Totally UnGeocaching Related - genius triva person required

Team Pathfinder · Post by **Team Pathfinder** » 27 July 05 10:30 pm

Ok I know we should be working when at work BUT us two "senior" staff members where discussing days of old and the topic of when Australia converted to metric came up. Thats when we began to feel really old because upon everyone saying "its always been that way" we realized they hadnt even been born back then

ANYWAY

We all know that decimal currency came in during 1966 but when was everything else changed. I am thinking around 1976 but cannot find a website to confirm or whatever

Maybe Bronze this one is suited to you

Thanks all.

Sue

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 27 July 05 10:41 pm

1974? I was in school I do remember having a rule that was in inches then getting one in cm

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 27 July 05 10:46 pm

Even better I found this http://www.measurement.gov.au/index.cfm ... 92AF7B3121

Post by **caughtatwork** » 27 July 05 10:46 pm

http://www.metric.org.uk/press/ausvuk.htm

Seems no hard and fast date.

AustraliaÃ‚â€™s metric conversion was announced by Prime Minister J G Gorton in January 1970

Conversion largely complete 11 years after initial announcement

So it took a while.

I recall from memory around 1973 or 1974. Around Grade 5 I think for me.

Team Pathfinder · Post by **Team Pathfinder** » 27 July 05 10:54 pm

Thank you so very very much

My boss was convinced that it was nearer to the 60's than 70's. I went through high school in the early 70's (very early) and dont remember anyone trying to educate me in anything other than imperial - therefore..... I assumed it must have been around 74 - 75 or so but wasnt sure enough to place a bet. Unfortunately.

Thanks for the sites I have emailed them to work and tomorrow will waste more time gloating

And tomorrow afternoon applying for a new job - perhaps

Papa Bear_Left · Post by **Papa Bear_Left** » 28 July 05 1:18 am

I was in primary school (in SA) in the mid 60s to early 70s (born in 1961) and we had all sorts of metric propoganda given to us. Our rulers were both metric and imperial, we had cardboard cubes 10cm on a side to show how much a litre of water was (and which would weigh a kilogram) and so on.

So I'm sort of bi-lingual... I know my weight in kg and my height in feet (no inches!), I still think in inches and feet for distances up to about a couple of yards, then metres beyond that, and I'm easy with both grams and ounces for kitchen-sized weights.

I'm astounded that there are Americans who'll defend the Imperial system on the grounds of _simplicity_! I just boggle and ask them how many miles 3,500 feet is. They just don't seem to be able to divide by 5,280 as quickly as I can divide 3,500m by 1,000 to get km!

Mind you, this is a population whose own government department (NIST) thought they'd be too stupid to understand the vaguely French spelling of "metre" and "litre" and mandated that they become the only place in the world who misspells them as "meter" and "liter"!

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 28 July 05 7:05 am

Bear_Left wrote:
So I'm sort of bi-lingual... I know my weight in kg and my height in feet (no inches!), I still think in inches and feet for distances up to about a couple of yards, then metres beyond that, and I'm easy with both grams and ounces for kitchen-sized weights.

"bi-lingal here too...the aircraft I work on are US built so you have to know the imperial system, but then just to further complicate things, fuel loads are worked out in pounds, and signed for in litres off the delivery guys, but the aircraft paperwork is signed up in pounds, and used up in pounds-per-hour. The liquid oxygen we replenish the aircraft with is also signed for in litres, but the delivery cart is in US Gallons and somewhere along the line kilograms creep in there too, even though the weight of the aircraft and the cargo are all worked out in pounds.......

dajjct · Post by **dajjct** » 28 July 05 11:16 am

Interesting that we have been metric for over 30 years, but try buying a metric bolt in Bunnings. They sell these weird 1/4" by 10mm composite bolts. As an Elec fitter/mechanic who learnt all about metric bolts and co, annoys me no end.

My 1p worth

The Ginger Loon · Post by **The Ginger Loon** » 28 July 05 12:49 pm

I remember being at TAFE in 1984 and having an "interesting" discussion with one of the straight A students about the metric system. It went something like this;

Straight A Student: (In a heated, agitated voice) The metric system's been in since the 1970's. You can go to any hardware store and buy metric fasteners.

