Working out miles per litre of petrol

andrewf75

Iceweasel wrote: »

It shouldn't be a problem for the UK to change but it will be fiercely resisted by the likes of Nigel Farage et al.

The problem is, metric has for a long time been wrongly associated with the EU. People have this bizarre idea that it is foreign and imperial is British. If you actually look at the history of the units, you could argue that metric is more British than imperial.

The main reason no-one is doing anything about it is because its a short term cost for long term gain - and our government is only interested in short term popularity.

So we're destined to be measurement illiterate for a while I reckon...

AdrianC

andrewf75 wrote: »

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.

I suspect that's the problem with Ireland. Because people speak English, drive on the same side of the road, and because it "feels" so similar, people forget it _isn't_ their home country.

iolanthe07

No-one knows how many yards in a mile, pounds in a stone or how to calculate in imperial.

Well, I do. There are 1760 yards in a statute mile, 2000 yards (10 cables) in a maritime mile, and 14 pounds in a stone.

andrewf75

iolanthe07 wrote: »

No-one knows how many yards in a mile, pounds in a stone or how to calculate in imperial.

Well, I do. There are 1760 yards in a statute mile, 2000 yards (10 cables) in a maritime mile, and 14 pounds in a stone.

OK theres always one...:D

The vast majority haven't got a clue though.

As a nation most people are illiterate when it comes to measurement because they learn one system and "talk" another

photome

iolanthe07 wrote: »

No-one knows how many yards in a mile, pounds in a stone or how to calculate in imperial.

Well, I do. There are 1760 yards in a statute mile, 2000 yards (10 cables) in a maritime mile, and 14 pounds in a stone.

I do too :T:T

londonTiger

yeah silly unit of measurement. If anything you should use cost per mile. My car costs about 20p a mile and it's useful to know so you can work out if a trip is worth it.

In the past I would jusat drive to B&Q to get a £1 hose adapter. It's 6 miles away from me so that is a £2.40 round trip. Might as well just walk to sainsburys and buy one from them at 2.99 (would be better quality than a £1 one).

Miles per litre is a bit of a useless metric though. What practical benefit does that service?

On the plus side it's very easy to convert miles per litre to cost per mile.

Iceweasel

My mother asked my daughter if she knew what a yard was.

"Of course", she said, "it's an American person's back garden, silly granny."

andrewf75

londonTiger wrote: »

Miles per litre is a bit of a useless metric though. What practical benefit does that service?

it uses the units that we use in everyday life
mpg is not practical because we don't use gallons
l/100km is not practical because we don't use km

miles per litre would be logical

Iceweasel

londonTiger wrote: »

yeah silly unit of measurement. If anything you should use cost per mile. My car costs about 20p a mile and it's useful to know so you can work out if a trip is worth it.

In the past I would jusat drive to B&Q to get a £1 hose adapter. It's 6 miles away from me so that is a £2.40 round trip. Might as well just walk to sainsburys and buy one from them at 2.99 (would be better quality than a £1 one).

Miles per litre is a bit of a useless metric though. What practical benefit does that service?

On the plus side it's very easy to convert miles per litre to cost per mile.

I bet that after we eventually change to kilometres some folks will want to calculate how many km/litre rather than use the universally understood l/100km, :rotfl:

Joe_Horner

Iceweasel wrote: »

It shouldn't be a problem for the UK to change but it will be fiercely resisted by the likes of Nigel Farage et al.

It'd be fiercely resisted by people like me. I'm socialist, I was (just about) around when we decimalised and I spent a good part of my growing up / education in Australia, where they were fully metricated.

But I don't see why we should ever have adopted an impractical, indivisible and inflexible system of poorly sized units just because the French found that they only had 10 fingers to count on :j