Iceweasel

Adrian C - Very interesting - where in the UK did you go to school?

Anyone born in 1966 or after, went to school 1970/71, or later. By then all state schools were using the SI system and all exams were using it.

Scotland changed first because there was/is only one 'ruling' body, but the individual LEAs in England and Wales were only a year behind.

Not sure about Norn Iron.

Are you really sure that your Primary School teacher taught you in feet, inches, pounds and ounces?

I started teaching in 1970 and right through my 3 year training (1967 to 1970) we all knew that we were going to be working exclusively in SI units.

AdrianC

Iceweasel wrote: »

Adrian C - Very interesting - where in the UK did you go to school?

Sheffield, then later Derbyshire. I was born in '71.

Anyone born in 1966 or after, went to school 1970/71, or later. By then all state schools were using the SI system and all exams were using it.

We certainly "did" metric, but we also "did" Dibnah, too - as a result, I'm fairly bilingual.

Iceweasel

TomsMom wrote: »

Oh dear, I remember halfpennies, threepenny (or thrupenny) bits, shillings and the rest. Even farthings although I don't think you could buy anything for a farthing when I was a child, 4 blackjacks for a penny but you couldn't just buy one for a farthing.

I think decimalisation of money is a good thing, 100 pence to the pound is so much easier than £1 = 20 shillings, 1 shilling = 12 pence. I'm not so hot on decimal weights and measures though, I still work in imperial, I'd rather be 10 stone and 5'5" than the equivalent in kg and metres/cm.

Ah yes - wonderful nostalgia

I too remember farthings - with a picture of a Wren on the reverse - and the King's head on the obverse of course.

Not sure if you could actually buy anything with only one though.

Good old ha'penny chews by Trebor - that needed 2 of them.

How's about the silver thrupenny then?

In 1970 I was struggling to teach 12 year olds the new decimal currency.

One kid I'll never forget thought that as an old shilling was 5 new pence that twelve new pence would therefore be a new shilling. His mum had told him that - so it must be true.

I still laugh at that.

TomsMom

Iceweasel wrote: »

Ah yes - wonderful nostalgia

I too remember farthings - with a picture of a Wren on the reverse - and the King's head on the obverse of course.

Not sure if you could actually buy anything with only one though.

Good old ha'penny chews by Trebor - that needed 2 of them.

How's about the silver thrupenny then?

In 1970 I was struggling to teach 12 year olds the new decimal currency.

One kid I'll never forget thought that as an old shilling was 5 new pence that twelve new pence would therefore be a new shilling. His mum had told him that - so it must be true.

I still laugh at that.

Oh gosh no, I think that means you're older than me :rotfl: .

My late hubby used to buy coin sets when they were released, I know there are some decimal ones in the house and I think he had a full set of pre-decimal currency too (there might even be an old £1 note), there should be a nice shiny farthing with a wren on. I'll hunt them out and show them to the grandkids and try and explain about £SD, that should get them confused .

Iceweasel

If you try explaining that we all used LSD back in the 60s and 70s to the grandchildren they'll probably think we were all hippies high on illegal drugs.

Mind you we might get some extra 'street cred' for that misunderstanding. :rotfl:

andrewf75

We should have just made the changeover in one go like everyone else did. There would have been a bit of a whinge and then it would have been quickly forgotten like with decimalisation. Now we have generations of people who talk in mostly imperial but don't understand it. No-one knows how many yards in a mile, pounds in a stone or how to calculate in imperial. Fuel consumption is simply not practical to work out because we buy petrol in litres, drive in miles but use mpg for comparison. It makes no sense so very few people do it.

Its quite unbelievable that an advanced country has got itself in this mess - and we are the only country in the world in this mess. The US still uses imperial but it uses it exclusively therefore everyone understands it.

Iceweasel

I find it quite sad (or is it laughable?) how some folks from the UK & NI are confused by the road-signs in Ireland which of course are in kilometres.

andrewf75

Iceweasel wrote: »

I find it quite sad (or is it laughable?) how some folks from the UK & NI are confused by the road-signs in Ireland which of course are in kilometres.

I'm sure the same confusion arises in France or anywhere else. Its natural to be used to what is used in your home country. The problem is that we are used to a unit of measurement that should have been consigned to history at the same time they stopped teaching kids at school how to use these units!

WTFH

Iceweasel wrote: »

I find it quite sad (or is it laughable?) how some folks from the UK & NI are confused by the road-signs in Ireland which of course are in kilometres.

I'm sure there's threads on here from people trying to get out of foreign speeding tickets because they didn't know and it's not their fault.

I just try to remember certain ones...
30kmh is roughly 20mph
50 is roughly 30
80 is 50
100 is roughly 60
120 is 75

...and if you're unsure, go a bit slower than the traffic around you, not faster.

The other conversion I know is a temperature one. -40.