Me: (Sarcastic as usual) Oh yeah? Try getting an M12 bolt at BBC then...

Since 1985 BBC has become HardwareHouse who were in turn taken over by Bunnings. and you *still* can't get a metric fastener there.

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 28 July 05 2:13 pm

Designing PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) is a lovely balance of imperial and metric design. We use imperial (thous) for tracks and most spacings, yet other spacings have to be in metric to match some components. Holes are metric - mostly. Dimentions are metric - depending on which mechanical interface you've gotta connect to. And we don't call inches inches either, one inch is one "pitch" damn it, and everything else is in "thous" or "mils" (not to be confused with "millimeters")

All this on the ONE PCB.

The official industry standard body has switched to metric, yet it hasn't changed a thing. You gotta do what works best.

PCB software is very occomodating by having a single hotkey that instantly switches between metric and imperial grids and measurements, it gets used hundreds of times a day

EcoDave

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 28 July 05 3:49 pm

Metric - Imperial: all out of date

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_de ... 63af73927f

GIN51E · Post by **GIN51E** » 28 July 05 4:07 pm

With me just finishing school a few years ago i'm glad i never had to learn imperial, what a pain in the arse it looks to be.

and with my work i'm lucky, spending all my time working on Mercedes i have a tool box full of metric and metric only, yet its funny how it doesn't matter if we want a 10,12,13,15mm socket ect we still have to decide weather we want it to suit a 1/4,3/8,1/2 inch drive ratchet. imperial still seems to raise its ugly head.

alex · Post by **alex** » 29 July 05 12:54 am

Ahh those were the days.... when the back of the school exercise books had tables of various imperial measures such as "a bushel of wheat weighs 60 pounds, a bushel of barley weighs 55 pounds, a bushel of brussel sprouts is really gross" or "16 ounces to a pound, 20 fluid ounces to a pint, ?x? troy ounces to a pound" and how many rods in a pole? The joys of LSD long division bring a sentimental tear to my eye....."If an item costs 17 shillings and elevenpence ha'penny and you have 9 Pounds 6 shillings and threepence, how many items can you buy?"
Thank goodness for the 14th February, 1966 and subsequent years of gradual changeover.

Perhaps Bronze could run one of his quizzes.."how many chains in a furlong?"

Wyoming Wombats · Post by **Wyoming Wombats** » 29 July 05 8:10 am

Which chains do you mean, Alex - Surveyor's or Engineer's (They are of different lengths). This topic has come up at an EXTREMELY bad time as I'm about to set loose a puzzle cache (this weekend) with just this topic in mind. Please Bronze - no quiz for the time being.<p>BTW there are 10 surveyors chains to a furlong. A chain has 100 links each of which have been approximated to 8 inches. There are 63,360 inches to a mile. I could go on but my cache will not have the same impact.

EcoTeam · Post by **EcoTeam** » 29 July 05 9:14 am

alex wrote:Ahh those were the days.... when the back of the school exercise books had tables of various imperial measures such as "a bushel of wheat weighs 60 pounds, a bushel of barley weighs 55 pounds, a bushel of brussel sprouts is really gross" or "16 ounces to a pound, 20 fluid ounces to a pint, ?x? troy ounces to a pound" and how many rods in a pole? The joys of LSD long division bring a sentimental tear to my eye....."If an item costs 17 shillings and elevenpence ha'penny and you have 9 Pounds 6 shillings and threepence, how many items can you buy?"
Thank goodness for the 14th February, 1966 and subsequent years of gradual changeover.

Perhaps Bronze could run one of his quizzes.."how many chains in a furlong?"

Sometimes in our design documents and test reports at work we like to put figures in "furlongs per fortnight", just to see who actually reads it.
Douglas Adams quotes occasionally sneak through as well

Oh, and everyone knows there are 10 chains in a Furlong.

Or my personal favourite - 1056 Fingerbredths to a Chain

Dave